GoDaddyCopied

GoDaddy, operating since 1997, rose to popularity accompanied by an unsettling, in-your-face cartoon head. The head was removed from its website in 2018, and for more than a year the company ran on a wordmark alone, Creative Bloq noted. On 14 January 2020 it revealed a new logo, called the GO, and a mission focused on what it calls everyday entrepreneurs.

The logo was created by GoDaddy's internal design team with outside branding firms, Creative Bloq reported. Chief brand officer Cameron Scott said the GO tells customers they can stand on their own two feet and go do what they love, and, as quoted by Creative Bloq, that GoDaddy would be with them for their first step and their next one. The chief marketing officer described the brand as standing for inclusive entrepreneurship.

The GO interlocks a G and an O in one continuous, overlapping stroke. GoDaddy said the swooping arcs stand for the indomitable spirit of entrepreneurs, the continuous line for the connection they share, the generous interior for people of every stripe, and the heart shape for the joy and love that drive them. The word go itself is meant as a rallying cry to take the first or next step. A new website and sparse advertising campaigns, featuring real customers telling their stories, came with it, without the sales pitches and cartoon images of old.

Creative Bloq welcomed the new direction and compared its friendly, curvy heart shape to Airbnb's rebrand, though it found the launch message a little twee. Unlike many brands then refreshing their history, GoDaddy was better off breaking with it, since the public had little emotional attachment to the old look.

Creative Bloq was blunt about the starting point: a somewhat quirky brand image, full of personality but projecting a confused aesthetic. The GO was announced in a tweet that told the everyday entrepreneur to go after their dreams and make them real, under the hashtag #makeyourownway, and the magazine called the redesign dramatic and a new era that put all the focus on users. A logo launched with a hashtag is a campaign as much as an identity, which suits a company that has always sold itself through advertising first.

That is the key point. GoDaddy's equity was mostly embarrassment, and a clean break was the only option. The GO is pleasant and competent, but it lands in the same soft, rounded, heart-shaped space as a dozen other platforms, trading notoriety for anonymity.