Slack, the office messaging app company has unveiled a new logo because it says the current one 'pained' the firm and was 'simply awful.'
It will no longer use the colorful hashtag that it used when it launched in 2013 and has instead designed a four-color logo using rounded rectangles and speech bubble shapes.
But the logo is fast becoming an object of ridicule after one Twitter user turned it into a swastika while others described the new symbol as 'several d**ks going in opposite directions,' and 'horny.'
Although the company said it liked elements of its original logo, the firm noted in a blog post that being made up from 11 colors made it very easy to get wrong.
'If placed on any color other than white, or at the wrong angle (instead of the precisely prescribed 18-degree rotation), or with the colors tweaked wrong, it looked terrible. It pained us… Simply awful,' the post, authored by Slack Team, stated.
The new version uses fewer colors and there are still similarities to the original.
Slack claims it worked with design agency Pentagram on the project - but that hasn't made the logo any more likable to Twitter users.
'I said to my boyfriend the new Slack logo looks like ducks smelling each other's butts' wrote one user.
Another commented how similar to the Google Photos logo the new design was.
Ducks appeared to be a common theme in mocking the logo with one critic suggesting the new logo was four ducks in a circle. They posted the logo side-by-side for an easy comparison.
Others looked to even more mundane objects and noted their shower drain was extremely similar to the new design.
But penises also seemed to be one of the main topics of interest.
One critic even merged sex with ducks and asked Slack publicly on Twitter if the new logo was an fact a duck orgy.
'A friend told me that the new Slack logo looks like a swastika made of d**ks and now I can't unsee it.' said another.
'#Slack brands should never launch a logo. It never goes well. Particularly if it fails the two big questions every designer should ask before a logo leaves the room. 1) Could it look like a penis? 2) Could it look like a swastica? If the answer is 'a little' — it goes in the bin,' wrote another insightful user offering some timely advice.
The company is expected to go public this year with a direct listing because it has about $900 million of cash on its balance sheet, according to BuzzFeed.
Such a listing gives insiders the option to sell instantly and does without the support of traditional underwriters - a recipe for potentially high volatility in early trading.
Slack is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing.
Slack, launched in 2013, allows teams and businesses to communicate through groups and has quickly replaced email at many companies, although email is still the dominant medium of communication in workplaces.
The number of paying customers using Slack has risen by more than 50 percent over the past five years to over.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
