When it comes to online auctions, eBay is still king of the hill. It might not be the first online auction site, but it is certainly the first to become part of the public consciousness. By offering a way for people around the world to buy and sell their goods, it became a marketplace unlike any other. One part of eBay’s online presence that’s always been important is the eBay logo. It’s changed less than you might assume over the years, but the evolution has shown a major difference in how the company wants to be perceived by users.

eBay Logo Design Elements

The eBay logo is about as simple as it comes. The only major element is the name – no cute mascot, no clever shape elements. Just the letters that spell out eBay, all assembled in a way that can be easily read. It’s very clear that you’re not just looking at a logo here, but rather than you’re also looking at a website address. It doesn’t take any work for the consumer to go from looking at the logo to going directly to the site.

EBay’s logo is colorful and fun, using red, blue, yellow and green in a way that provides contrast without hurting the eyes. The font is all lower-case and very easy to read, in a style that wouldn’t be too uncommon on a more traditional auction sign. In fact, the most striking thing about the logo is how simple it really is – this isn’t a logo that takes advantage of all the tricks the internet has to provide, but rather one that puts the user experience above all other aspects.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The original logo for eBay was incredibly similar in terms of shape to the current logo. The major difference is in the spacing of the letters – instead of being level, they were stacked on one another in a vaguely overlapping manner. The logo looked fun and whacky, something that was very much in tune with the internet of the time. As the business became more established, though, the shape went to a straight line of text.

2. Color

Ebay has never changed its colors. Red, blue, green and yellow stand out well on a white screen and catch the eye of the user. There hasn’t been a need to change out the colors because they still match the energy of the company today. By keeping these colors in play, the company is able to call back to its roots without having to ignore its current goals.

3. Font

The original font for the eBay logo was a bit closer to a comic font, one that was popular during the earlier days of e-commerce but that has been largely phased out today. The old logo font looked a bit more entertaining and fun, promising that eBay was more than just a buying-and-selling experience. As more users began to use eBay and businesses began to dominate the listings, though, it became logical for the company to move towards a more business-like font. Today’s font looks similar to the old version, just a bit more grown-up.

Influences/ Inspiration

There’s a lot of obvious design influence in both the old and new eBay logos. The old logo definitely takes nods from major brick and mortar stores of the time, especially including stores like Toys-R-Us. The modern logo is more in line with Web 2.0 e-commerce sites, with a simple design that’s easy to put into a clickable link.

The eBay logo is also wuite reminiscent of the Google logo, especially when it comes to the color scheme. Its evolutions is also similar, in that both brands gave up something of their playfulness for a more straight forward, reliable look.

EBay is more of a follower than a leader when it comes to logos. Many other companies have similar logos, but they’re also a product of the same influences as eBay. A number of other similar online auction sites use a similar color scheme, though, less as an homage and more as a tool to confuse uneducated users. Ebay’s logo works well for the company, but it’s simply impossible to adapt to another due to its simplicity.

Trivia

• eBay started life as a site called AuctionWeb.
• The earliest recorded item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer.
• The town of Bridgfield, California has been sold on eBay twice.
• The most expensive item sold on eBay was a custom-designed Gigayacht for 168 million dollars.

Conclusion

The changing nature of the eBay logo says a great deal about how e-commerce has changed since the company was founded. What was once fun and interactive has been brought down to a more business-like level, one that places utility above all else. While the company may have lost some of the fun in its logo, it has still kept a very similar identity. This has helped the logo to continue to work well for the company since the change.

Based out of Munich, Allianz is often considered to be one of the most important financing and insurance companies in the world. While you wouldn’t necessarily think of logo design as an important element in the world of financial success, Allianz’s eagle has become a huge part of the company’s identity. Taking a look at the evolution of the Allianz logo over the years since the company’s founding tells a story not only about the changing priorities of the company but also the changes in how financial institutions are perceived by the public.

Allianz Logo Design Elements

The Allianz logo is a highly-stylized eagle placed in the center of a large circle. The logo has the same kind of overall abstract element that seems to be popular in modern advertising, an obvious evolution of the company’s original, more realistic eagle logo. The abstract eagle is actually very hard to identify as such if you don’t already know the company’s history, helping to push forward the idea that Allianz is less beholden to the past than its lengthy history might indicate.

