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).
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.
