The post title links to an incredibly astute article over on Brand New. The following is my take on the subject.

When it comes to form and design (or aesthetics in general), Microsoft is like a neanderthal with a club: successful not for tact or elegance, but merely for size and sheer brute force. Where else are you gonna go? iWork?

That said, the mandatory identity renewal that comes with a software update has benefited Microsoft in the past, especially in the Mac incarnations of their products.

Honestly, the new logo is acceptable for me. The shape is reminiscent of its predecessors; it’s an evolution for the mark while staying recognizable as Office-related. Kudos. No complaints here.

But those icons make me want to puke myself inside-out. It’s like they combined the existing Office 2007 icon set with the DNA of an inbred second cousin to Adobe’s application icons.

At least three people should be fired for this:

1. The artist(s) who created the icons
2. The art lead(s) who directed the artist(s) to pursue this aesthetic course, and
3. The suit(s) who gave the go-ahead to unleash these hobbled atrocities on an unsuspecting public.

In what appears to be a preemptive defense against the inevitable ridicule, Microsoft’s blog post regarding the update attempts to spin explain that it’s not just about the “desire simply to ‘make it look pretty.’”

Well, no kidding.