All-New MasterCard Logo Revealed

Renowned UEFA Champions League sponsor MasterCard has revealed an all-new logo and branding. The new logo is the sixth logo in the history of the company.

New MasterCard 2016 Branding Revealed

This is the new MasterCard logo.

Hugely inspired by the 1979 logo, the new MasterCard logo features a much more cleaner design than the previous logo that has been used since 1996. It comes with the famous red and orange circle design, while the lettering mastercard has been moved to the bottom.

"This is really one of the most broadly distributed and most widely seen marks in the world," says Michael Bierut, who designed the new branding with Pentagram partner Luke Hayman. We were very enthusiastic about the 1979 version, especially the circular structure of the typography," says Bierut. "Each letter contains a curve that's a portion of a circle." (Even the "m" and "t"—Mastercard has always had a thing for circles.) "It was a godsend because we were actively on the hunt for a typeface that was available in a lot of different weights, that was based largely on a circle, and that looked clear and simple and readable," Bierut says. the typeface, FFMark, "looks frictionless in a way. We were delirious when we started using it—just the way it pulled everything together."

"It needs to thrive in a digital space," says Cindy Chastain, head of Mastercard's customer experience and design. "It's simplified. It's modernized and optimized for relevance in an increasingly digital world."

Bierut's confident. "To get to something that's really fundamental is really good," he says. Is it simple? Sure. But look at the peace sign, the smiley face, the Valentines heart. Besides, he says, not all brands have the permission to embrace this kind of minimalism—it takes a certain scale to make it work. "At the end of the day Mastercard has no interest in being famous for being the company that has the really intricate, clever tricky logo," he says.

What do you think of the new MasterCard branding? Let us know in the comments below.