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Uncategorized Thursday, September 13th 2012 at 12:45 pm

eBay Reveals New Logo, Attempts to Explain Why It’s Not Boring

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The announcement of new corporate logos are often a dull affair. It’s often meant to signal some kind of shift in business strategy, but more often than not it feels like a self-masturbatory maneuver. Yes, we see that you’ve grown, and it’s great that you’re doing well, but using a new font doesn’t actually mean your company intends to go about things any differently than they have. This is the kind of environment that eBay‘s announcement that they have a new logo exists within. So, huzzah for them.

At first blush, the new logo takes all the quirky spunk out of the previous one. Gone are the different baselines and overlapping letters. Their functional replacements includes a boring, corporate kind of neutrality with just a hint of letters touching. Even the kerning seems somehow off, with a few letters appearing to touch way too much and others not enough. Here’s a snippet from eBay’s president Devin Wenig trying to convince folks to care:

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. We retained core elements of our logo, including our iconic color palette. Our vibrant eBay colors and touching letters represent our connected and diverse eBay community – more than 100 million active users and 25 million sellers globally and growing.

Yawn.

(eBay via Hacker News)

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  • Daniel

    Indeed. Mega yawn!

    Why does every company need to be serious now? It’s boring to the max.

  • Aaron M.

    Using a font and style that has been around since Windows 3.1 doesn’t makes them look that they have a dynamic future.

  • Jack Bond

    I don’t see a problem with the kerning… And it doesn’t matter how clean they make the logo. eBay’s function is still too confusing, unreliable, and unnecessary to be a go-to site for me.

  • Anonymous

    How many tens of thousands of dollars do you guess some consulting firm was paid for this?

  • Captainhowdy

    I dunno why they STILL spell it “ebay” when they WRITE it “eBay”. It’s a capitalized B. It has been for how many years now? The new logo would be fine if the letters overlapped a bit more, though I do approve of how accurate the letters touching are to how connected eBay is to its users. Almost everything is automated, and while the phone ops are very nice while trying to be super helpful (their hours are a rather small window for west-coast users), it often takes a long time to get something solved because they seem almost inept. My last phone call took over a half-hour because the girl didn’t know anything and constantly had to talk to her supervisor….rather than just letting me talk to them. I dunno what other “core elements” they kept other than the colours.

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • http://blog.headsign.de/ Mathias Dubois

    I don’t often say that but: this new logo is absolute crap. It takes away every that expressed coolness, uniqueness and fun. The font is so bland it looks like a substitute. Actually, as a designer, when I see such a logo, I assume it was “designed by the boss himself or his equally untalented nephew”. This is also sometimes what happens when business managers takes decisions based on the counselings of “expert advisors” or to quote Ricky Gervais: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”. It reminds of a poorly, MS-Word-designed and then photocopied sign for an awkward office party that aspires to look like Googles’ initial logo from the late 90′s.
    If a redesign had to be made with the goal of giving the logo more seriousness while keeping some of its original character, I would rather have ditched the colors and kept the shape which would still look great in uni blue. Or I would created a fancy, isometric boxy logo, eBoy style, thus reflecting geekiness, packages, internet….
    I would have done just about ANYTHING but this. THIS is HORRIBLE!
    (I don’t see any problem with the kerning, though)
    ((but the “a” seems to tilt to the right due to it touching the “b” on its lower left and the “y” on its lower right at the same time))

  • Marinus Vesseur

    Unbelievably boring and unaesthetical. It just doesn’t fit the colourful ‘madness’ that is eBay. Let the letters overlap or don’t, but this half-hearted somewhere-in-the-middle design is neither fish nor meat. It probably is symbolic, namely for the lack of a concept by management.