5 ms·

Ebay's new logo

69 points by hodgesmr 14y ago

mladenkovacevic 14y ago
The font is very retail-ish .. Macy's logo comes to mind. And the Google/Microsoft primary colours associate it with that tech giant domain. So I guess it kinda works from that point of view but it's just a little boring for my liking.
rglover 14y ago
These folks do not like kerning. Glad they kept the colors.
jaysonelliot 14y ago
I was one of the UX designers for eBay in 1997-98, just before the IPO. I was working on what would become the Gallery view. When Meg Whitman took over, I presented the work we had done so far. I was pretty wet behind the ears at the time, and I was enamored with the latest shiny objects on the Web. eBay, by way of contrast, had a look that could be charitably described as "homespun." I was busy polishing things up, tightening the color palette, improving typography (as much as one could in 1998), reducing clutter, and using what I thought of as killer JavaScript flourishes to really blow people away with the Gallery View. I may have even tried to introduce some Flash at the time, I'm not sure. What I do remember was the way Meg schooled me when I came in to present my slick new state-of-the-art Gallery. I don't remember her exact words, but she told me that I was building something that simply wasn't eBay. She explained to me that the success of eBay came from the sellers who thought of eBay not as a company, but as their own corner of the Web that belonged to them. The audience for eBay, she explained, was mom and pop types, people who were comfortable with garage sales and flea markets, and who had built a level of trust with eBay based on what they saw as a brand that shared their down-home values. eBay's biggest competitor at the time was Yahoo! Auctions, and eBay was killing them, because people thought of Yahoo! as a faceless, monolithic corporation, and couldn't feel a sense of ownership about placing their auctions there. I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of being appropriate to your audience, and not always going for the latest, slickest design. I've always liked the fact that their logo kept that original homespun feel. The site has slowly evolved over the years, and their audience surely has as well. It's arguable whether eBay still has the folksy appeal it had in the 1990s. The new logo represents a very authentic reflection of the change to the brand, and the company itself. The nostalgic side of me would love to see the old logo and the old brand stick around forever, but if I'm being honest, this is probably the most appropriate thing they could have done. It's a genuine expression of the brand's history and personality. You can't say much better for a logo than that.
- growt 14y ago
  Thank you for this story. I always wondered why ebay looks the way it does. And I always assumed it was because of greed (the reasoning being something like: "If we can charge for bold text, we will not matter how it looks"). This puts ebay's design, or the lack of design, in a much better light.
- someproduct 14y ago
  This is a wonderful example of interface as brand. Logos are such a small piece of online brands, and it's cool to hear that folks at eBay grasped this so early. Thanks a ton for sharing!
rvid 14y ago
Why photoshop the logo into images? (like in the gallery). I think that's a horrible thing to do for the brand.
squarecat 14y ago
eBay's and Microsoft's new logos communicate nothing about the company/brand. I appreciate clean, minimalist design, but logos that antiseptic are like marketing that says nothing about the product or service (which admittedly works on rare occasion...)
lrm 14y ago
Simple, but I like it. I wonder when we'll see a new Yahoo logo.
raphinou 14y ago
There was a post not so long ago on HN about prices of logos. I wonder how much they paid for this one (I hope not too much because I feel I could have done it: select a font, write ebay, color letters with colors of old logo).
- arrrg 14y ago
  Logos never stand on their own. Making them work in context is the hard part (but we can, for obvious reasons, see very little of that on the linked page). All I will dare to say that if they plan to just change the logo this doesn’t look like a good idea. The ebay website looks very old-fashioned – and the old logo fits right in there. If they want to change their logo they have to do more than change gifs on their website. Maybe that’s planned, I don’t know. If they want to change, their new logo (and the linked page, too) indicates that they want to change to a minimalist, simple design with few elements and lots of whitespace. I’m honestly not sure whether that fits the brand or makes for a very good ebay experience. ebay – to me at least – has always been about cheap prices and selling stuff you no longer need to other people. Like a flea market, only more useful. (Hm, but maybe they want to change that perception of ebay?) Do I want it to look super serious and professional? I’m not sure. I’m personally a fan of that aesthetic, but I’m not sure whether it works for ebay. To me there is nothing wrong with updating the look of ebay, to me it just seems like you have to do so carefully. But that’s all premature speculation now. We do not currently know how the new logo will be used and that’s the important part.
- Ntrails 14y ago
  At a rough estimate: too much.
quarterto 14y ago
Mmm, Univers. I like it.
- cschmidt 14y ago
  It seems like Univers Extended, which is why it seems too wide to me. http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/linotype/univers_std_53_extended/ http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/linotype/univers_std_5... It reminds me of the horrible stretched type of the Bing logo.
  - uptown 14y ago
    I had the exact same opinion. Also, the position of the inner-circle of the "b" and the "a" look awkward.
film42 14y ago
Good logo, but the fact is, prices are still cheaper at amazon.
bertomartin 14y ago
Google influenced?
- bradddd 14y ago
  with a dash of Microsoft's new logo. They're all moving toward a plain, simpler design.
- nwatson 14y ago
  I think more Microsoft-influenced. The move to the clean typography of "Metro"/"Modern" Windows 8 interface is propagating elsewhere.
- crisnoble 14y ago
  I think it's the colors that bring this thought to mind, I had the same thought. To be fair they already had those colors before: http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ebay-logo-630x419.jpg http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11...
saurabh 14y ago
Google
bcks 14y ago
They burnished out all the character. It completely lacks the quirk, play, and scrappiness of the old logo and projects a much more "neutral" and generic space. Which I suppose is a valid intention reflecting a strategic shift -- it's just a bit dull and bland for my taste.
