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Expedia Fails Horribly In Rebranding Attempt

Launched in ’95, Expedia arrived on the online travel booking scene to give some competition to rival Travelocity (1995) and eventually put all independent travel agents out of work.  Although I have never personally used Expedia, can’t even say for sure that I have been to their site, I can say that I do immediately recognize their logo, a cool little plane swooping around a 3d globe.

At least I used to be able to recognize it, until they made the decision to ‘blandify’ it by flattening the whole design and slapping a little clipart looking plane in place of the cool one we have all come to love. Now, I know that there is always resistance whenever a brand changes up its looks, and usually, it is just people not wanting to lose something they have formed a (somewhat) emotional attachment to, but I really think that, looking at the rebranding objectively, that it is a HORRIBLE move on Expedia’s part.

New logo

Paul Leonard, VP of brand marketing at Expedia, attempted to explain the reason for the change:

“We were striving for a more timeless and classic aesthetic,” he said. “It’s a little less whimsical and more sophisticated.”
Seattle Times Article

The complete lack of anything interesting in the new logo is not the only problem with it.  It is a really, really close imitation of Hotwire’s (an Expedia owned company) existing logo. So much for originality.

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