New video from Microsoft breaks down the “Rebirth of Office”

Microsoft’s Nando Costa shared a post and a new video today that goes through the evolution of the Office icon. Costa shares a glimpse into how much effort goes into redesigning a single icon. While the video shows off a refreshed Office app, Costa’s post on LinkedIn focuses on the redesign of the Office icon.

Microsoft’s Office videos became dramatically more cinematic recently. Microsoft’s video showing off dark mode was one of the first, and the trend has continued as more design videos come out.

Redesigning an orange square-ish shape might seem like a straightforward task, but Costa shows how the icon design went through several iterations. Additionally, Microsoft had to pick a color palette and make sure that angles and elements of the design line up well.

If you don’t pay close attention to icon design, you end up with flaws that just seem off to some people. For example, many complained about the Google logo when it came out.

As shown in the image above, Office’s design team took time to make color gradients look good and for angles to line up.

Earlier this year, Microsoft showed how its “icons of the future” extend across platforms. Microsoft shared a similar video towards the end of last year about its Office icons for mobile devices.

At the end of Costa’s post, there’s another video about the Office icon and many the iterations that it went through in the design process.