Just as OpenAI has inspired a wave of AI startups, so, too, has its brand. OpenAI’s signature spiral logo has been widely imitated in the industry. So it raised eyebrows there Good luck recently reported that the company is changing its logo to something much simpler: an empty black circle. And the interest surrounding OpenAI’s potential redevelopment extends beyond matters of graphic design.
OpenAI employees were reportedly “surprised” by the company’s plans to introduce a black circle or the letter “O” as its new logo, which some called “lack of creativity” and “scary.” That may seem silly to some. What, after all, is so threatening about the circle? The logos of Target, USA Today, and Oprah’s magazine don’t seem to bother anyone. But logos, especially unusual, abstract logos, can act something like a Rorschach test, forcing us to express our feelings about the company they represent in the logo itself.
While the current OpenAI logo was intended, according to to co-designer Ben Barry, expressing “hope and bursts of intelligence” and “evolving into something good,” its association with the mysterious and frightening development of artificial intelligence has given the brand and its characters a sense of forbidding whirlpools, closure. and flow down, rather than blooming outward.
This counter reading of this type of logo has been shown elsewhere. The cover of Dave Eggers’ 2021 dystopian novel All features the book’s titular tech behemoth logo, designed by star artist Jessica Hische, that looks like OpenAI’s. At the beginning of the story, Eggers describes each sign: “It was three waves beating in a circle around me, and showing the flow of water, the explosion of new ideas, of meeting, endlessly.” But on the book’s copyright page, Eggers calls the logo “secretly disturbing.”
Interestingly, Hische it was revealed that he had designed each logo in 2013, four years before the debut of the OpenAI mark, while exploring options for the cover of Eggers’ novel All it will be a sequel. Its title, and a bad tech company reference? yes, The circle.
Why would OpenAI want to switch to using a simple circle as a logo, breaking seven years of brand equity from its current trendsetting brand? There doesn’t seem to be a good answer. As many other AI firms have taken similar swing marks, OpenAI will essentially be rocking some vicious Sneetches: When everyone’s got a star in their belly, it’s time to wipe yours. Good luckThe company’s report that the rebranding is motivated in part by intellectual property considerations—OpenAI reportedly does not own the typeface used in its current logo—is interesting, given the many allegations of copyright infringement brought against the company. (OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the report.)
And why the circle, specifically? It, too, is a popular brand. According to an analysis of United States Patent and Trademark Office records, 21 percent of current American logos include a circle of some kind. Almost all of these, however, add other design elements, be it General Electric’s initials or BMW’s glimpse of the Bavarian flag.
As companies become more well-known, their logos should do less in lifting the weight needed to communicate their identity, in order to be lighter in the long run. Nike and Starbucks, for example, have both managed to drop their names from their logos, as they remain visible without them. After Starbucks did so, a meme circulated online jokingly suggesting that by 2041, the coffee giant’s logo will simply be a green circle.
OpenAI is a big brand in AI, but trying to pull off such a move in real life would show real hubris. However, there is evidence beyond that Good luck the issue of OpenAI being critical; last year, it filed a trademark registration for the ChatGPT large language model with just a name and a simple black circle. And indeed, when you use ChatGPT’s Voice Mode, you find yourself speaking to that circle.
Sudden logo changes that go beyond a simple update or refresh and introduce a brand new logo created entirely from scratch are rare for established companies. It usually indicates one of two things. It may indicate some kind of fundamental change in the business itself, such as when the court-sanctioned breakup of AT&T in the early 1980s led the company to adopt its new “Death Star” logo. Alternatively, it may coincide with a change in leadership, like when Elon Musk apologized to all the Twitter birds last year.
In the case of OpenAI, either of these definitions may be at play. The company is in the midst of a major transformation, moving from its current for-profit status to a profitable business, and raising capital to a 12-figure figure, as one key employee jumps after another. At the same time, many of the questions raised by last year’s failed coup against CEO Sam Altman remain unanswered, and it’s reasonable to wonder if his personality might drive the rebuilding of his name.
In any case, concerns about OpenAI’s ostensible ominous “O” are not just about business ethics. It seems to be a sign of continued improvement for the company. And as they play in the coming months, logo viewers will be ready.
