Opera Unveils New Branding And Logo

Opera: New Logo, New Direction?

Opera, the popular and evergreen web browser for both desktop and mobile environments has got itself a new logo, and a new brand identity. The move is, according to the company themselves, however, more than just about replacing the old red “O” logo with a newer shinier one.

20 Years And Counting

The internet and the world has evolved a lot in the 20 years that Opera has been around. When Opera first appeared on the scene, Windows 95 was still in its infancy, YouTube was still 10 years away, and President of the USA was Bill Clinton. So a lot has changed in that time. Today, 350 million people access the web through Apps they have designed.

New Look Logo

Few brands have remained as consistently identifiable over the years as Opera has. That distinctive big red ‘O’ is instantly recognisable.  The new look logo doesn’t stray far from previous incarnations. Now though, that big red ‘O’ is 3D.

The new 3-dimensional logo is supposed to represent the fact that Opera no longer thinks of itself as a Software company, but as an “internet company providing great experiences online,” So “Opera Software” is now just “Opera.”

The name change does make sense. While Opera began life as a vendor of browsers, the company has diversified into a wider range of product in several different areas.  Opera Mediaworks for example, the company’s ad enterprise, reaches over 1 billion consumers a month.

According to the Opera blog, the new logo, and rebrand are all part of the company’s plans to ensure the viability of the Opera brand. “We have new solutions and products in the pipeline, and we want them fit into the new identity organically.”

New Opera Branding Will Hit iOS first

The new logo has already began rolling out onto certain devices. Opera Mini, the mobile version, has already been released for iOS. The desktop version will be last to land, with Android and Windows Phone versions expected to land as Opera send out its next series of updates.