Surprisingly, still around, AOL is getting set to introduce a new face for the somehow still popular dial-up/all-inclusive internet service. If you are like me, you spent several years on AOL, from it’s first iteration, to 9.0; and you wish you could forget it. Still, those less adept at the interwebs still find themselves hearing “You’ve got mail!” in that familiar sing-song voice daily. On the coattails of a 2500 person layoff, and Time Warner separating from the brand, AOL’s board has decided it the best time to reinvent the brand. Really? Wait until you see….

Really AOL? Oh, I'm sorry, Aol.

Firstly, Moving from AOL (America On-Line) to Aol.(America on-line.) is an odd transformation in my mind, doing a similar change to businesses like nbc/msnbc who have gone from all caps to lowercase as well…but also adding punctuation. actually the new Aol. look, is very reminiscent of nbc’s new look—

nbc's. new. look.

Craptastically. post. modern? the. adding. of. punctuation. everywhere. is. quite. a. visual. encumbrance. don’t you think? Actually I’m not sure what you would classify this new lowercase fad. All I know is that it doesn’t perform very well most of the time. Not to mention that Aol. is using it as a negative cutout in apparently ever-changing background images. This is going to create confusion and annoyance as you can see in the example, sometimes it is hard to see the “l.” portion of the logo. Also, l (lowercase L) and I (uppercase i) are identical, and based on the fact that the majority of Aol. users are older folks, a poor decision. I think they’re right to attempt a redesign, but I’m not sure this is the way to go. What do you think? I hope when they redesign aol.com. they. don’t. put. periods. everywhere. Ugh.

Chris Trude

Chris is a twitter-head, blogger, and web/graphic designer by night, and an in-house graphic designer by day. Also happens to be an avid practitioner of awesomeness. Feel free to subscribe to my feed, or follow me on Twitter to keep in touch with my day to day.