PayPal Rebranding and New Logo

For 15 years, PayPal has been making transaction processing safer, easier, and more user-friendly.  However, for years their logo has been judged as anything from bland to “relative of a parking sign.” Therefore, the company unleashed a new logo for the first time in 7 years, symbolizing forwardness, innovation, and vision.  Will this improve the company’s impact on the market? Quell investor concerns? Display commitment to growth? Read on to see how the company plans to improve.

The New PayPal Logo

“Our new brand identity goes far beyond an updated logo,” said David Marcus, PayPal’s president. “We have aligned this with our first global brand campaign. We’re setting a new expectation with our global consumers, developers and merchants: PayPal is redefining the future of money by putting people first. After all, money doesn’t make the world go round, people do.”

The refreshed branding features four key elements –

• a new wordmark in a new typeface (Futura)
• a new version of the double-P monogram
• a refreshed color palette
• a new ‘dynamic angle graphic’

Courtesy of DesignTaxi

These Elements Emphasize the following ideals PayPal wishes to embrace.

• Connection: a motivating principle behind the redesign — connection to money, to people and between people.
• Forwardness: The words and letters remain in italic – like the former logo – to reflect a forward-looking, visionary company. Forwardness is also communicated through the dynamic angle graphic.
• PayPal’s position as a visionary company

“PayPal’s blue color palette has very strong brand recognition,” Alison Sagar, VP of Marketing at PayPal UK adds, so they didn’t want to change that too radically. “But we’ve made those colors more vibrant so that they really pop out more effectively,” she says.

Related: 8 Tips for Logo Success

Finally, Sagar describes the new angle of the letters as “a more forward looking slant, to reinforce the theme of innovation” – citing the 58 product enhancements PayPal has introduced in the last year.

Timing the Logo Release

The timing couldn’t be better for a refresh. Since its beginnings, PayPal has positioned itself as an innovative alternative to traditional financial institutions. Problem was, after years leading the digital payment pack, the company’s brand was starting to resemble the stodgy financial systems it once challenged.

Further, the logo is a commitment to the digital and mobile age. Logos in the digital age aren’t just a matter of the sign at company headquarters, though. Everyone from app developers to online merchants to physical retailers like Home Depot and Jamba Juice to everyday eBay sellers display the PayPal logo to indicate they accept PayPal for payment. As PayPal mounts an aggressive push to refresh existing services and roll out new ones, the old logo was holding it back, Marcus told ReadWrite in an interview (ReadWrite).

IDeas BIG (Brand Identity Group) supports PayPal in their decision to improve mobile impressions with their rebranding.  We welcome you to contact us for more information on your own new logo and to share this with your colleagues using the tools below.