eBay Redesigns its Iconic Logo

eBay Redesigns its Iconic Logo by Katrina Radic

September 13, 2012

eBay refreshed their 17-year-old iconic logo for the first time since its debut in 1995.

Our refreshed logo is rooted in our proud history and reflects a dynamic future. It’s eBay today: a global online marketplace that offers a cleaner, more contemporary and consistent experience, with innovation that makes buying and selling easier and more enjoyable.

New logo (above) & old logo (below)

The eBay logo is known the world over, so changing it was not a decision made lightly. The time felt right. We’re incredibly proud of how eBay started and quickly grew into the world’s largest online marketplace. Auction-style listings, used goods, vintage items and quirky, one-of-a-kind finds are still a big part of what makes buying and selling on eBay special. We hope that’s always true. But we’ve evolved a lot in the past few years, and eBay is much more than auction-style listings today.

Photo: Brandingsource.blogspot.com

From September 1995, when eBay began by connecting a seller with a buyer who wanted a broken laser pointer, to today, the brand never changed its logo. The mark became extremely well known and iconic, despite the fact that it was just downright ugly. And even though it was what it was, I’m not quite sure it needed a refresh. The new version is certainly less annoying and more professional-looking, but it’s also utterly unoriginal and boring, uninteresting and uninspiring; something that wouldn’t catch your eye in the wide world of everyday branding even if it was right in front of you. On the other hand, the one thing keeping it alive and still a tad bit original are the iconic colors. My question is – are they enough?

The new logo will begin to appear across eBay sites and channels this fall. For more info, click here.

If you like comparing old to new logos, check out the Microsoft, Twitter or Shutterstock logo redesign as well.

BY Katrina Radic

Author

Katrina is a graphic designer based in Belgrade, Serbia. Mixing the two worlds, creative and corporate, she delivers the freshest and most creative news from the industry to the readers of Branding Magazine.

http://twitter.com/BrandAnarchy Ney Pimentel

I understand the “cleaner”, “contemporary” look but the old logo was much better.. It had movement and a fun feel to it, though not the best, it was much better than this basic google looking logo with a sans serif typeface.. SHM…
- katrina radic
  
  I just hope they won’t all look like this one day :/
Ben Leoni

ugh, Gap went wrong but didn’t follow through – Thankfully. Then microsoft pissed in the wind. now ebay.
- DecaSolitera
  
  W! Who’s next?
Someone

I can smell an article written by Katrina from a mile away without reading the author. They are so bad written and boring, she clearly never has the slightest clue of what she’s talking about. This is one of the reasons I’ve been reading this magazine a lot less lately, because of the lack of perspective and depth of most of the articles. Tell me something I don’t know already. Frustrating.
- DecaSolitera
  
  Why don’t you give it a try and tell the audience something spectacular about this news?
http://www.richierutter.com/ Richard Rutter ツ

Thanks for an interesting read.

Personally I quite like the old logo, and the new logo, however it does look more uniform in relation to other brand logos, loosing that touch of originality and with it, the connotations of heritage.

Aaker recommends making incremental changes to brand logos (in his book Building Strong Brands), for instance they could have separated the letters keeping the font and at a later stage changed the font?

Richard
Emily Paul

change is good. It gives a fresh look but the color concurrence of Google, eBay and Microsoft is mysterious. It gives an alike look..!!!
Pat Carito

Sorry the new Ebay logo just doesn’t cut it in a crowed brand world.
With all out due respect, Ebay is a global company and needs unique recognition to stand out from the crowd.
Using a generic font like Univers as a logo is like buying a ready made suit from a store rack, that everyone else has versus going to a tailor to get your suit custom made to fit your body. It’s a cheap, quick and thoughtless approach to brand identity design. In order to stand out from the crowd and be unique you need custom designed solutions that are custom tailored to your brand identity needs, this includes font customization that in turn give your identity distinct and unique character.
Sorry Ebay, you now look like you’re wearing a conventional suit that a million other people are wearing on the street, I can’t distinguish you from the next guy. I liked your previous suit at least it looked like you went to a tailor to get it made.
Derek Kimball

Many of these companies are playing it too safe with their new identities. Ebay has to realize that it’s not their logo that is losing them customers, it’s their greed and careless attitude toward those who made them who they are. Just my two cents.

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