- sharkweek 14y ago
  the funny thing is -- and I'm making an assumption about ebay here based on previous experience I've had in logos and redesign -- is that this was probably the effort of hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of deliberation, re-designs, focus groups and meetings; but the end result looks like it could have been derived in about an hour of work
  - bcks 14y ago
    Yeah, it totally reflects such a process. Maybe the suits wanted something sleek and "frictionless marketplace" or something, but it also just screams process: clearly the lowest common denominator, the least offensive to the largest number of people.
aaronharnly 14y ago
According to a Mashable article, eBay has had a few previous logo iterations you may not be familiar with: 1. The original "AuctionWeb" black bar: http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aw.gif http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aw.gif 2. eBay black bar: http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ebay.gif http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ebay.gif 3. eBay blue: http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Original-eBay-logo.jpg http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Original-eBay... 4. The kooky eBay we've come to know: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/EBay http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/EBay Article: http://mashable.com/2010/08/07/ebay-facts/ http://mashable.com/2010/08/07/ebay-facts/
- squarecat 14y ago
  Quote from the article: "…one that didn’t last more than, well, probably a week if my memory serves me. And thank heavens for that! Can you imagine what eBay might have become with such a boring old logo? Still, it could have happened…(shudder)." - Jim Griffith, the first customer sales representative at eBay and the current host of eBayRadio, regarding the #3 logo (above) Seems to apply this time around, as well.
Robin_Message 14y ago
Hang on, is it called ebay or eBay? The logo is ebay but the press release seems to be firmly eBay. Then I checked their website and realised their current logo is ebaY, so maybe they don't mind about capitalisation.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- dexter313 14y ago
  Wiki and Google say it is eBay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=0&suggon=0&safe=off&q=ebay+inc&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=NANSUKj-K8ik4ATNqYGIDA http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow...
ghostfish 14y ago
The zero–space kerning badly bothers me. With traditional stylized logos I think there's more artistic license, but when your logo is just a font, I feel it should be more readable.
- phmagic 14y ago
  Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
- phmagic 14y ago
  Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
- phmagic 14y ago
  Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
- phmagic 14y ago
  Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
- phmagic 14y ago
  Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
mbell 14y ago
Interesting site design Somewhat distracting and confusing but its the first time I've seen something that uses a piece-wise parallax type movement(the ebay underneath the content bars).
D3nver 14y ago
It really bothers me how the e and the b overlap more than the other letters overlap.
- 51Cards 14y ago
  Overlap? They are touching but I see no overlap?
- aw3c2 14y ago
  Seems like an optical illusion or display related. I thought the same at first. Feels very sloppy that way.
nicholassmith 14y ago
Quite simple reaction, 'huh'. It's not an ugly logo, nor a beautiful one, it's incredibly plain and doesn't really sell me on it. So, huh.
andrewljohnson 14y ago
Never in the history of the internet has a new logo been posted to a forum and elicited a positive response. I think it's a fundamental law of the internet.
- ericdykstra 14y ago
  It's inoffensive, but it doesn't retain any of the personality of the iteration we know. I'm not a big fan, but for a company like ebay where their logo doesn't really appear in a lot of different places, it's fine. If Apple or Microsoft released a logo with this little of personality, it would be a mistake.
  - jrblast 14y ago
    It's an improvement over the old logo though. The old one looks really messy to me. It might not be so bad without the transparency though.
- harryf 14y ago
  This one makes me wonder if Google is about to buy ebay
  - bduerst 14y ago
    Well, they have the same color scheme for their logo
  - possibilistic 14y ago
    Now that would be truly exciting! I'd love to see a battle between Google/Ebay and Amazon take shape.
DannyBee 14y ago
This changes everything! I have a sudden urge to sell all my stuff on ebay!
mbrd 14y ago
It looks like the mockups, particularly the tablet one, were made in MS Paint. edit: Also, is the "tm" really necessary? Surely they can defend any future trademark infringement disputes successfully without it? Perhaps I'm being naive about the world of intellectual property rights.
klrr 14y ago
Looks great, but why does they make it such a big deal? Marketing purposes?
talhof8 14y ago
They could have done better than that (though I do think this one is better than the previous logo)
raldi 14y ago
Except in the favicon.
timjahn 14y ago
"Seventeen years ago this month...." Wait, WHAT? Ebay is 17 years old??? Wow.
- TylerE 14y ago
  17 years old is 1995 ;) To make us really feel old - the kids getting their driver's licenses today were not alive when the Lion King came out on video, much less was in theaters.
  - timjahn 14y ago
    Holy crap. We are indeed getting old, heh.
  - B-Con 14y ago
    How dare you put the last two decades in perspective like that... :-S
virtualritz 14y ago
Designed by committee[tm]
conradfr 14y ago
I was working at PayPal when they changed the logo and thought that it was indeed more modern, definitely not bad ... but ... slightly not right. I still think of it that way today and feel the same thing of that new eBay logo. And it drives me crazy that I can't really pinpoint what and why :)
autophil 14y ago
One look at it and I thought: whoopity-doo-dah-day Nothing to see here.
laserDinosaur 14y ago
That is certainly...some text.
cschmidt 14y ago
The best site used by graphic designers for discussing corporate identity change is Under Consideration Brand New. They have their eBay article up.... http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ebay_settles_for_lowest_bid.php http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ebay_set... Of all the potential logos that could be done for eBay this is the absolute most boring and risk-averse logo that could have been both presented and selected.

