eBay Unveils New (less bubbly) Logo

eBay, by far the largest auction site, has been struggling in recent years.   Yesterday, 17 years to the month since the site launched, they unveiled a new logo that ditches the quirky, overlapping, and bubbly letters for a grown-up and straightened up version set in tightly-kerned Univers Extended (that’s a font).   The Google-esque color scheme remains for familiarity’s sake.

According to the eBay announcement on its microsite:

Our refreshed logo is rooted in our proud history and reflects a dynamic future. 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.

Design & branding agency, Lippincott, worked on the logo refresh.   “We wanted to reflect the right amount of change in eBay’s new logo,” explains Lippincott Senior Partner, Su Matthews, in a statement to Ad Age.

So while typography nerds find the tightly-kerned extended font as a painful to look at, I’d say it’s clean, modern, grown-up and a step in the right direction.  Much like the new Microsoft logo, simple is beautiful.

What do you think of eBay’s new logo prior to its roll-out this Fall?