Two-and-a-half-years after refreshing its brand, Mastercard has announced it will drop the name from its logo. Achieving what many within the industry believe to be the holy grail of branding, Mastercard joins an elite set of brands who will forever remain nameless – a group that includes the likes of Nike, Apple, Twitter, Audi and even The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. 

Each of these brands is instantly recognisable from its symbol and has achieved the kind of mass appeal and universal awareness most brand owners would give their right arm for. While these heavyweight champions of branding clearly deliver products and services many of us appreciate and enjoy, it’s their creativity and consistency in delivery that underpins their success.

So, are there any lessons we can learn from this group, even if we don’t have their budgets at our disposal?

Absolutely!

Each of these brands deploys beautifully crafted, brilliantly simple, one-dimensional brand identities that effortlessly flex across channels and applications – from 36x36 pixel favicons (the website icon that sits in a browser) to large format projecting signs. This is the future of visual identity and is critical to succeeding in an omnichannel world.