Medium (2017)Copied

Medium launched in 2012 with a square-cornered black M monogram. In late 2015 it swapped that for a colourful, three-dimensional M, which designers criticised for inconsistent corners and an unconvincing 3D effect. In August 2017, less than two years later, Medium replaced it again.

The 2017 identity goes back to black and white. The M has glyphic serifs and a thicker stem, set in Noe Display Bold, with a matching wordmark, and the app icon uses the M as a drop cap, as if it were opening a story, rather than as a standalone monogram. A range of muted palette options replaced the bright colours. Creative Bloq described the result as authoritative and editorial, but more personable than the square corners of 2012.

The work was done by Medium's in-house designers with Manual, a San Francisco design studio, a credit given by both Creative Bloq and Brand New. It arrived at a moment of strategic change: Inc. covered the new look alongside a new way for Medium to pay writers.

Designers welcomed it. Creative Bloq reported plenty of praise on social media and jokes that Medium's teenage phase was over, but many also wondered why the 2015 design had been scrapped so quickly.

That is the real story. A publishing platform's brand promise is serious reading, and the 2015 logo argued against it. The 2017 version fixes that with a mark that looks like typography, not an app icon. The cost is credibility: three identities in five years suggests a company still unsure what it is.