Yesterday AOL provided us with a preview of its coming up new brand identity as the official spinout from Time Warner at December 10 comes near. Is shows a plain text logo in front of changing pictures like a weird staring at you goldfish to a ping floating brain and a rock-star hand symbol. The new logo that replaces the running man symbolises the ever-changing content. It was created by the brand consultancy Wolff Olins.

CEO Tim Armstrong told paidContent in an interview "...it's going to be very, very, very inexpensive because we're focused on just improving the products and services. I would say the marketing budget is the budget we're using on product development and the changes we're making." Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Here are some reaction to the new logo.

Florian Schmitt of the London based design agency Hi-Res!: "I like the idea of changing and adaptive logos, but this is such a literal and clichéed attempt at it. I happen to know that they had very little time to finish this, but even so, this is poor. It's literally the first thing you would do as a moodboard and the first thing you would put in the trash as well."

Om Malik of technology site GigaOM: "It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie 'WALL-E.'"

Duncan Riley of the news site inquisitr about the ever changing images: "...if you think that sounds like drugs at play, you're not the only one thinking that."

Oliver Reichnestein, creative director of Tokyo based design agency Information Architects Inc.: "Radical identity changes usually suggest that there is something wrong with the company. Well, we all know what's wrong with AOL. Their original business (Internet access) is obsolete. Dropping all visual keys and forcing the logo to a negative appearance on random images surely is a drastic measure. If the goal of the redesign was to illustrate how the company is slowly vanishing from the fast changing digital surface of the planet, I'd say: Job well done."

What do you think about it? Have your say in the comments.