Current Tumblr logo, redrawn for 2013.
From 2007 to 2013, the logo for blogging platform Tumblr was Bookman Old Style with vary little adjustment. Considering that Bookman dates back to 1860, the mark looked remarkably contemporary. The glassy fill and occassional bubbly outline had something to do with that, but even without the effects it felt pretty fresh. Chalk it up to a super-tight, all-lowercase setting.
Around the time of their Yahoo! acquisition in mid-2013, the company refined its logo, redrawing the letters for an even tighter, more customized fit. The ‘t’ was narrowed, the ‘u’ lost its leading serif, the arm of the ‘r’ extends just a bit further, and the ‘u’ and ‘m’ curves were given a smoother connection to the stems, resulting in rounder (perhaps friendlier) counter shapes.
The Tumblr homepage in May 2007. Looking back at this in 2013, with today’s design trends firmly in flatland, it appears that the pendulum of style took about six years to swing.
Tumblr’s April 2007 dashboard redesign.
Tumblr’s October 2007 dashboard redesign said farewell to the Davidville flower.
Tumblr dashboard, 2011.
Tumblr homepage, 2011. The glossy Bookman logo survived virtually unchanged from 2007 to 2013. Only the spacing got tighter (period no longer straying from the word), shadows varied slightly, and shapes were fine tuned.
Outline/sticker variation of the logo, introduced sometime in 2009.
Great to see a brand with coherent uses of its typeface. But I not sure about the lost of serif on /u. This kind of contemporary trick doesn’t fit with this type (i think).