Eagle-eyed bargain hunters amongst you will have already noticed the new Gumtree logo, but for those yet to notice – voila! It really is quite a transition when you compare old and new side by side. Noticing it is one thing, but as is always the case with wholesale changes to corporate identity, opinions are vast and varied. Here to make sense of the change and to offer their expert opinion, it’s Raj and Karen from our team of lovely designers and artworkers. Hoorah!
OB: First thing’s first. New logo and identity – Do you like it? No fence sitting, please!
Raj: It’s clean. It’s simple. It’s modern. I like it.
Karen: The secondary pink and grey colours really add to the website without taking away from the brand and its identity. Overall it’s clean, modern, and ticks every box for what a tech platform should look like today. Air BNB are another one who nail the simplistic yet modern look and now Gumtree are in that space as a modern giant.
OB: Rapturous acclaim! So with such high praise of the new logo, what wrong have they righted?
Raj: It was a combination of elements which contributed to an overall cheapening of the brand. It was all very busy and looked dated, and it didn’t reduce well either. So for tech-heavy business in particular it was all wrong.
Karen: There were too many colours. There was no real identity to the brand, and as Raj alluded to, it was all a bit dated. The needless orange also gave the negative connotation of a sunset. Hardly the motivational and inspirational tech company that you’d expect to motivate people to use the site!
OB: All makes sense. What specifically have Gumtree actually done to address the issues they had?
Raj: They’ve stripped everything back and made it simpler. They’ve lost some of the colours and gone with a carefully selected colourway which is already instantly identifiable as Gumtree despite it only around for a short period of time. The flat colours have really brought it bang up to date.
Karen: They’ve introduced a deep purple background colour which adds a certain class and luxury to the appearance of the brand. The font hasn’t actually changed, although previously it appeared a bit squished which felt homemade. It goes without saying that in the creative industries this is frowned upon, so the move to un-squish was a well-informed one.
So there you have it, thumbs up all around at Oakbase HQ for the new Gumtree identity. Hats off!
