Twitter unveiled a new logo today, and it looks like the site is kind of pulling a Prince. It seems that from now on, the word "Twitter" won't be part of Twitter's branding: The new logo is nothing but a redesigned, simplified version of the site's iconic blue bird. "Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter," creative director Doug Bowman writes on the official blog. "There’s no longer a need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase 't' to represent Twitter."
The bird logo "grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry," Bowman went on. "This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles—similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends." Overwrought prose aside, Charlie Warzel of AdWeek thinks the bird represents a new era: "One where Twitter is so powerful and omnipresent that they don't need text for name recognition." (More Twitter stories.)