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OpenAI’s newest creation is raising shock, alarm, and horror among
staffers: a new logo
BYKALI HAYS
September 20, 2024 at 4:24 PM MDT

Sam Altman of OpenAI onstage at a Microsoft event in 2024.

A black ring can represent many things – simplicity, a new phase, a void.
Whatever its meaning, OpenAI employees would prefer it didn’t represent the
company they work for.
In a recent company-wide meeting, staffers of OpenAI got a sneak peak at
recent efforts to redesign the typefaces and logo for the company behind
ChatGPT and the ongoing tech industry craze for all things generative AI,
two people familiar with the company told Fortune. The new logo presented
was a simple, large black “O,” easily interpreted as a ring or a zero, as
one of the sources described it. Many members of staff were taken aback by
the design, which struck some as ominous and lacking in creativity. A few
openly voiced their dislike for it during the meeting.
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The proposed new logo is an aesthetic shift from the company’s current
hexagonal flower symbol, originally conceived by designer Ben Barry as one
evoking “precision, potential and optimism.” Given the staff’s strong
response and some internal attachment to the current logo, which adorns
OpenAI’s website and corporate swag such as the t-shirts and stickers
beloved by employees, one of the people familiar with matter speculated
that the design of the new logo could change again.

The design work is ongoing and being carried out by an internal team, but
results of their efforts could be unveiled as soon as next year, one of the
people said. Next year is also set to see OpenAI dramatically alter its
corporate structure, as Fortune previously reported. Add in a growing focus
on revenue and investors, the stage is being set for one of the world’s
most valuable and well-known generative AI companies to get a makeover in
2025.
The redesign work began about a year ago, one of the people familiar said,
around the time OpenAI built out its internal creative and design team with
several new hires from creative agencies and fields like graphic design.
Part of the impetus for the work is that OpenAI does not own the typefaces
it uses for its brand name and website text – they are licensed typefaces
created and owned by outside type designers.
OpenAI’s logo, on the other hand, was created internally. In a detailed
brand book from September 2022, just a few weeks before the release of
ChatGPT and the company’s subsequent explosion in popularity and fame,
OpenAI called its logo “our most recognizable brand element” and something
that showed its “focused pursuit to create technology that benefits
humanity.”

Some of the world’s most famous tech companies have gone through a major
redesign after hitting household name status. Google and Facebook both
created new parent companies, Alphabet and Meta, to sit atop their most
famous platforms, creating new logos for both. While Apple has tweaked its
iconic apple logo several times over the years.
Spokespeople for OpenAI did not respond to emails seeking comment.”
https://fortune.com/2024/09/20/openai-staffers-unhappy-new-logo-design-ominous/#:~:text=Ablackring,thatshowedits
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