When does simplification go too far? I’m a huge fan of keeping things simple, but there’s a point where things just become generic.

PayPal Rebrand
PayPal have recently redesigned their logo. I don’t think their old logo set the world on fire or anything with the design, but in a bid to move out of a generic colour space (that blue is becoming so common in the field, like Pantone Reflex Blue used to be in the corporate world way back when) have they not just placed themselves into another generic space?

Surely the whole point of a logo is to portray a personality and engender concepts such as trust, while being memorable? Well, the bold typeface and black colour, does create a feeling of being very foundational and strong, which can equal trust of course. But what about the memorability of your most customer facing asset?

This is in no way a critique of Pentagram, the agency behind the PayPal rebrand, there’s always too much influence from other sources for me to say that, and of course, they are renowned for their innovation and creativity. But I wonder why this project got to this point? I’d love to see the brief, and the goals of the peice.

It’s certainly fashionable at present to be bold and black, but now PayPal has just become another player in that same bold, black, simplistic space. It seems a shame.

Apparently they will still be using the overlapping P symbol alongside this redesign, so we’ll see how that goes, and I do like the impact it gives on cards and bags, as shown in their pre/soft-launch images. But I can’t shake the feeling they’ve just gone too far here with the simplicity and followed a fashion rather than carve out their own niche.

What do you think? Do you like it? Is it a step (or two) too far? Or is it bold and exciting?

This The Verge article presents things well.

Jeff

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