Microsoft has unveiled all-new Office 365 app icons design with bolder, lighter hues, combined with simplistic visuals and instantly recognizable symbols. Introduced via a Microsoft Design post on Medium, each icon was designed to decouple the individual letters and symbols to maintain familiarity.
The new icon designs for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Skype, Teams and more, will be pushed out to nearly one billion Office users across the world over the next few months, replacing the existing icons which were released in 2013. Check out the new icons below for the full philosophy behind the new designs:
Instead of nice, neat outlines that represent the old concept of opening a local document, each icon has a distinctive shape that indicates its specific role. Excel has a rectangular icon to reflect spreadsheets, but you'll see a circular pie chart for PowerPoint, abstract people for Teams and similar changes for other apps. The emphasis on content over format mimics the "collaborative nature" of Office 365, design lead Jon Friedman said.