Mastercard Nokia and Pfizer are refreshed

Did you know famous brands rebrand? Sometimes it’s a major overhaul and other times it may be subtle, so subtle in fact that you may not even have noticed. Well now Mastercard Nokia and Pfizer are refreshed.

Today let’s take a look at Mastercard as part of my ‘Mastercard Nokia and Pfizer are refreshed’ blog.

Mastercard began in the 1940 when some of the US banks issued paper that could be used like cash in the local shops. Eventually franchises evolved meaning that a single bank in one of the major cities would accept cards as payment.

In 2016 Mastercard introduced a simplified logo which was modern and optimised for digital use.

In 2019 the name ‘Mastercard’ was dropped from the brand mark leaving the interlocking red and yellow circles – known as the Mastercard symbol to stand on their own.

Simple but very effective, it’s a clean and flexible brand design which will work for years to come.

I have shown the logo with the text ‘Mastercard’. Do you think it looks better with the text or without?

So now Nokia have a minimalist rebrand.

Do you remember Nokia? You may have even had one of their classic mobile phones such as the 3310.

Moving away from mobile phones, Nokia has revealed a totally new logo which is vastly different from the iconic typeface and navy blue colour way that we all remember,

Instead there are now a series of lines with one circle which rather loosely in my opinion, spell out the word Nokia. 

You may well remember the Kia logo which I posted about a while ago, well in my mind this logo has been given a similar treatment.

Nokia have said “In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about. We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalisation, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.” 

What do you think? Are some brands taking the simplification of logos too far?

Lastly let’s take a look at Pfizer. 

You may well know Pfizer for their Covid vaccine but you may not even noticed that their logo had been updated, this update is intended to ‘signal a shift from ‘commerce to science.’

The new logo has been inspired by DNA’s double helix structure. A new typeface and dual-tone blue colour palette has also been rolled out.

The updated typeface is ‘Noto Sans’ a typeface designed by Google which ‘has clean, open’ characteristics.

The new identity has been rolled out across a number of applications and the logo can even be seen on lab coats.

Which do you prefer now that Mastercard Nokia and Pfizer are refreshed. The old or the new version?