TripAdvisor Logo PNG
The Tripadvisor logo looks into the distance, gathering all the useful information for travelers. The emblem guarantees wise advice and feedback on a variety of tourist spots. The sign invites you to select locations using the site.
TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000 in Massachusetts by Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny, and Thomas Palka. The idea came from Kaufer’s failed attempt to find unbiased hotel reviews. Early travel sites relied on official descriptions, so the platform focused on user opinions.
The project started as a B2B content provider but quickly shifted to a public review platform. User-generated reviews became the core asset and defined growth. The service expanded beyond hotels to restaurants and attractions.
In 2004, the company was acquired by IAC for $212 million. In 2005, after restructuring, it was acquired by Expedia. Within Expedia, TripAdvisor scaled its infrastructure and expanded internationally, reaching tens of millions of reviews by the late 2000s.
In December 2011, TripAdvisor went public on NASDAQ, raising nearly $4 billion in a valuation of nearly $4 billion. Its model relied on advertising and referral fees rather than direct bookings.
In 2013, instant booking was introduced, placing the platform in competition with Booking.com. The shift created tension between content and transactions.
In 2014, the company acquired FlipKey and Viator for about $200 million, expanding into rentals and tours. Viator became a separate brand in 2021.
In 2020, TripAdvisor launched a subscription model that was later revised following mixed results. In 2021, Kaufer stepped down and was replaced by Matt Goldberg. By 2023–2024, the company explored restructuring, including separating Viator and TheFork, amid pressure from aggregators and direct booking channels.
Meaning and History
TripAdvisor has an unusual mascot: a little owl nicknamed Ollie. Since 2000, it has been part of the logo and is recognized as a symbol of the tourism industry. Designers have changed their appearance only once to keep branding in line with current global trends.
What is Tripadvisor?
It is the world’s largest online travel platform, where millions of people share experiences about hotels, restaurants, attractions, and tours. The service helps travelers plan trips, compare prices, and read authentic reviews from tourists who’ve already visited these places. A distinctive feature is its vast database of user-generated reviews, offering information on nearly every travel-related location around the globe, ranging from small family hotels to famous museums and parks. The platform earns revenue through advertising and booking commissions, providing travelers free access to content and enabling them to make informed decisions when planning their journeys.
2000 – 2020
TripAdvisor users vividly remember the platform’s original logo for its distinctive symbolism. The visual core featured a stylized owl named Ollie. The most notable element was the owl’s eyes, formed by two large concentric circles that visually resembled binocular or camera lenses. This metaphor conveyed the idea of searching and closely examining travel options and establishments.
The owl’s left eye was colored red, while the right was green, enhancing the symbol’s visibility and adding liveliness and memorability. These colors also symbolized the duality of decision-making, with red suggesting caution and attention, and green representing positive recommendations and trust. Thanks to this simple, clear color scheme, the symbol was easily recognizable to users in both digital and physical environments, such as hotel and restaurant receptions or storefronts.
Next to the graphic element was the lowercase wordmark “Tripadvisor,” written in a simple geometric sans-serif typeface. A distinctive aspect of the typography was the color differentiation: the “trip” segment appeared in black, underscoring neutrality and universality, while “advisor” was green, emphasizing recommendations and positive reviews.
Overall, the combination of the owl symbol, Ollie, and the typographic element created a vivid, memorable, and meaningful identity. Visually, this logo effectively supported the brand’s primary goal of providing travelers with transparent, detailed, and reliable information.
2020 – 2025
In January 2020, the travel service introduced an updated logo to celebrate the company’s twentieth anniversary. The visual concept was developed by the New York-based studio Mother Design, in collaboration with designers Matthijs van Leeuwen, YaYa Xu, and Mark Sloan. Typography was created by Colophon Foundry, which designed the exclusive font named Trip Sans.
