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?