Hasta La Creative!

Mastercard is getting a makeover. The Purchase, N.Y.-based company unveiled a new logo Thursday that simplifies the brand for consumers and merchants. The new design includes red and yellow interlocking circles; the word “mastercard” can be positioned below or to the side, rather than o the top, and capital letters have been omitted to de-emphasize “card” and play up the brand’s image as an omnipresent brand. The company name is also written in a more contemporary font.

“We wanted to emphasize the fact that Mastercard is no longer just a card productthe future will be predominantly digital,” said Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer of the 50-year-old company. “We feel comfortable the change is preserving the equity and heritage and yet leveraging off of that and contemporizing it to make ourselves more adaptable.”

The new branding will be rolled out to the company’s digital payment service Masterpass by the end of July, and then phased into other offerings in the coming months. The company envisions that in some instances, the logo will appear without the word “Mastercard,” since 81% of the global population is able to identify the brand by just seeing the red and yellow circles, according to Mr. Rajamannar. He noted that most consumers should be able to identify a brand by the look and feel of it rather than the written name.

Continue reading at AdAge.com