New Google Circle Logo Revealed at 2009 CES

UPDATE: March 13, 2011. ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick has written a very popular article about Google Circle, a social site (wrongly) rumoured to be launching at SXSW today. Everyone is searching for Google Circle, which is bringing up this old post from 2009, where a few Google employees at CES wore these cool Circle logo t-shirts. If you want to read more about Google Circle 2011, follow this link back to ReadWriteWeb.

I came across this video (also embedded at the end of this post) of Google engineer David Phillip Oster at CES, showing how he hacked a Wii Fit so users could literally ‘surf’ through Google Earth. As interesting as his creation was, I became distracted by the t-shirt he (and his unnamed co-host) was wearing. It looked like the Google logo – except each letter had been turned into a circle (or two). I did a quick Google image search (where else) for “Google logo circle” but found nothing. So I quickly dove into illustrator and created one so that people like me, searching for this new Google treatment, won’t come up empty handed.

It’s amazing how strong the Google colour combination is associated with the brand. We’re also used to them messing with their ‘masthead’ logo on Google.com every time there is a minor holiday or special event, so seeing Google take a slightly different form isn’t uncomfortable. I quite like the abstract simplicity of these 8 circles.

Here is the new Google Circle Logo on grey.

And here is the new Google Circle Logo on white. It reminds me of a broken game of Twister. If you click on this image you can download an editable PDF to be opened in Adobe Illustrator. If you like it, give it a quick Digg.

Enjoy.