Thunderbird Logo Redesign

Hicks.design had the chance to design a contemporary update for one of our oldest logos, the Thunderbird Email app. It's extremely rare to be asked to redesign old work, so I leapt at the chance. Our version was the second Thunderbird logo, and it was designed nineteen years ago! There have since been two further versions created in-house.

A comparison of the original 'wig' logo, with a three quarter view Thunderbird carrying an envelope, to the new version showing the bird from the side. The wing cradling the circle in the centre creates a speech balloon outline.
Thunderbird logo version 4 (left) which has been updated in house by Mozilla since v3, and the new logo (right)

Mozilla wanted to communicate the large changes they were planning for v115, without abandoning all the brand equity that had been built up over all these years. As Thunderbird is more than just an email client (RSS feeds, Chat etc), I incorporated a speech balloon inside the negative space of the bird. It was also designed to harmonise with the latest version of the Firefox browser logo. This was achieved by echoing similar shapes, but mirrored:

A comparison of the Firefox logo and new Thunderbird logo, showing a subtle mirror image effect in the way the shapes are reflected

Read more detail about the process of the Thunderbird Logo Redesign in the Journal

All four variants of the logo (left-right): Monochrome, Stable, Beta and Daily releases

About us

From our studio in Oxfordshire we have worked for a wide variety of lovely clients. You may recognise our identity work on logos for Firefox, Mailchimp and Shopify, as well as emoticons for Skype. Read more about our services or contact us for help with your next project!

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