Twitter’s X Logo Sparks X-ceptional Memes As Users Bemoan Blues About Lost Bird

By Mikelle Leow, 25 Jul 2023

Image generated on AI

Twitter has clipped the wings of its blue bird and has rebranded as ‘X’, with a goal of becoming an “everything app.” According to the company’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino, this means it will “connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

X will tap “unlimited interactivity,” Yaccarino described in a tweet (or an Xcerpt?), and will be “centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking [and] creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”

Just 24 hours after teasing a new X logo, Twitter owner Elon Musk unveiled the brand identity, although he disclaimed that it was a work in progress that “certainly will be refined.” The first and current version shows the monogram having one side weightier than the other.

“If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco,” Musk detailed.

But already, the emblem was having an X-istential crisis (sorry). Users speculated that it was lifted from Monotype’s ‘Special Alphabets 4’ font family, which features a similar letter ‘X’.

hey @monotype how much would it cost to license this font exclusively for use in logos pic.twitter.com/xzCWxlRBP2
— mike blackney ðŸŒµ (@kurtruslfanclub) July 24, 2023

This was soon debunked by the type foundry’s executive creative director Phil Garnham himself, who noted that while the typeface “is similar” to the X logo, they are not the same.

The original designer of the monogram, as it seems, was physics engineer Alexandre J. Tourville, who previously created the branding for a now-defunct podcast. “If Elon Musk wants, he can have it for free,” Tourville confirms in a tweet.

Correct.

This is the logo I designed and, if @elonmusk wants, he can have it for free. pic.twitter.com/9KxIWHc90v
— ALEX (@ajtourville) July 23, 2023

The ð• logo highly zoomed-in was also used as the background of our YT thumbnails pic.twitter.com/fyKA0x5bx4
— ALEX (@ajtourville) July 24, 2023

Obviously, amid the frenzy, there are still the wild reactions to the new look.

Today’s episode was brought to you by the letter X on Sesame Street.

The letter X will be holding a press conference later today. #TwitterX pic.twitter.com/qXKNYLTqLe
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— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) July 24, 2023

X marks which spot?

Cool website you fucking idiot pic.twitter.com/b3WDAvkdIv
— very tall bart (@TallBart) July 24, 2023

So much change these days—is this a game to them?

your move @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/jBdtrhxVlh
— Lochie (@lochieaxon) July 24, 2023

This emblem may or may not have put the ‘X’ in dark UX patterns.

Hey I've been trying to click the close icon but it's not working, can someone from support help me? pic.twitter.com/3CDkFdVYZB
— Tobias van Schneider (@vanschneider) July 24, 2023

A couple of the memes are pretty X-rated, which, to be fair, is on brand.