Twitter: Aww! the bird has grown big, haven’t you noticed?

Have you heard of Twitter? ‘Of course’ will be your answer. It is not just because Twitter is a social networking site, or a hub of communication, it’s its brand that pulled us on the twitter platform. Be it a common man, celebrity, public figure or organization, the hash tags and the twitter accounts are spread everywhere. Recalling the history, 10 years ago when it was launched, this social networking website raised the question on ‘how will it take-off..’ looking at the competition from the Facebook.

Let’s figure out the brand Twitter by the time your twitter app makes a tweak notification! 

Twitter Founders

Twitter, the social revolution on internet, has an interesting and success story to tell. The prodigious social networking and micro blogging site, developed during March 2006, is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is launched by a young web developer from US, Jack Dorsey along with Evan Willams, Noah Glass and Biz Stone on 15th July, 2006. Twitter was also known as “SMS on internet” during its early days.

The history is that, with more than five hundred million registered users, Twitter is a social media boom on internet! It’s this brand people recognizes without its name, logo speaks it all! 

It’s all happened at an audio firm called Odeo during the start of 2006. Jack Dorsey was then pursuing under-graduation at the New York University. In a hot discussion on the new possibility of a short-messaging social network on net, the idea was presented by Jack Dorsey with utmost passion. The original name of the project Jack has come up was “Twttr” and had drawn the plan to Evan Williams. Evan liked the idea and was later communicated to Noah Glass. The name ‘Twttr’ was an inspiration from ‘Flickr’, the video hosting website by Yahoo, and was in lines with the common practice of SMS short codes. “Twittr” was a derivation from the word “Twitter” by Jack Dorsey. The word Twitter meant that “a short burst of inconsequential information” and  also the word has a natural meaning “chirps from     birds”.

But the domain name www.twitter.com” was already registered by someone else. Ironically the founders have purchased the “twitter” domain after six months of the firms launch.

 ^Initial sketch drawn on how Twitter website  should be 

Twitter, the brand-name 

Since the time of its launch, Twitter has been a power-packed brand-name in its very specialized business. The original logo with ‘Twitter” written in a moderately casual style was in use from its launch in March 2006 till September 2010, alone or along with the brands mascot of the “Twitter bird”. The funny-bit is that the Twitter brand has become globally recognizable by its signature blue bird logo alone. 

Biography of the blue bird..

2006:

The twitters tweeting bird is a unique creation which has spread its wings across the globe. It is fascinating to check out the roots of an iconic brand. If the brand is something known to the whole world, the need to know the story behind is ought.

The original Twitter bird ‘Larry’, to which the current icon resembles a very little, was created by a British graphic designer, Simon Oxley. The design was available for sale on an online image sourcing website called “iStock”, and Twitter bought it in 2006 for less than $15. In few months, the bird grew truly big. The bird was initially named as ‘Larry, the Bird’ and later better known as ‘Twitter Bird’ in the social media circles. Removing the brand-name, ‘twitter’ from the branding and doing with just a birds icon was a marketing mistake or a marketing magic? The firm went ahead and boldly placed the promotions by displaying just the twitting bird without writing the brand-name. Initially many brand admirers worried about the Twitter recognition without placing the brand-name. They were not sure if just the bird, a small bird will be able to carry the huge responsibility to recall the brand-name to the whole world. Well, it did. The little ‘twitter bird’ did it! The motif of the small bird created a big winning history for its master-brand. That’s the power of a true brand icon. 

2009:

The Twitter bird underwent a total make-over to achieve creative distinctiveness during 2009. The mascot looked like a cartoon, but a lot expressive.

The basic concept of this bird was developed in the mind of Biz Stone, one of the founders and was created by Philip Pascuzzo, a freelancing graphic designer from Albany, New York. 

2010:

Though the bird started tweeting too well, the promoter Biz Stone felt a further visual improvement for the Twitter icon in 2010. He along with Philip Pascuzzo again created a new icon of the tweeting bird. The basic concept remained same as in the earlier motif with certain touch-ups on the detailing of the graphic.

 2012:

During the year 2012, the bird underwent some major refinement with its appearance. The prestigious assignment to recreate the new Twitter bird was done by Doug Bowman, the Creative Director at Twitter. The newest iteration of the design was worked on the outline of the prevailing logo, but making it sleek by dropping one feather, giving a tight hair-cut and upturning it’s beak. Thus, the bird started looking more lively, flying and tweeting around the world.

 Secret geometry behind the logo!

In Twitters own philosophy, their new bird is born out of love for ornithology (ornithology is the branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds), simple geometry and creative thinking. Look, this bird is crafted from three sets of overlapping circles,  similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends through Twitter posts.

There is something mathematical that can allure you about the Twitter logo. Let’s come near the new Twitter logo and its geometry. I promise it will interest you.

                            Fig. 1                                                                              Fig. 2

Look at the 1st figure, it’s just a set of intersecting circles making no meaning unless the true big meaning is unveiled. The 2nd figure shows you the exact reproduction of Fig.1, but with an accurate geometry of circles used to define a legitimately created intellectual asset of Twitter Inc.; the Twitter bird.

 Call it as social networking or micro blogging, Twitter is a people-powered-business with 300+ million active users publish over 500 million tweets every day. With integrity and purpose of service, Twitter team made it grow so magnanimous within a decade of its launch. Yes, in less than a decade, Twitter has become something big and meaningful within the world. It’s no surprise that as we grow and time moves on, the dearly Twitter bird will grow as well.

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