At around 11 AM EST on May 13th, 2021, Discord released an update in celebration of their sixth birthday. What users initially thought would be good accessibility (referred to by Discord as "a11y"; we'll refer to it that way here too) changes or UI fixes were greeted with this update instead, with a complete rebrand of their logo, color scheme, and layout for the software -- and not for the better.

"Why does this matter?"

For one, a big issue is company image. Discord was made for (and is supposed to be catering to) a "chill" place -- from June of 2020 up until this rebrand, the company's slogan was "Your place to talk", and even then it was meant initially as a "chill" place to play video games -- for people of all likes, dislikes, and demographics to hang out. The initial logo, with the company's color of "Blurple" (originally hex #7289da) being cool and inviting. Its typeface for its name was sharp, "edgy", but still conveyed a sense of uniformity and community within it, and its logo's mascot "Clyde" was the perfect mix of asymmetrical to be fun and engaging. The new rebrand falls in all of these categories.

For starters, Discord has enhanced the contrast and saturation of not just Blurple (now hex #586aea), but all of the colors given. This not only is complete eyestrain for those using the program's Dark mode (hexes #2c2f33 and #23272a), but the contrast of colors is a very big a11y problem. The contrast of overly saturated colors provides an overstimulation problem to those with autism and neurodivergencies like it, neglecting a large portion of their userbase.

Next, the redesign of Clyde. Discord states, "In the end, we believe changes to Clyde present him in a more friendly tone, reshaped to be more understandable whether smaller or larger, all while still keeping our pal looking unique and familiar to the most veteran of users." This could not be further from the truth. While their mention of the fact that, "...[those] sharp little antennas didn’t translate well when printed on different types of materials, or when printed on really small surfaces such as a pin," does hold enough, it's a negligible enough fact that it should not be cause for an entire redesign. The original roundness of Clyde in comparison with the originally rigid typeface (which we'll get into later) made it feel more freeing while still giving it the same sense of unity. It didn't feel claustrophobic but made it feel cozy.

The redesign, however, fails in every aspect. Yes, the changes of the antennae do make it slightly easier to print on certain material or small objects, but that's the only possible fix. The much more square look and feel to Clyde make it more claustrophobic and stiff, as opposed to the original rounder look. To put it in another way, it's almost analogic to a block of cheese.

Finally, the typeface of the logo. The original logo's use of a modified Uni Sans Heavy was bold enough to be recognizable, but not so bold to look overbearing. The sleek, angled characters made the logo easy to read while, once more, keeping the feel of uniformity and community. The new one, based on the Ginto Heavy Bold, fails in every aspect. The attempt at overshooting to compensate for potential optical illusions was done poorly; it makes the font look uneven. The font's lowercase lettering is also uneven, with most lowercase lettering (eg. the lowercase "D" in the new logo) being the same height as uppercases. As MusicSounds1011 on Twitter pointed out, it makes the logo read as "DiSCOrd" over simply "Discord". The typeface is also too wide and bulky and makes it "clunkier" than the initial. It doesn't leave enough room for the eyes and makes spacing the logo and letters a nightmare.

Tens of thousands of people across the globe have given an outcry over this in the 24 hours since the announcement was made on Discord's Twitter. Many of these people have been using #BringBackBlurple, made by a UX/UI designer and Discord bug tester, in an attempt to bring back the old branding. With these changes impacting the overall look and message of Discord, as well as harming a11y greatly, there's only one logical option to take; Discord needs to revert the changes and return to the original branding. We're asking that you do your part and sign this petition to make things right, for gamers and non-gamers alike who have used Discord since its creation six years ago.