YouTube unveils new logo as part of redesign across app and site

YouTube has unveiled a new logo as part of a wider redesign of its site and app, moving away from the highlighted “Tube” and bringing its play icon to the forefront. The refresh is referred to by the company’s chief product officer Neal Mohan as the “bright red cherry on top of this update sundae” which features a multitude of changes to its app functionality.

This is the first time YouTube has redesigned its logo in the 12 years since launching in 2005, when it used a rounded rectangular red shape to frame the word “Tube” – a slang term for a TV screen. This has been changed, with the two words of the name combined and presented in a uniform colour and weight, and the brighter red play icon now prefixing the wordmark. This icon was redesigned as part of the company’s new custom font design, YouTube Sans, by Saffron, Letterjuice, URW++ and YouTube’s UX team, wherein it was included as a glyph.

The app’s “clean” new design has a white header “to let content take the lead” and navigation tabs closer to your thumbs, and the addition of an optional “suggested videos” row while you’re watching in full screen. Neal also says the YouTube player will soon “seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal” automatically, so vertical videos won’t have black bars on the sides.