69 points by hodgesmr 14y ago

The font is very retail-ish .. Macy's logo comes to mind. And the Google/Microsoft primary colours associate it with that tech giant domain. So I guess it kinda works from that point of view but it's just a little boring for my liking.

rglover 14y ago

These folks do not like kerning. Glad they kept the colors.

jaysonelliot 14y ago

I was one of the UX designers for eBay in 1997-98, just before the IPO. I was working on what would become the Gallery view. When Meg Whitman took over, I presented the work we had done so far. I was pretty wet behind the ears at the time, and I was enamored with the latest shiny objects on the Web. eBay, by way of contrast, had a look that could be charitably described as "homespun." I was busy polishing things up, tightening the color palette, improving typography (as much as one could in 1998), reducing clutter, and using what I thought of as killer JavaScript flourishes to really blow people away with the Gallery View. I may have even tried to introduce some Flash at the time, I'm not sure. What I do remember was the way Meg schooled me when I came in to present my slick new state-of-the-art Gallery. I don't remember her exact words, but she told me that I was building something that simply wasn't eBay. She explained to me that the success of eBay came from the sellers who thought of eBay not as a company, but as their own corner of the Web that belonged to them. The audience for eBay, she explained, was mom and pop types, people who were comfortable with garage sales and flea markets, and who had built a level of trust with eBay based on what they saw as a brand that shared their down-home values. eBay's biggest competitor at the time was Yahoo! Auctions, and eBay was killing them, because people thought of Yahoo! as a faceless, monolithic corporation, and couldn't feel a sense of ownership about placing their auctions there. I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of being appropriate to your audience, and not always going for the latest, slickest design. I've always liked the fact that their logo kept that original homespun feel. The site has slowly evolved over the years, and their audience surely has as well. It's arguable whether eBay still has the folksy appeal it had in the 1990s. The new logo represents a very authentic reflection of the change to the brand, and the company itself. The nostalgic side of me would love to see the old logo and the old brand stick around forever, but if I'm being honest, this is probably the most appropriate thing they could have done. It's a genuine expression of the brand's history and personality. You can't say much better for a logo than that.

