OculusCopied

Oculus was set up in 2012 and bought by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion. In June 2015, as it prepared to sell the Oculus Rift headset to consumers for the first time after three years of developer-only kits, it launched a new identity, Design Week and Digital Spy reported.

The previous logo was an eye. Oculus replaced it with a new wordmark and a simplified circular symbol that the company refers to as a 'stadium'. The new branding appeared first on a countdown web page ticking down to its event on 11 June, ahead of the E3 games show.

Accounts of who made it differ. Digital Spy reported that designers Cory Schmitz, Mackey Saturday, Nicolaus Taylor and Jon Malkemus worked on the new look with Facebook and Oculus. Design Week understood the identity to be the work of an in-house Oculus and Facebook team.

The rebrand came with a redesigned headset. Oculus said the consumer model had a highly refined industrial design, updated ergonomics for a more natural fit, and improved tracking for both seated and standing use. Pre-orders were to ship in 2016. Design Week noted that design firms had already been using development kits, for car configurators at motor shows and for walking buyers through buildings before construction.

Reactions were mixed but mild. One Design Week reader liked the mark in a Geordi La Forge or Cyclops way, but found the typeface a little pedestrian for a cutting-edge technology company.

Design Week set the rebrand against the hardware's long road. The Rift had first appeared in 2012 but had only been available to developers, with consumer pre-orders shipping in 2016. In the meantime design studios had been building with the development kits, from an installation at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show that let visitors design their own concept cars to virtual spaces that let buyers view properties off-plan. One reader liked the mark in a Geordi La Forge or Cyclops kind of way but found the typeface a little pedestrian. That is fair: the symbol has presence, the wordmark does not.

That is about right. Dropping the eye was wise; it was literal and slightly creepy for a device you strap to your face. The stadium is a quiet, clever abstraction, part lens, part visor, part portal, and it scales well to a tiny app icon. The wordmark, though, is a missed chance to say anything about the future the company was selling.