New eBay Logo

Contributed by Stephen Coles on Sep 13th, 2012. Artwork published in

2012

Why is eBay introducing a new logo?
Seventeen years ago, eBay created a new way for people to buy and sell. Since that time, we’ve enabled millions of people to launch their own businesses, and helped change the way the world shops for things they need and love. We’re pleased to introduce our refreshed logo. It reflects who we are today — a global online marketplace that offers a cleaner, more contemporary and consistent experience.

When and where will I see the new logo?
The new logo will go live on our sites and appear in advertising and marketing campaigns in mid-October

Like eBay’s current mark, the type for the new logo and other examples here is Univers, Adrian Frutiger’s ground-breaking Neo-Grotesque that was released at about the same time as Helvetica but is far less popular today. Perhaps that’s why it has the potential to feel fresh. The new mark is also much more straightforward, eschewing the goofy, overlapping assemblage of various Univers widths. Still, I’m not sure if the new look is really the big jump forward they are looking for. Like Microsoft’s recent update, it’s a pretty tame approach, typical of a mainstream brand.

This news came to us via Reed Reeder, who asks if we should now refer to the company as “ebay” without the cap ‘B’. But their current logo is “ebaY” and has been ever since 1997 when they changed their name to “eBay”.

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5 Comments on “New eBay Logo”

Brandi says:
Sep 14th, 2012 2:21 am

I am curious about the 'eBay’ versus 'ebay’ situation. I find that to be a fairly recognizable inconsistancy they would want to correct? Similar to when Walmart removed the hyphen from their name with a rebrand. Any thoughts on that?
Josh says:
Sep 14th, 2012 7:33 pm

It’s amazing ebay doesnt have a graphic designer that can properly mock a logo onto a phone or iPad screen.
Patch Hofweber says:
Oct 12th, 2012 9:55 am

From an ex-ebay employee friend of mine:

You want to know the complete [expletive deleted] backstory behind it? They hired some outside design firm to do a full redesign (which was a back-handed passive agressive [expletive deleted] move of the first order anyway, but that’s another story) and the firm wasn’t even designing the logo. They just did some comps for the layout and set that logo in as a placeholder. Some asshat idiot in a suit at the SrVP or higher level saw it and said, “THAT’S PERFECT, I DON’T NEED TO SEE ANYTHING ELSE” and here it is.
FoSeriousYo says:
Oct 23rd, 2012 8:57 am

Certainly disappointing for a brand as big as ebay to settle for this level of design. As Brand New points out, its not bad, its technically sound, but its also not good. Somehow even the menagerie of colors can’t keep this from being boring.
Marco says:
Jan 3rd, 2013 6:02 am

I really like the new ebay logo, but I don’t get why they didn’t change their name sitewide to fit the new logo (eBay vs ebay). Personally I prefer the lower case version.. but I’m just a lazy guy :)

@Patch Hofweber

I don’t believe it. Was this posted somewhere?