growt 14y ago
Thank you for this story. I always wondered why ebay looks the way it does. And I always assumed it was because of greed (the reasoning being something like: "If we can charge for bold text, we will not matter how it looks"). This puts ebay's design, or the lack of design, in a much better light.
someproduct 14y ago
This is a wonderful example of interface as brand. Logos are such a small piece of online brands, and it's cool to hear that folks at eBay grasped this so early. Thanks a ton for sharing!

rvid 14y ago

Why photoshop the logo into images? (like in the gallery). I think that's a horrible thing to do for the brand.

squarecat 14y ago

eBay's and Microsoft's new logos communicate nothing about the company/brand. I appreciate clean, minimalist design, but logos that antiseptic are like marketing that says nothing about the product or service (which admittedly works on rare occasion...)

lrm 14y ago

Simple, but I like it. I wonder when we'll see a new Yahoo logo.

raphinou 14y ago

There was a post not so long ago on HN about prices of logos. I wonder how much they paid for this one (I hope not too much because I feel I could have done it: select a font, write ebay, color letters with colors of old logo).

arrrg 14y ago
Logos never stand on their own. Making them work in context is the hard part (but we can, for obvious reasons, see very little of that on the linked page). All I will dare to say that if they plan to just change the logo this doesn’t look like a good idea. The ebay website looks very old-fashioned – and the old logo fits right in there. If they want to change their logo they have to do more than change gifs on their website. Maybe that’s planned, I don’t know. If they want to change, their new logo (and the linked page, too) indicates that they want to change to a minimalist, simple design with few elements and lots of whitespace. I’m honestly not sure whether that fits the brand or makes for a very good ebay experience. ebay – to me at least – has always been about cheap prices and selling stuff you no longer need to other people. Like a flea market, only more useful. (Hm, but maybe they want to change that perception of ebay?) Do I want it to look super serious and professional? I’m not sure. I’m personally a fan of that aesthetic, but I’m not sure whether it works for ebay. To me there is nothing wrong with updating the look of ebay, to me it just seems like you have to do so carefully. But that’s all premature speculation now. We do not currently know how the new logo will be used and that’s the important part.
Ntrails 14y ago
At a rough estimate: too much.

quarterto 14y ago

Mmm, Univers. I like it.

cschmidt 14y ago
It seems like Univers Extended, which is why it seems too wide to me. http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/linotype/univers_std_53_extended/ http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/linotype/univers_std_5... It reminds me of the horrible stretched type of the Bing logo.
- uptown 14y ago
  I had the exact same opinion. Also, the position of the inner-circle of the "b" and the "a" look awkward.

film42 14y ago

Good logo, but the fact is, prices are still cheaper at amazon.

bertomartin 14y ago

Google influenced?

bradddd 14y ago
with a dash of Microsoft's new logo. They're all moving toward a plain, simpler design.
nwatson 14y ago
I think more Microsoft-influenced. The move to the clean typography of "Metro"/"Modern" Windows 8 interface is propagating elsewhere.
crisnoble 14y ago
I think it's the colors that bring this thought to mind, I had the same thought. To be fair they already had those colors before: http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ebay-logo-630x419.jpg http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11...

saurabh 14y ago

Google

bcks 14y ago

They burnished out all the character. It completely lacks the quirk, play, and scrappiness of the old logo and projects a much more "neutral" and generic space. Which I suppose is a valid intention reflecting a strategic shift -- it's just a bit dull and bland for my taste.

sharkweek 14y ago
the funny thing is -- and I'm making an assumption about ebay here based on previous experience I've had in logos and redesign -- is that this was probably the effort of hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of deliberation, re-designs, focus groups and meetings; but the end result looks like it could have been derived in about an hour of work
- bcks 14y ago
  Yeah, it totally reflects such a process. Maybe the suits wanted something sleek and "frictionless marketplace" or something, but it also just screams process: clearly the lowest common denominator, the least offensive to the largest number of people.

aaronharnly 14y ago

According to a Mashable article, eBay has had a few previous logo iterations you may not be familiar with: 1. The original "AuctionWeb" black bar: http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aw.gif http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/aw.gif 2. eBay black bar: http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ebay.gif http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ebay.gif 3. eBay blue: http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Original-eBay-logo.jpg http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Original-eBay... 4. The kooky eBay we've come to know: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/EBay http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/EBay Article: http://mashable.com/2010/08/07/ebay-facts/ http://mashable.com/2010/08/07/ebay-facts/

squarecat 14y ago
Quote from the article: "…one that didn’t last more than, well, probably a week if my memory serves me. And thank heavens for that! Can you imagine what eBay might have become with such a boring old logo? Still, it could have happened…(shudder)." - Jim Griffith, the first customer sales representative at eBay and the current host of eBayRadio, regarding the #3 logo (above) Seems to apply this time around, as well.

