Despite being worth billions and billions of dollars, the company ballsed up their logo design. Literally.
You may not agree with the grammatical usage of “literally” in general but when it comes to Airbnb’s logo and corporate rebranding it seems appropriate in this context.
Airbnbs reinvention of its brand design is one giant cock up.
We could go on but won’t out of deference to our sensitive readership.
Furthermore, considering the expense Airbnb went to get this logo out there, it looks suspiciously like Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out of the bushes and shout, “You’ve been punked!”
But, more to the point, it really looks like the logo for AutomationAnywhere.com.
And let’s also point out the Couchsurfing.com has already done the squiggly logo thing, too, in a similar vein. The design gurus have had their say on this one and it is not good.
On top of all this, Airbnb has a video about the logo creation, has given it a name, Belo, and wants everyone to embrace it and share it and make something with it. Hubris, inexperience, or just plain ineptitude – you make the call.
This still doesn’t absolve the company from the problems facing it in New York City where is facing possibly significant legal challenges to its business model.
When Airbnb became the most expensive startup in history it may have been like getting on the cover of Madden Football – you’ve made it and are the poster boy for the game but you also end up in a lot of bad situations.
It’s commonly known to sports fans that a so-called “Madden Curse” exists for whatever player is chosen to appear on the Madden NFL cover. Many dismiss it as folklore, but does it actually exist?
For those who don’t know what the curse is, it’s said that if a player appears on the cover, then the next season he will either get hurt, see a decrease in his production, his team will have a bad season or sometimes even all three.
Well, Airbnb, the world’s most valuable startup by some accounts, is having its Madden Moment.