The key change involved modernizing the company’s owl symbol, known as “Ollie.” In the new design, the previous colorful owl with red and green pupils and a yellow upper portion was replaced by a clean black silhouette placed against a contrasting circular background in the brand’s signature color, TripGreen. The updated symbol became simpler by streamlining its geometric lines and removing small details. The owl’s outline was thickened to ensure better adaptability across a range of sizes, from small digital icons to large advertising formats.
The logo’s wordmark was also updated. The brand name now appears as a single word, “Tripadvisor,” starting with an uppercase “T,” emphasizing the brand as a unified entity. The Trip Sans font is a geometric sans-serif typeface characterized by its density and uniform stroke thickness.
The color palette was simplified, but the company continued to utilize vibrant, emotional tones in its identity. The new brand shades orchid, salmon, sand, moss, pine, and mustard are actively used across interfaces, icons, and other brand elements, underscoring the brand’s diversity and emotional richness.
The transition to the new logo and visual style unfolded step by step throughout 2020, beginning with the introduction of the redesigned symbol on January 31. Ultimately, the finalized Tripadvisor logo became a clear representation of the updated brand positioning as a major name in the travel industry, effectively reflecting the company’s status and role as a trusted guide in the travel world.
2025 – today
The updated visual identity and logo for Tripadvisor were introduced in July 2025, marking the company’s 25th anniversary. The Koto studio collaborated with the brand’s internal design team to create the design. This new phase of brand evolution emphasized the platform’s commitment to authentically reflecting travelers’ experiences and emotions expressed through user-generated content.
Once again, the central figure of the update was Ollie the owl, whose image underwent significant stylistic changes. The outlines became simpler and cleaner by removing small details, thereby enhancing the figure’s clarity and impact. Ollie’s geometry became more balanced with carefully refined proportions and uniform line thickness. The owl’s expression brightened and grew friendlier, metaphorically highlighting the platform’s respect for and attention to user opinions.
The brand’s color palette was also revised. The previous darker shade was replaced with a deeper, richer green called Trip Pine, a warmer, more contemporary tone that reflects environmentally conscious travel and a closeness to nature. Additionally, the new visual system incorporates vibrant colors from user-generated photos into backgrounds, icons, and interface elements, adding emotional depth and lively energy to the overall design.
The typographic element continues to feature the exclusive Trip Sans typeface, designed specifically for the brand. Trip Sans remains a modern geometric sans-serif characterized by consistent stroke width and simple, confident glyphs.
The owl character, Ollie, now has animation capabilities; its eyes can blink or move in digital applications and on websites, enhancing audience engagement. This innovation was introduced to highlight the emotional connection between the brand and its users, capturing the dynamic nature of their reviews and recommendations.
As part of the rebranding, Tripadvisor launched an original marketing campaign humorously referring to Ollie’s stylistic simplification as “plastic surgery,” using playful metaphors such as “rhinoplasty,” “lip filler,” and “brow lift.” This approach resonated strongly within the community, effectively combining serious design work with contemporary internet culture. Ultimately, the new Tripadvisor logo composition became a symbol of a refreshed perception of the company while remaining true to its recognizable identity.
Font and Colors
In 2020, the service changed its approach to logo color and typography, opting for a minimalist, monochrome design. The previous color palette was replaced with a bold, black silhouette of Ollie the owl against a light-green circle known as Trip Green. This new color emphasized the platform’s modern identity, visually connecting it to nature, sustainability, and the freshness of travel experiences. A strictly black-and-white variant was also allowed, particularly suitable for business and official contexts.
The updated logo introduced an exclusive custom font, Trip Sans, created by the British studio Colophon Foundry. It is a geometric sans-serif typeface characterized by smooth forms, compactness, and thicker strokes.
The 2025 logo uses a deep, rich shade of green called Trip Pine. This tone was chosen for its ability to convey natural harmony, sustainability, and trust, directly connecting the brand to tourism and conscious travel. The color appears solid and contemporary, reinforcing the perception of a trustworthy and reputable resource.
The logo’s typography continues to use the brand’s signature typeface, developed by Colophon Foundry.