PayPal’s New Brand Identity
PayPal launched a new brand identity designed by Pentagram.
As with big rebrands go, the internet is packed with opinions especially basic ones that hyperfocus strictly on the wordmark. But what these tweet-length hot takes miss is that a brand is never just about the mark but the entire application of the identity. It may even achieve exactly what it’s doing with its attempt at simplicity (or complexity).
Brand New’s take:
The internet is not wrong, though, there is nothing distinctive or particularly unique about the new wordmark but this is the most sophisticated PayPal has ever looked and as it attempts to become an even more consumer-friendly brand and establish the same kind of dominance on users’ phone’s wallets, this new, almost fashion-industry-level of simplicity and straightforwardness is not a bad way to go. Once you scroll down to the one or two images with the new wordmark emblazoned on a credit card, it actually looks… cool. This particular combination of letters, “PayPal”, has been begging for this treatment for years… it’s three letters each word, both with uppercase “P”s, both with “a”s as the second letter, both with straight lines in the third letter… it just makes sense to go this route and I personally think it looks great.
This is exactly how I feel about it. It’s the cleanest and most approachable the brand has looked since its inception. It’s a testament to the business that they’ve amassed over 400 million merchants and buyers on their platform over the last 25 years without a consumer-friendly brand. And now they finally have that.
Sometimes, simple works.
September 24, 2024