kind Regards

I’m also not a fan of the planet showing through the tail — it screws with the spatial depth of the piece, making the fox seem flatter and less like he’s emerging, turning and receding. Another part of the problem is the removal of the ridge of fur along the fox’s spine in favor of (sigh) a gradient — this seriously undercuts his twisting motion. By contrast the old logo implies a pleasantly pronounced circular motion that recalls the “loading” indicator and which, by creating a more visually forceful circular motion, is better able to evoke the connotations of that shape — continuity, atomicity, and other nice things to have associated with a software project. As others have noted, the fox now looks like a strangely tubular animal that’s burning like a candle.

I don’t mean to be negative in a reactionary way. Keeping the brand fresh is an excellent goal. But I think it’s going to be very hard to retool the existing logo — it is simply an excellent rendering of its basic visual idea. If you want something satisfyingly new I think you’re going to have to create something that’s more substantially different.

The draft logo in the OP is too fussy and ‘obvious’ (cf. Lord Privy Seal)

Also, another vote for seeing a design with an actual Firefox/Red Panda. The facial markings, tail stripes, and black paws could make for a very eye-catching character.

Lastly, a more general suggestion that could apply to any of the new designs: the new icon could have photorealistic touches at the largest sizes, but would be simplified at the smaller sizes to keep it clearer. For example, the icon for Omniweb on OS X has mountain ranges, cloud wisps, and various other topographic details at 512px square, and the smaller icons are still recognizable as the same globe even though they have clearly been tweaked to stay crisp in list/column view.