The change, it seems, was to make the logo a little more modern, a little more relevant, while retaining its defining characteristics.
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The old icon, left, and new one, right.
See, the original icon featured a female silhouette in the background and a larger male silhouette at the front.
Caitlin victor also mentioned she faced no criticism from the male employees working at Facebook, she also explained that once she had finished making the changes to these icons she saved the file and forwarded it to the company’s engineers who later “shipped them to the world without much fanfare”. She put the new-and-improved woman, though still slightly smaller, in front of the man. She made a similar change in Facebook’s “groups” logo. “The iconic man was symmetrical except for his spiked hairdo but the lady had a chip in her shoulder”, wrote victor.
In a bid to reflect the the feminist message she learned “as a woman, educated at a women’s college”, the staffer switched the positioning of the male and female icons, putting the woman standing in front.
But after she completed drawing in the female’s shoulder, victor continued her quest by re-doing both of the gender’s Facebook icons, starting with the helmet-haircut the woman sported and improving the hair of the male icon.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s design manager Caitlin victor observed something off regarding how the faceless silhouettes of a man and a woman were initially designed. But a Facebook designer, upset by the symbolism of a man holding a woman back, has prompted the site to switch up its icon.
Another person found the icons politically incorrect: “While we’re at it, those silhouettes are clearly VERY white, middle class people”, growled one designer.
Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the change to these icons probably won’t be noticed by the majority of FB users, but it could profoundly influence perceptions of women.
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The current Facebook symbol for work is a briefcase. Which population carried briefcases and in which era? People in the Americas might not have cared that the “notifications” icon showed those continents – but Africans, Europeans and others might have preferred a globe that shows their home instead.
