The effective promotion of a product related to the accommodation and search for accommodation around the world is an important task for the U.S. site founded in 2008. The current Airbnb logo represents the “Belong Together” symbol of the four themes of people, places, love, and company.
Airbnb: Brand overview
Founded: | August 2008 |
Founder: | Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk |
Headquarters: |
San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Website: | airbnb.com |
Meaning and History
The logo of a private company is built around the phrase AirBed & Breakfast and is its abbreviation. For a short period of existence, the housing selection service had only two emblems: debut and current.
What is Airbnb?
Airbnb is an American corporation that provides lodging for tourists in private homes. The unique accommodation type has led to a revolution in the travel industry, as previously, vacationers would only stay in hotels or hostels. The company operates through its namesake website, where users can book accommodations. It was founded in 2008 by Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky.
2007 – 2008
Once upon a time, Airbnb was known as AirBed and Breakfast. This reflected the business concept of three San Francisco friends who, in 2007, decided to rent an air mattress to travelers in the living room and feed them breakfast along the way. That is, the whole range of services was presented in the title. A short but capacious phrase became the basis for a three-level logo. The first line was the blue word “AirBed&,” the second line was the magenta word “Breakfast,” and the third line was the blue phrase “idsa connecting ’07”. All of them were aligned to the left. The top lines used bold Comic Sans-style bubble type, while the bottom lines used thin, low-contrast sans serif.
2008 – 2009
In 2008, the design of the word mark changed. The designers arranged the company name on one line and placed a long inscription on a white base with a light gray shadow that spread out in a gradient along the entire outline. This shadow was shaped like the outlines of the letters, making the logo look like a sticker. And thanks to the fact that the colors became brighter and more saturated, the phrase “AirBed & Breakfast” stood out against such a background. At the bottom was the slogan “Forget hotels” with a dot at the end. It was right-aligned and consisted of dark gray sans-serif letters. The font roughly resembled Mark Simonson Studio’s Proxima Nova Condensed Medium.
2009 – 2010
In 2009, the founders of AirBed and Breakfast were trained by the Y Combinator venture fund and received funding for the company’s development as part of the cooperation. Some of the money went to rebranding because, in the same year, the platform expanded its range of services, changed its name to Airbnb, and updated its logo. This is how a word sign appeared with an abbreviated inscription, where only the letters “Air” remained from the first (blue) half and “BnB” from the second (hot pink) half. They were still outlined with a common white outline, but the designers reduced the blurring of the gray shadow around the edge.
2010 – 2013
The creators of the new logo decided to unify its font and color, so the inscription turned blue and was converted to lowercase. An individual set of glyphs was used for the company’s name that imitated handwritten text. The letters were characterized by thickening and smooth rounded lines. Remarkably, the “r” was not connected to the next “b” but was separated from it by a thin white outline. The style of the Airbnb logo hasn’t changed: it still looks like a sticker due to the blurry gray shadows that appear at a distance from the word. At the same time, she had a linear gradient: the bright blue color at the top took on a pale tint.
2013 – 2014
The initial version of the logo consisted of “inflated” letters as if filled with air. This is done on purpose because such a design is associated with a soft air mattress, which is mentioned in the name. Lowercase letters are circled in blue and visually resemble a handwritten inscription. The lines are wide and sweeping.
2014 – today
In 2014, the project updated its logo: it modernized it, made it original, and filled it with semantic symbols. In this version, two parts are used on an equal footing: graphic and text. On the left is the icon, on the right, is the name. The style of the elements is simple; the background is white.
Font and Colors
The DesignStudio agency developed the updated design from London (Great Britain). This version represents a stylized “A” composed of four elements, each of which has a special meaning. In particular, these are people, places, love, and, in fact, Airbnb itself, uniting them. Together they form a unique and simple figure, popularly called Belong Together.
The original Airbnb font is airy and italic, while the modern one is austere and classic. The letters on the emblem are made streamlined, minimalistic, sans-serif. The color scheme is the same, so as not to clog the visual perception of the service. The debut version is based on a combination of white with light blue, the current one with rich red.
Airbnb color codes
Pastel Red | Hex color: | #ff5a5f |
---|---|---|
RGB: | 255 90 95 | |
CMYK: | 0 65 63 0 | |
Pantone: | PMS 805 C |