Airbnb's Belo: the 2014 rebrand that launched a meme storm — and stuck (interview)

In an age when brands need a flexible, distinctive identity to live across digital surfaces, Airbnb set out to replace its scripted logo with something that cuts through.

DesignStudio built the identity around sans-serif text and the Belo, a logo born out of combining symbols representing people, places, love and Airbnb. Launched in 2014, it caused a storm of controversy and discussion: internet users redrew the loop as genitalia of every imaginable kind and as Peter Griffin's chin, co-founder Paul Stafford recalls.

Ten years on, Stafford says, the mark has 'a reassuring familiarity' — it appears on phone screens, online and across ads, one of the rare rebrands that cut through. No measured results are given.

In a Creative Review interview marking ten years of the identity, DesignStudio co-founder Paul Stafford looks back on the 2014 Airbnb rebrand his studio made. The rental company replaced its friendly but unmemorable blue-and-white scripted logo with sans-serif text and the 'Belo', a distinctive symbol born out of combining icons representing people, places, love and Airbnb.

The launch caused a storm of controversy and discussion. 'All you need to do is type "Airbnb logo meme" into the internet,' Stafford says. 'You'll see every iteration, from testicles to every part of genitalia you can imagine, through to Peter Griffin's chin.'

Ten years later the Belo is a familiar presence on phone screens, online and across ads, and Creative Review frames it as one of the occasional identities that genuinely cut through and sparked passionate, occasionally wild, debate. Stafford describes the rebrand as pivotal for both the studio and the client.

The Belo compresses four meanings into one loop, giving press and public something to decode.

Simple geometry is easy to redraw — which is exactly what made it memeable and endlessly adaptable.

Distinctiveness, not instant likeability, was the goal: a safe mark gets ignored, a strong one gets argued about.

The mark was still in use ten years on, so familiarity had a decade to do its work.

A rebrand's job is to be unmistakable, not universally liked at launch: strong marks absorb the jokes, and time converts controversy into familiarity.

By the October 2024 anniversary, the Belo had become the everyday symbol of Airbnb — on app screens, online and in ads — while the launch jokes remain findable under 'Airbnb logo meme'. Stafford says the episode was pivotal for both DesignStudio and Airbnb; the interview reports no other follow-up.