What started out as AuctionWeb as a section of a programmer’s homepage became world’s largest online marketplace. The primary colored overlapping logo of eBay stands for what the company is all about.
eBay started out as AuctionWeb on September 3, 1995 and the first logo was indicative of it’s humble beginnings. The boxy black and white logo with a white to black gradient bar was known as the “Death Bar” by early eBay staffers.
By September 1997, AuctionWeb officially became eBay but it had no logo! The homepage just contained the name eBay in big black block letters. This was to change pretty soon and for good.
eBay roped in Silicon Valley’s renowned branding expert Bill Cleary of CKS Group to assist them in branding and redesigning of the website and logo. CKS designed several logos and the current eBay logo was eventually selected. Each aspect of the logo conveys a distinct message that describes the company’s values.
The primary colors of the logo depict fun, excitement and childlike energy. The overlapping letters of the logo are suggestive of the bonding within the eBay user community. The letters are not on the same level, they have what graphic artists call “baseline shift”. It gives the logo an offbeat feel and shows that company is not averse to change and that its a dynamic company that is always evolving. The unusual capitalization of the letters also shows that company accepts change when it is for good. Letter B is not capitalized in the logo even though the name of the company is written as eBay. Designers at CKS thought a capital B would look like a roadblock in the middle of the logo so they capitalized letter Y instead.
Logos should reflect the personality of the company and to some extent of the founders. Bill Cleary described the logo as being “friendly, open, accessible and having a little bit of the pony-tail about it”.
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April 27th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Hello Guru, what enticed you to post this article? This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
It’s nice to read about the philosophical and psychological rationale for such a prominent logo. It certainly is festive. Thanks for sharing.