Robin_Message 14y ago

Hang on, is it called ebay or eBay? The logo is ebay but the press release seems to be firmly eBay. Then I checked their website and realised their current logo is ebaY, so maybe they don't mind about capitalisation.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dexter313 14y ago
Wiki and Google say it is eBay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=0&suggon=0&safe=off&q=ebay+inc&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=NANSUKj-K8ik4ATNqYGIDA http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow...

ghostfish 14y ago

The zero–space kerning badly bothers me. With traditional stylized logos I think there's more artistic license, but when your logo is just a font, I feel it should be more readable.

phmagic 14y ago
Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
phmagic 14y ago
Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
phmagic 14y ago
Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
phmagic 14y ago
Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.
phmagic 14y ago
Agreed. Or have some meaningful overlap. To me, whenever a company switches to a different logo after years of stagnant progress, it signals a last effort to artificially strengthen the brand.

mbell 14y ago

Interesting site design Somewhat distracting and confusing but its the first time I've seen something that uses a piece-wise parallax type movement(the ebay underneath the content bars).

D3nver 14y ago

It really bothers me how the e and the b overlap more than the other letters overlap.

51Cards 14y ago
Overlap? They are touching but I see no overlap?
aw3c2 14y ago
Seems like an optical illusion or display related. I thought the same at first. Feels very sloppy that way.

nicholassmith 14y ago

Quite simple reaction, 'huh'. It's not an ugly logo, nor a beautiful one, it's incredibly plain and doesn't really sell me on it. So, huh.

andrewljohnson 14y ago

Never in the history of the internet has a new logo been posted to a forum and elicited a positive response. I think it's a fundamental law of the internet.

ericdykstra 14y ago
It's inoffensive, but it doesn't retain any of the personality of the iteration we know. I'm not a big fan, but for a company like ebay where their logo doesn't really appear in a lot of different places, it's fine. If Apple or Microsoft released a logo with this little of personality, it would be a mistake.
- jrblast 14y ago
  It's an improvement over the old logo though. The old one looks really messy to me. It might not be so bad without the transparency though.
harryf 14y ago
This one makes me wonder if Google is about to buy ebay
- bduerst 14y ago
  Well, they have the same color scheme for their logo
- possibilistic 14y ago
  Now that would be truly exciting! I'd love to see a battle between Google/Ebay and Amazon take shape.

DannyBee 14y ago

This changes everything! I have a sudden urge to sell all my stuff on ebay!

mbrd 14y ago

It looks like the mockups, particularly the tablet one, were made in MS Paint. edit: Also, is the "tm" really necessary? Surely they can defend any future trademark infringement disputes successfully without it? Perhaps I'm being naive about the world of intellectual property rights.

klrr 14y ago

Looks great, but why does they make it such a big deal? Marketing purposes?

talhof8 14y ago

They could have done better than that (though I do think this one is better than the previous logo)

raldi 14y ago

Except in the favicon.

timjahn 14y ago

"Seventeen years ago this month...." Wait, WHAT? Ebay is 17 years old??? Wow.

TylerE 14y ago
17 years old is 1995 ;) To make us really feel old - the kids getting their driver's licenses today were not alive when the Lion King came out on video, much less was in theaters.
- timjahn 14y ago
  Holy crap. We are indeed getting old, heh.
- B-Con 14y ago
  How dare you put the last two decades in perspective like that... :-S

virtualritz 14y ago

conradfr 14y ago

I was working at PayPal when they changed the logo and thought that it was indeed more modern, definitely not bad ... but ... slightly not right. I still think of it that way today and feel the same thing of that new eBay logo. And it drives me crazy that I can't really pinpoint what and why :)

autophil 14y ago

One look at it and I thought: whoopity-doo-dah-day Nothing to see here.

laserDinosaur 14y ago

That is certainly...some text.

cschmidt 14y ago

The best site used by graphic designers for discussing corporate identity change is Under Consideration Brand New. They have their eBay article up.... http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ebay_settles_for_lowest_bid.php http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ebay_set... Of all the potential logos that could be done for eBay this is the absolute most boring and risk-averse logo that could have been both presented and selected.