The primary color of the current Allianz logo is blue. It’s the same color used by many other companies in the insurance industry, so it’s possible to think of Allianz trying to bring its image in line with its competitors. The font used in the logo is a friendly rendering of the company’s name, helping to both reinforce the presence of the company in the logo and to make the company look a bit less overbearing from a consumer perspective.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

Unveiled in 1890, the original Allianz logo was actually quite complex. Resembling a traditional coat of arms, the company’s symbol was superimposed on an eagle. The imagery was not only in line with the German heritage of the company but also with the typically grandiose image of financial institutions of the time. In 1923, the logo was simplified to a stylized, art-deco eagle to reflect the changing times. This logo would stand until 1977, at which time the eagle would be encircled. By 1999, the eagle logo would reach its current stylized point. The current version of the logo, which moves the company name under the eagle, debuted in 2006.

2. Color

While the original logo in 1890 was rendered in monochrome, Allianz has managed to keep an almost identical color scheme since its revised logo was introduced in 1923. A fairly familiar color in the world of insurance, it looks friendly but respectable. Indeed, the overall color of Allianz puts its customers and ease and makes the brand look incredibly trustworthy. In fact, one can likely go so far as to say that the current colors used by Allianz are really the colors of insurance in general.

3. Font

Allianz hasn’t experimented with many different fonts. In fact, the company’s name was entirely absent from the logo from 1923 to 1977. Once introduced, the name of the company has moved around a fair bit. It started as left-justified, was changed to a bold version of the font, and eventually was placed underneath the logo. The changing location of the company’s name definitely shows the evolution in logo design in general, especially with the 2016 shift to putting the company’s name underneath the main body of the logo.

Influences/ Inspiration

Given that the company has been around since the end of the 19th century, it’s hard to point at any specific influences. It certainly shares a very complex relationship with the coats of arms of many other European banks, for example, as well as other high-end German businesses. The newer image the same kind of evolution of a basic image that you can see in many of its competitors, though done in such a way that it’s hard for new customers to see the old image.

It’s not much of an influencer, either. Banks and insurance companies have gone in many different directions over the years, but few have followed Allianz. If there’s one thing that has been copied, though, it’s probably the color. This is the same color used by Allstate and MetLife today, a color choice that very well could have been influenced by Allianz.

Trivia

• The company is a major supporter of World Diabetes Day
• Allianz serves more than 70 countries.
• Allianz supports a number of major sustainability efforts worldwide.

Conclusion

Allianz’ logo is a part of the company’s history. A good example of design evolution in action, it’s actually hard to see exactly where the logo started unless you study its history. It is an example of changing design needs in action, and a particularly good look at how rapidly design changed during the period around the beginning of the 20th century.

Amazon is, by all accounts, one of the biggest successes of the online economy. It’s become synonymous with online shopping and has made its founder the richest man in the world. If you want to buy something, there’s a very good chance that Amazon will be the first place you look. While the company’s name is certainly the most important part of its identity, the logo has managed to penetrate the public consciousness as well. Taking a look at how the Amazon logo has evolved says a lot about how the company’s public perception has changed since its founding.

Amazon Logo Design Elements

The current Amazon ‘smile’ logo is actually very clever. The logo is simply the name of the business with a curve underneath. The curve itself can represent a few different things – a smile, movement, and continuity. In fact, it subtly connects the letters a and z, showing that the company has everything under one roof. It’s a nice bit of design that doesn’t overwhelm customers with its cleverness but that does bring a smile to the face of those who figure it out.

The color choice is simple – by using black and gold, the company is able to draw the eye towards the logo without making it look too busy. There’s nothing particularly fancy about the font choice, which means it can be used in the text to link to the site – one of the necessities of a good web logo. In fact, everything about this logo looks like it was designed to sit in the corner of a web-page. It’s a subtle yet useful logo that has become ubiquitous over the last decade.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The shape of today’s Amazon logo has come a very long way from the original logo. The original, briefly-used logo really played up the Amazon river imagery with a river flowing through a stylized letter A. This would be dropped fairly quickly in favor of a text-based logo, albeit one that used a large yellow ‘O’ in the center of the name. As the company outgrew its dot-com bubble roots, it would eventually switch to the more professional-looking, more modern logo that it uses today.

2. Color

Color has never been a strong suit for Amazon. It’s early color choices are puzzling, to say the least. It began with blue, again as a reference to water and the Amazon river. Early logo redesign attempts used everything from zebra stripes to flames, none of which worked. Fortunately, Amazon would strike gold when it moved to the yellow circle in the middle of its name, a color choice that has stuck through the present day.

3. Font

Amazon’s font evolution is really the evolution of e-commerce fonts. The original was a stock font, usually rendered in blue that actively clashed with the logo. By the time it was first redesigned in early 1998, the font would change to an all-lower case black font. From there, the font choice would go to an all-caps, professional-style font. The company would eventually decide to stick with a bold version of the early-98 font when it moved to its current logo.

