# Tumblr new logo (2018)

> Tumblr launched a new logo in Aug 2018, designed by Tumblr in-house and Dinamo. New logo and identity.

## Key facts

- Brand: Tumblr
- Launched: Aug 2018
- Studio: Tumblr in-house and Dinamo
- What changed: New logo and identity.
- Why: Tumblr removed the period from its logo so the logo and typeface could integrate across all naming conventions.
- Industry: Consumer internet
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/tumblr-2018/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/tumblr-2018/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

The dot in tumblr. was a nod to the spoken phrase tumblr dot com, and the company had played with it, letting Starbucks turn it into a coffee cup for a day in 2014. In summer 2018 it disappeared.

The change grew out of a type project. Tumblr creative director Doug Richard contacted Dinamo, the Swiss studio founded by Johannes Breyer and Fabian Harb, in 2016 about a custom typeface. Dinamo adapted its own Favorit into Favorit-Tumblr, cutting new characters, adding weights and rounded punctuation, and scaling the design for screens; Tumblr's team built an iOS tool to test iterations. The font began appearing quietly in June 2017. Its Lining style turns descenders into underlines, and a Connected mode joins the first and last letters of words with an extreme underline.

For the logo, credited to Dinamo by It's Nice That and Fast Company, the t and r were recut to match the typeface and the other letters cleaned up into a crisper, more architectural shape. Curved intersections were removed so the mark holds up on small screens, and the logo and font share proportions and x-height. Removing the period, Dinamo said, lets the logo and typeface integrate across all naming conventions. Richard praised Favorit's friendly yet commanding presence and said it delivered on all of Tumblr's needs.

Fast Company framed it as more proof that quirky tech branding is over, and noted that Tumblr had been bleeding users and struggling not to become another MySpace.

Richard's own write-up added the practical details. Favorit-Tumblr shipped as a screen-optimised family of four weights and 16 styles, meant to be neutral enough to represent a diverse mix of communities while standing apart from competitors. Employees could also type commands such as [tumblr] or [ios icon] in any word processor to pull up scaled vector logos and app icons. Building the logo into the type as a glyph is a lovely piece of systems thinking, and more useful day to day than any brand guidelines PDF.

That is the uncomfortable context. The work itself is excellent, a rare case of a logo following from a well-made typeface rather than the other way round. But the dot was Tumblr's last bit of whimsy, and a platform built on weird corners of the internet arguably needed whimsy more than polish.

In short: Beautiful type work that cost Tumblr its last quirk.

## Sources

- https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_tumblr_by_dinamo_and_in_house.php
- https://www.fastcompany.com/90217902/tumblr-kills-off-the-dot-in-its-logo
- https://abcdinamo.com/custom/typeface-tumblr-favorit-new-york

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Tumblr new logo (2018)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/tumblr-2018/, last updated 2026-10-20.