Here's a thread where we went about talking about the new logo redesign and also some alternative designs:
http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=7714
I personally don't like the new logo, either, and thought the old one only needed a few tweaks to "fix" it. The new one smacks of something I can't really explain in a politically-correct way other than to call it "British-face-detailitis", something that seems to chronically (and negatively) affect almost exclusively European (and specifically British) games' cartoon mascots. For example:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
I know I'm probably going to ruffle some feathers saying this, but the people who said the old logo was too childish are simply wrong and might be a bit too old or outside that particular realm of art/fashion/marketing to "get it". The simple/cute "Superflat" style trend has been in vogue for some years now, and while it might be dialed back and become more conservative over time as the companies who adopted the style as part of their marketing strategy stop being earth-shakers and become more mainstream (as it should), it will still continue to exist. Simple vector shapes can emphasize a recognizable brand through the mascot, which may or may not appear with the product's logo. It's tied quite a bit to "fresh" startups, of which Monkey should definitely be considered to be marketed as a product of, as it's a fresh language for BRL. Examples of startups going with this style include Github, Trello, Twitter, and Hadoop.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the matter, and it seems to me that eventually BRL is gonna get tired of trying to appease everyone. But, I think what they had before was on the right track branding-wise. This new version looks a little weird to me. Too "detailed", as I said before, like one of those monkey banks which eat your coins.
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