In August 2013, Mozilla officially launched Firefox 23 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and more notably, the new logo, a (slightly) less textured and glossy icon for its favored web browser.

The first step in the rebuild was to go in and strip out all the detail that was using blend mode layering such as multiply, screen and overlay – mostly found in the tail area. As stated, a key goal of the redesign was to make it work flawlessly in SVG as well as open up the possibility to rebuild all the internal structure using SVG and CSS gradients. Having reduced the logo down to its shape-tweaked forms and softer gradients, designers continued to remove any detail designers thought wasn’t critical to the overall image. This tied into another goal of having the image hold up with greater clarity at smaller sizes.

Once designers had removed a fair amount of detail in the logo, it was time to look at introducing enhanced detail where it would be needed when scaled to larger sizes. Stephen Horlander recreated all the continents on the globe with high resolution displays in mind and the high gloss has been removed to create a softer, deeper color globe. Combining these deeper blues with now lighter oranges in softer detailed fur, The new design achieved that greater contrast that would create better separation of the elements at all sizes.

A final touch that you may notice in the new logo is the arm of the fox now extends from a shoulder instead of layering behind his chest