The brand was launched as Master Charge in 1966 as a sub-brand of Mastercard Incorporated (formerly the Interbank Card Association), and its now-iconic Venn diagram-style logo with red and orange circle logo was introduced for the first time. Although the first "MasterCard" logo debuted in 1979, this logo still saw use in some places until 1982.
In December 1979, Master Charge was renamed as MasterCard, retaining the Venn diagram design from the previous logo but with a new wordmark added in ITC Avant Garde Bold.
1990-2016[]
1990-1996[]
Designer:
John Lister, Jim Yestadt, and Michael Roman of Lister Butler
Typography:
Custom
Launched:
April 1990
In April 1990, the 1979 logo was redone, with the wordmark changed to a bold italic font, the orange circle on the right recolored yellow, and the intersecting circles design changed to show horizontal stripes instead of a darker shade of red, making it less like a Venn diagram. Although a new logo below was introduced in 1996, this logo is remains in use on newer infomercials and appeared in a 1999 MasterCard commercial.
In September 1996, a drop shadow was added to the wordmark, and the number of intersecting lines between the circles were reduced. The red and yellow circles also became slightly darker.
On July 14, 2016, the company, with its name now spelled as Mastercard (with a lowercase "c")[1], changed its logo for the first time in 20 years. The text was moved off of the circles, which were changed back to the original interlocking Venn diagram design while using the same colors as the 1990 and 1996 logos. This change makes it look slightly similar to the original 1979 logo, albeit with orange in the center instead of a darker shade of red. It was later universally adopted by all of Mastercard's sub-brands in October 2016.
On January 7, 2019, the "Mastercard" text was permanently removed, as it was believed that most people could recognize the red/yellow circles without needing the name. This logo is used on payment methods (such as physical cards and digital wallets), decal stickers (used as acceptance marks) and some marketing materials. All other uses remained using the 2016 logo until 2020.
