Gmail Logo Was a Rush Job With Two Totally Different Fonts

Apple: pours millions of dollars and hundreds of workhours into so-called "design" of every last detail.

Google: does design overnight, still kicks Apple's ass.

Why oh why should we care?

They should have used wingdings...

That's a pretty pathetic stretch to spout Apple hate in an article that has nothing to do with them, and by using a horrible, broad, vague example to make your ridiculous point as well.

That said, I thought the origin of the logo was interesting. I never noticed the different fonts, but it's obvious when you actually look at it. Fontophiles will probably cry about using a font like Myriad Pro, though.

Who cares? Have a life!

I just spent a few minutes looking for these fonts and found them. Found the Catull to be correct (for "Google" and the "G" in Gmail). As far as the Myraid Pro (for the "mail" in "Gmail"), it looks like it was used for the "ail" in "Gmail", and to an extent, the "m" as well, but more or less "Photoshopped" to match the envelope. The letters after it ("ail"), look as if they've been slightly "squished", so-to-speak. I don't know the term for that. I'm not a graphic designer. Otherwise, the font looks correct.

At first, I absolutely despised Google. I thought it was just too plain looking and unattractive. It took me a while to get off of Yahoo's search engine and take advantage of Google. I still find myself hitting Yahoo for everything else because everything I "need" is right there.

I am a freelance graphic designer...
- you're a barista! 

It worked. Any more questions?

a google story with a comments section full of apple hate - just a little too familiar

Why hate apple? - after all if it weren't for the iphone google would have nothing to copy for android.

Why published a weekly list of Deserters?

Hilarious how some companies (can't think of any right now), spent millions of dollars in analysts, graphic designers and occasionally hire outside graphic design firms, and end up with terrible designs.

bill gates: to be a good professional engineer always study late before exams, it teaches you how to organize time and tackle emergencies

+1

I H8 APPL

i remember rumors about android came out about the same time as rumors about the iphone
"unveiling of the Android distribution in 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 86 hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices." from wikipedia
and actually a company had started developing android way before that in 2005 before google bought it

the iphone was released on June 29, 2007

i think apple copied google

i could make a better logo for gmail in under 5 minutes, so they rushed it? took less than 5 minutes? i dont think so

and the font used for BETA makes three different fonts.

"i think apple copied google"

From WIRED (http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=2) "In 2002, shortly after the first iPod was released, Jobs started thinking about developing a phone.. that summer (2004), while he publicly denied he would build an Apple phone, Jobs was working on his entry into the mobile phone industry.. In February 2005, he got together with Cingular to discuss a Motorola-free partnership.. Jobs delivered a three-part message to Cingular: Apple had the technology to build something truly revolutionary, "light-years ahead of anything else.".. Jobs had reason to be confident. Apple's hardware engineers had spent about a year working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced him that they could build a similar interface for a phone. Plus, thanks to the release of the ARM11 chip, cell phone processors were finally fast and efficient enough to power a device that combined the functionality of a phone, a computer, and an iPod."

There is more to the WIRED story that says Apple spent YEARS before 2005 working on the iPhone.. Apple just didn't copy Google when Google bought Android in August 2005. Google's Eric Schmidt was on the Apple board so saw what Apple was up to and decided Google needed to do the same thing! The first Android phone came out over a year later than the first iPhone so how does Apple copy something that doesn't get released until over a year later?

It was a comparison and well Apple has said they spend a lot of time and manpower on their designs and Google just said they did it at the last second and yet both worked...

Oh come on... I can't pop a single Apple joke without starting another Apple vs. Google flamewar? I don't like Apple, but FFS, this is becoming tiresome! I think Tom's should have a special flame war forum...

^ THIS is all I ever wanted it to be. +1 for getting this.

why does everybody on this forum hate apple? Iam genuinely curious...

Apple is notorious for artificially forcing their own products into obsolescence. Such as disabling software support for certain pieces of hardware for marketing reasons, in order to force the user to need to buy new hardware. I can only speak for myself, and that's my biggest complaint. I'm also not impressed with the level of proprietary control they force on their products, or their intentional reliance on their audience's misconceptions and willful ignorance to sell their products.

One of those things only 1 in a million people might have noticed and now that I know to look for it, I'm going to see two different fonts standing out every time I see the gmail logo. Hopefully it doesn't make my OCD brain blow a gasket wanting to make all the characters match!

well, apple introduced the "thin war", because apple sold cool, everyone followed, and trys to make their phones thinner. i have 2 older phones, that are JUST phones, and the batteries in them are thicker than an ipod touch i think 2nd or 3rd generation. you cant tell me that if apple didnt start that retarded thin war that we wouldn't have decent battery life in phones.

if apple didnt make a phone that did everything but never advertised itself as a phone, we may even have decent microphones and a decent speaker in the phone so you can actualy understand what the other person is saying.

the last one isnt apples fault specifically, but they are the ones that made the smart phones desirable, and they are the ones who couldn't put decent equipment in them as a damned standard for what, 6-800$ what ever they sell for with out subsudiseing.

and with apple being literally more about design than function (see you are holding it wrong as an example, also see the samsung lawsuit which points out they look similar as a key point) and how they do spend millions concerned about every little rounded corner of the device, and google apparently saying "oh #$^& we forgot the logo... i dont know... whatever, lets mash 2 fonts and make the m look like a letter" and it turning into something that... has it changed once... you have to admit that is a funny to imagine.

I wouldn't worry too much about aquiring a graphic designers eye from an internet article. I think it's a little more complicated than that...

THANK YOU! Finally someone else who sees that... I so don't care if my phone is twice as thick as long as it has more battery life!!!

Of course wait for the 6000 word reply from Watcha droning on about Apple battery life, starting with "Apple is the best at ... then copying in the whole of "A Tale Of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens ... then ending with and more blah blah blah, before getting marked down to -20, as much for spamming as anything else.
...
Fact, you can have a spare and swap out a battery in almost every phone, apart from one, you can have 3 guesses but 2 don't count...

Google person 1: We need a logo with deep impact, elegant, impressive, and above all. expensive to ma-
Google Boss: Ahh screw it, get some random guy to make one. IT WILL BE EPIC.

Are you sure about that?

A fairly typical bout of comments for a Tomshardware article.

Every single Apple-bashing comment is rated above +10, where every comment that dares to defend Apple is hidden away with rating -20. All of this on an article that isn't even ABOUT Apple.

There's a good reason why Hexus and AnandTech are held in such high regard in the tech industry compared to Tomshardware. I genuinely doubt the average age of readership here is greater than 18. I feel more sorry for the people who run Tomshardware than I do for the pre-pubescent fandroids that troll it hour after hour.

in what