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Logitech is expanding the technologies it makes while taking the tech out of its logo.
Officials with Logitech, which is best known for its broad array of PC peripherals for consumers and businesses, such as keyboards, mice, speakers and gaming, and more recently its video conferencing systems, said July 8 that the company is undergoing a transformation that will include an expanded portfolio of products and a new focus on design. That includes more colors, a new logo and a new label that simply says “Logi.”
Logitech also has hired its first chief design offer, Alastair Curtis, who at one time served in the same role for Nokia.
“While our commitment to excellence in peripherals hasn’t changed, we’re dedicating focus on design … and delivering products that create amazing experiences in the everyday places of your life,” officials wrote in a post on the company blog. “We’ve put design at the core of everything we do and everything we are, from our products to our brand identity.”
Logitech’s products have normally been known more for their function than their aesthetics, but according to officials, that is changing. The company’s logo has gotten a reworking, with officials showing off black lettering and a yellow background. They also said bold colors and simple designs will be finding their way into everything from the company’s Website and social media to packaging and in-store displays as the year moves on.
“We’ve been reinventing Logitech, creating products that strive to blend advanced technology and design to bring you amazing experiences,” President and CEO Bracken Darrell said in a statement. “We’re putting design at the center of everything we do. Our approach to design goes beyond the classic definition. Design to us is the combination of advanced technology, business strategy and consumer insights. Our products have come a long way, and now it’s time to bring the brand forward, too.”
Curtis said in a statement that “a company transformation of this magnitude should come with an equally bold transformation of its brand.”
According to company officials, Logitech has been working on the reinvention of the company since 2013—Darrell arrived as CEO early that year—through product development, building a design team and changing the culture of the company. Logitech is working on new products that go beyond the company’s traditional peripherals to include offerings that touch on all aspects of customers’ daily lives, officials said. They gave no details about what those products will be, though the Wall Street Journal said in a report that the company will focus more on mobile computing, such as keyboards and cases for tablets.
The current logo will continue to be on display as Logitech rolls out the new rebranding, but the new products and designs will begin appearing in the market throughout this year.
That includes the Logi label, which will begin appearing on existing products as well as new ones as they’re introduced.
Logitech in April announced that in the first three months of the year, the company saw sales grow 1 percent over the same period in 2014, to $467 million, though for the entire fiscal year 2015, sales were down 1 percent.
During a conference call to talk about those financial numbers, Darrell noted the company’s transformation, such as building fewer, but more important, products, and its growing reputation around product design. He also pointed to the aggressive push by LifeSize Communications—the video conferencing company that Logitech owns—into the cloud, saying in the first nine months of the effort, LifeSize had acquired more than 1,100 new customers.