Joe,

Thanks for the invitation to dialog! Yeah, that old school logo … alas, poor logo. I have to admit, I had not seen the mobile mark at the time I wrote about the new “monogram.” The mobile version is okay. It’s a standout in the world of single letter mobile app logos, I guess. I’m not too fond of that beige, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the old multiplane green monster.

I don’t claim to know what was going on in the designers’ minds with the new mark, but I’m assuming they went with this particular font because it’s distinct and memorable. And that’s what you want with a logo/mark of any kind: something that’s unique/memorable in its details.

As for the Microsoft Office suite call-back — good eye! They were smart to avoid shearing their mark. Placing the M in a solid field (or even outlining it) over the horizontal document lines would’ve been overkill and cluttered the design. This is a fine example of less being more.

Thanks for the invitation to dialog!