If you've been to Big Picture Web before, you'll notice that I've started sporting some new digs in the last week. That's right. I've rolled out a new logo and design that I hope you'll like. And since I was heavily influenced by my readers throughout the process, today I wanted to share what went into the new look's selection and its meaning.

First, a brief chronology. A few months ago I blogged about getting a new logo for Big Picture Web. Unlike the folks at Gap, I tried to involve my audience before doing anything drastic. I asked for your thoughts on three logo concept finalists through Twitter and my blog comments. I even invited people to take a brand attributes test, a word association exercise that revealed how people perceived the three logo concepts I was considering. After receiving a ton of great feedback, last week I finally redesigned and launched the new look and the new logo.

First Impressions Matter

Thank you so very much if you were one of the people to comment or take the brand attributes test. I'm always fascinated by data, and especially by "voice of the customer" data like what you provided.  What subtle messages were each of the logo finalists sending?

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It's hard to say which of the above characteristics are more important in the long run. I liked how both logos one and three brought to mind words like strategic, authoritative, and technical. And while I like to think of myself as a friendly person, it's just not the primary goal of my blog, which ruled out logo number two. Maybe my passion as a measurement geek just barely surpasses my friendliness, but Big Picture Web is here to help people hone their Internet marketing skills before it's here to be nice.

At that point I was stuck between finalist one and three going into my final meeting with my logo designer, John Stucker. In the end it was some words from John and a comment left by web analytics author and one of my professional role models, Avinash Kaushik, that persuaded me to pick the design you see today:

These things are so subjective, in the end you should go with what makes you happy.

-Avinash

What made me happy enough about the new logo to shift from the old look to the new?

The old look vs. the new look.

The Winner and Meaning Behind the New Look

I typically only blog once per week on Big Picture Web for a number of reasons. It's partly out of respect for everyone's time because there's so much content out there nowadays. It's also because I don't want to create throwaway content for the sake of creating content like a lot of the "me too" blogs out there. Most of what I write about is an attempt at applying the concepts of strategy and measurement to your online efforts. That's where the "big picture" comes from in Big Picture Web. I want my posts to be hearty and substantial and something that will stay with you for a while. Like a  stew or a lozenge.

The new logo supports my mission visually, and here's why. On the surface, you see a bunch of cursors all moving towards a blue dot. The blue dot symbolizes success on the web in the sense that when it comes down to it, we online marketers all just trying to get people to click on something or do something on the web.

But if you look at the logo the right way, a visual sleight-of-hand called multistability reverses the image and a person clearly emerges instead of the cursors and dot. It's the same on the web. Behind all the clicks is a person. Big Picture Web wants nothing more than to be this shift you need to see through all the noise and find the human insights. The "ah-ha" moment. The epiphany. The nugget you needed to make a well-informed decision with your online marketing.

In a nutshell, that's why I blog about SEO, web analytics, social media and Squarespace and that's why you're looking at a new design you see today.

What do you think of the new look? Have you gone through a logo/design change before? What was it like? Did you audience appreciate your decision or did you get scorned like Gap? Leave a comments and share your thoughts below.