Unless you’ve been seriously avoiding computer usage lately, you’ve most likely noticed there’s something different about one of our favorite search engines. Google recently revealed its new logo, the biggest change to the brand since 1999. The wordmark now features a bold sans serif typeface (to spruce up your designer jargon, click here!) and has sparked a fair amount of debate within the design community.

Controversy and nit-picking aside, Google is following an inevitable trend for logo design: simplification. In a world where consumers are surrounded by visual clutter, brands are ditching details in hopes that minimal logos will help them stand out. Within the past year, other big brands have taken similar steps:

      

      

You can love or hate these new logos, but either way, the direction that brands are headed is clear. Color, typography, and graphics are simpler than ever.

So what does that mean for those of us in marketing? Pursue the path of simple design, whether it’s concerning internal or client work. Be tactical about your approach to design. Be deliberate about everything. Leave no detail unturned. No letter un-kerned! I am hilarious.

Now more than ever, it’s important to strategically communicate a message through a thoughtful brand. In the wise, only-slightly-terrifying words of the iconic designer Paul Rand, “design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated”.