Love It or Hate It? Airbnb's New Logo Receives Mixed Reactions. Amid some iffy publicity and legal issues, accommodation-rental start up startup Airbnb rolls out a rebrand and receives a less than stellar response.
By Nina Zipkin
Seven-year-old accommodation-rental platform Airbnb is positioning its new logo, the Bélo, as a "universal symbol of belonging," a semiotic combination of "people, places and love." And despite co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk's lofty intentions, the response to the rebrand has been decidedly mixed.
Related: The Logo Mishaps of Giant Brands
While some have found the revamp to be a refreshing and creative crystallization of the company's values, others have been more cynical, characterizing it as twee, or taking a turn for the unfortunate, with some unflattering anatomical comparisons (Yes, there are already several Tumblrs mocking the Airbnb logo.) There's also the matter of its aesthetic similarities to the paper clip-esque logo of software company Automation Everywhere.
Here are just a few comments people posted on Twitter about the logo:
Honestly didn't think privates when seeing the new @airbnb logo. I get/like the concept it's just too much of a departure from the orig 4 me
— Darcy (@Darcidienne) July 17, 2014Airbnb's new logo is probably my favorite testicle based logo for sure.
— Tad Carpenter (@TadCarpenter) July 16, 2014The new @Airbnb logo makes me sad instead of happy. It's like negative love instead of the wonderful sharing feeling i get as a host.
— Susan Coelius-Keplin (@sueck) July 17, 2014Airbnb's new logo is the Rorschach ink blot test of our time.
— Tam Le (@Tam_Le) July 17, 2014ok this changes everything @Airbnb pic.twitter.com/soyqm9vwLW
— darth™ (@darth) July 16, 2014The Airbnb logo is really a trick to get you to tell everyone about what's going on in your filthy, filthy mind.
— Gabriel Snyder (@gabrielsnyder) July 16, 2014Related: 10 Big Brand Logo Transformations
With a big design overhaul it's hard to please everyone, and even the most established company's rarely stick the landing when it comes to rebranding. Most recently, Yahoo's month-long logo build up was met with some derision, while the outcry against Arby's logo change was so vehement that it prompted the company to scrap it all together.
