Once I realized how many app logos have white-on-black color schemes, including Threads, the BBC, Uber, Apple TV and, yes, The Washington Post, I had to know what the hell was going on.
What about, you know? colors?
Other apps, including the New York Times, shopping app RealReal, and dating app Hinge, take the opposite tack with black text on a white background.
(Actually, the Times says its logo colors have slightly reduced contrast, like newsprint, and are “93 percent black and 95 percent white.”)
My investigation into the black and white mystery has a serious side. Smartphones and apps are important cultural markers, and their evolving designs reflect our collective moment and mood.
Judging by all the black-filled logos, we live in the land of disturbing gothic apps. Put on your eyeliner and Doc Martens boots, and put them on.
The art and science of logo colors.
There is a perhaps apocryphal theory that the color red makes people hungry and that is why some food companies like McDonald’s have red in their logos.
Snapchat created its app logo in a “happy, happy” yellow because no popular apps used that color, a spokeswoman says.
Reddit says its “use of bold colors,” including its red-orange logo, is “integral” to the online message board’s brand.
As for why black and white seems to be the color combination of the moment, all the theories made me dizzy.
For some companies and design experts, black and white it conveys luxury, elegance, quiet simplicity, or the complex spectrum of our lives, as the CEO of the white-on-black social app BeReal told me.
For Michael Ernst, a brand and product designer who was the founding designer of Yelp, predominantly Black apps reflect brotherhood.
“Many of the brand identities that incorporate black color schemes tend to appear more masculine,” Ernst said.
Black and white logos can also be practical.
Black pairs well with other colors, Ernst said. And the Times said the app’s black logo on a white background looks good even if your phone is in “dark” mode, which changes the screen background to permanent black.
Daniel Hallac, chief product officer at Hearst Newspapers, said that just like fashion, app design trends can swing from one extreme to another.
For a time, he said, bright colors were the epitome of cool in an app, like Snapchat’s yellow and Facebook’s bright blue logo. Perhaps it was inevitable that the pendulum would become colorless.
“Any time you go through a very bold period, the reaction is to counterprogram,” Hallac said. “Bright maybe feels in 2018.”
There may be no single explanation for why so many app logos are black and white.
This could be the application version of convergent evolution, which led to humans and koalas having opposable thumbs. (Look it up!) A bunch of apps came independently in black and white.
Trying to differentiate myself, but looking the same
At least quantitatively, black and white applications are not dominant.
Of the 100 most downloaded iPhone apps in the United States last week, according to Sensor Tower, nine have black and white logos, including e-commerce company Shein, Meta’s Threads and ChatGPT.
The most common color combination among the top apps seemed to be blue and white, including Max, Facebook, Venmo, Zoom, LinkedIn, and Indeed.
But these apps have different shades of blue that make them look quite different even at a glance. With black and white apps, there aren’t many nuances to differentiate them.
So there may not be further black and white applications than other colors, but it could feel that way because they look alike.
Evite’s newly revamped logo and app ditched the cheerful green the digital stationery company featured for decades for (you guessed it) black and white.
Evite’s creative head, Eddie Rhyu, told me that black “has presence.” The black and white logo also allows people’s colorful invitations and digital cards to stand out.
Rhyu said that unlike the multiple black-heavy fitness apps on my phone, there aren’t many apps with similar color schemes in the Avoid category. “If I were in the fitness industry, I would think twice” about black and white, Rhyu said.
And it’s ironic that companies that want to stand out with black-and-white logos confuse people about which app is which, said Marcie Cooperman, a color theory expert at the New School’s Parsons School of Design.
“When so many brands do it, it becomes a trend,” he said. “But that, of course, defeats the purpose.”
Read more: Tatum Hunter spent weeks testing technologies that help you find your “seasonal” color. It was a travel.
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