With technology constantly evolving, banking has become more instant and digitised. After 20 years, Mastercard have recently revealed a new and refreshed logo, developed by partners Micheal Bierut and Luke Hayman of Pentagram, with the primary aim to fit in with the ever changing digital age.
It’s recognised as one of the most iconic banking brands of today, with its marque covering millions of ATMs and over 2.5 billion credit cards. With this in mind, Pentagram have crafted a simplistic new logo that still stays true to the values of Mastercard. It holds on to the red and yellow circles, choosing a crisp overlap over the previous interlocking design, which in comparison felt heavy and forced. It’s been described as less archaic, swapping the uppercase letters to all lowercase, in a soft, sans serif typeface which compliments the minimal style of the main marque. With an identity that is plastered not just over cash machines, but in restaurants, retailers and with a huge online presence, it was important for Mastercard’s identity to be upheld and recognised. With this level of recognition and respect, Bierut describes how it gave the design team the freedom to be “radically simple” with design ideas that would only work with a brand as established as Mastercard.
To prove that their final solution works, research completed by the brand says 80% of their existing customers still recognise this new logo, even without the name, a sure sign of success.
Looking at it closely, there isn’t much to complain about. The elements of the new logo are so minimal, it’s hard to pick at what isn’t right. Its familiarity has remained in the most modern way possible, to attract the same audience its been speaking to for 50 years and it continues to attract successfully. The rebrand has distanced its identity and personality from the traditional and ‘old’ style of credit card banking and aligned itself to an advancing age of finance, where cheques are becoming a thing of the past and transferring funds between accounts can be done in minutes.
(Credit for all images: CreativeReview/)