Office 365: 1980–95 [Alternate History]
Inspired by watching the tv series, Halt and Catch Fire (which covers a fictional PC company in the 80s, loosely based on Compaq), I decided to try designing my own retro themed logos for Office 365. The results of my attempt are shown below. My favorite is the OneDrive logo, although the Teams logo has also proved popular!
Although starting as nothing more than a bit of ‘fun’ in an evening, I decided to try creating a few 80s-90s re-imagining of what Office 365 might have been like had it launched decades earlier. It also gave me a chance to try out my meagre graphic design skills.
Disclaimer: All the brands and names are owned by Microsoft, and their use here is intended as a parody permitted under fair use. I do not own any of the brands, and am not seeking to gain commercially from them, i.e. just enjoy!
OneDrive — Boxed Copy
The first in the series. Once I had created the logo I wanted to try and use it in a fictional form. I ended up choosing a retail box, based on the original Windows 1.0 retail box. As for the 5 MB special offer, I wanted to keep it loosely real but still make it impressive for the era.
(MSN) Teams — For Windows 95
Styled again on a Windows 1.0 advert, I tried to imagine how Teams might have looked were it launched for Windows 95. From a quick search around, it seemed like windows in windows (in windows) were popular around that time, so I opted to try it out. I used certain programs like ICQ and Outlook Express to try and work out the feel.
Stream — VHS and LaserDisc
This was about my 4th attempt at trying to make a Stream advert. Mostly limited by my ability to do anything too complicated. I ended up with this idea, which is Stream would have been a video distribution platform (which is roughly what it is today). However, in this case there would have been more constraints, so I opted for 90s era means. The VHS cassette I did before this, so didn’t want it to go to waste. In terms of the advert style I was roughly going for magazine spread or billboard.
Yammer — The pager we never had
For Yammer, I decided to re-imagine it as a pager-like service. For this I made my own vector based pager design, and I decided to add a stylus and small resistive touch screen — partly inspired by early Palm devices. I tried to make it look as much like a real device as possible (limited by my skills), including LCD backlight and button relief.
SharePoint — Fax Service
For SharePoint, as the logo was probably the least flashy of the ones I had done, I decided to try and set it in the very early 80s, late 70s. I had originally thought to market it as a form of modem + hard-disk combination, i.e. an early NAS, but ended up with this — as it was quicker/easier to do! There are a couple of SharePoint in-jokes/references included too. I wanted it to look like it had been in an old magazine and as such had some wear and tear.
So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed the designs. Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments below, or feel free to suggest other crazy ideas.
If you are a particular Office 365 fan, you might like my SharePoint at 18 letter— https://medium.com/waterstons-development/sharepoint-at-18-3ff0e4515a76