Influences/ Inspiration

Amazon’s early logo was definitely influenced by other dot-com companies. The color, the stab at a memorable logo, and even the font scream ‘early internet’. The more modern logo is definitely something cribbed from companies like UPS and FedEx, combining a very professional-looking main element with an easter-egg secondary element. It’s a clean look that’s very logical to imitate if you’re dealing with consumers around the world.

Amazon’s lower-case style has copied by dozens of online companies. It’s easier to name those that haven’t followed in Amazon’s footsteps than those who have. In fact, Amazon’s 2000 reboot is probably the earliest inkling of a Web 2.0 logo revolution.

Trivia

• Amazon started life as an online bookstore.
• The original name of Amazon was Cadabra
• Amazon started in Jeff Bezos’ garage.
• During the early days of Amazon, a bell would ring every time the site made a sale.
• Amazon actually holds the patent on one-click purchases.
• CEO Jeff Bezos spends two days a year working at the customer service desk.
• The founders of Hulu and Quora both got their start at Amazon.

Conclusion

The Amazon logo re-design in 2000 is a great example of being ahead of the curve. At the time, it flew in the face of the dot-com revolution, but today it’s a prefect example of everything that’s good about online logo design. There’s nothing flashy about the logo, but it definitely stands out even to new customers. If you’re looking for an example of how to make a perfect online logo, this is the place to start.

BP is one of the better-known names in the energy sector. Though marred by controversy in frequent years, it’s still one of the leaders in the world of oil. If you’ve ever driven down a highway, you’ve probably seen a BP station on the side of the road. The easiest way to identify the company has always been by its logo, one that has changed quite a bit over the years. In order to understand the evolution of BP as a company, you can first look at the evolution of the BP logo.

BP Logo Design Elements

The current BP logo, which has been in place since 2000, is meant to evoke both the look of a sun and a sunflower. The two-tone design is a bit abstract, but it gets across the idea of energy quite well. It goes hand in hand with BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” slogan, helping to get across the idea that the company was moving beyond its roots as a strictly oil-based endeavor. While the logo might be simple, it became infinitely easier to use on multiple products.

The sun-flower logo is still yellow and green, which have been the primary colors of BP since almost the beginning. The colors are both indicative of power and the natural world, a good look for a company that’s trying to get past several environmentally-related scandals. The lower-case bp in the logo is a friendly-looking addition, one that makes the company look far less threatening to consumers. Taken together, you get a logo that looks both very docile and very future-facing – both necessities in the company’s ongoing PR wars.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

BP’s initial logo was nothing light today’s logo. Incredibly British, the 1921 British Petroleum logo featured a British flag as the main design element. It would only last for a year, though, when the main element would become the letters BP. the shield, which was adopted in 1930, would actually last the rest of the century – a strong-looking symbol that was very much in line with most of the other oil companies of that time. The switch between the old and new logos was definitely one done out of necessity, as the older logo looked quite dated by the time it was retired.

2. Color

BP’s colors throughout its history haven’t always been green and yellow. In the early days, red and blue – the colors of the British flag – were more prominent. Oddly, though, BP dropped color entirely from 1922 to 1947 – perhaps due to the generally austere nature of those trying economics time. The main colors come into play in 1947, in a post-war atmosphere that definitely called for a bit more color. From that point on, BP would continue to use variations on the same basic scheme. Surprisingly, the colors work just as well for the new renewable-energy focus as they did for oil.

3. Font

There hasn’t been much font change for the BP logo. The initial 1921 logo was the biggest change, but by the end of that year, the company adopted the familiar initials and font that were used until 2000. The font was strong, formal, and certainly a symbol of a company on the rise – definitely something that an oil company would want to project before the turn of the millennium. The font wasn’t abandoned until the company itself went through a major overhaul.

Influences/ Inspiration

Looking at influences and inspirations is tough for BP because it’s hard to tell how much it took from other oil industry giants and how much others copied them. There was definitely some give and take between gas companies, though, as the 1990s were full of logos that looked incredibly similar to the shield logo of BP. The modern logo likewise looks very similar to the logos of several other companies after they had their own new-millennium makeovers.

Trivia

• BP is the only company to have an Oscar
• BP is the owner of the largest man-made movable object on the planet.
• BP was originally British Petroleum, but shed the name around the turn of the millennium.
• BP operates in 70 countries.
• The company produces about 3.6 million barrels of oil per day.
• Despite its roots in oil, BP is one of the biggest worldwide investors in biofuels.

Conclusion

BP’s current logo is a great example of an attempt to rebrand as a business begins to transition into new spheres of business. It is still recognizable as BP, of course, but it distances itself from much of the history of the brand. Whether this has been terribly successful is definitely up for debate, but one has to appreciate the effort made by the company to make a change.