Well, it happened. If you log on to Twitter right now you’ll see that the blue bird icon is no more and that a simple “X” is now the site’s logo. In addition, you can now access the website formerly known as Twitter via “X.com”, with nomenclature like “tweets” and “retweets” a thing of the past:
But Musk’s new logo may have already run into a problem. The X logo has already been taken by EDM artist Kxlider, who has been using it since at least December 2021 (as per this Instagram post).
With just 31 followers @kxlider is admittedly a piece of plankton compared to the wider Musk megacorp, but the evidence seems clear that he got here first. That said, the X logo is simply the capital “X” from “Special Alphabets 4” in Monotype’s Special Alphabets font family, so it could prove tricky to copyright in this form. Even so, we say lawyer up and get that bag Kxlider!
Whatever happens there, this rebrand is going down like a lead balloon amongst the already very unhappy site users. Responses to the official tweets announcing the rebrand are demanding the bird logo be brought back, with others pointing out that “X” is so generic it’s unsearchable:
Another says that Twitter and all related words have international recognition that most corporations would kill for:
It remains to be seen how this is going to shake out for Musk. Sure, just about every decision he’s made regarding Twitter has been incredibly damaging to the site, accelerated a user exodus, and lost billions of dollars of market value but uh, maybe this will work out. Though somehow we doubt it.
