You might have noticed that we updated our social media icons and, more obviously, this blog on Friday. This is part of our new design direction which will culminate with the launch of our redesigned website in October.
First championed by Public Library of Science’s now-iconic open access padlock and now synonymous with open access, the colour orange became DOAJ’s trademark logo colour in 2003. The colour was used even more widely in 2014 when we moved onto a new platform. That is the design that we still use today.
As we worked out our new image, our designer highlighted to us how the contrast between white and orange makes reading difficult. In more modern times, orange has also become associated with low quality and that does not fit well with what we do.
So the orange has been toned down (it is not gone completely) and for social media platforms, we opted for the simple elegance of white on a black background, optimal for skimming and quick reading, although other options are also available.
This blog was updated more extensively so that the white background has been toned down and the blog post titles, which were all in capitals, no longer shout at the reader.
What do you think?
No, I don’t, sorry. Maybe the icons/design deserved some tweaking, but orange (and padlock) were symbols of something. This is ok, but represents… just nothing.
(well, maybe it mimics how “open access” has changed too).
I am sorry to hear that! We never used the padlock ourselves and, as usage of the internet has grown and changed over the years, so too have the needs of our users. We *have* to (and want to!) cater for all users of all abilities and it simply isn’t an option to exclude them.
Thanks for your comments! I appreciate them. (Dom, DOAJ Operations Manager)
I trust that yo have done your research and that this is the right decision. I will still miss the orange. In my feeds, it allowed DOAJ to stand out. New logo looks a bit generic to me.
Will miss the orange and white theme.