How it all begun

On the 16th of July 2014, Airbnb introduced the world to its new and improved identity. The new positioning, Belonging Together, gave the brand a new whole new meaning. ‘Belonging has always been a fundamental driver of humankind. So to represent that feeling, we’ve created a symbol for us as a community. It’s an iconic mark for our windows, our doors, and our shared values. It’s a symbol that, like us, can belong wherever it happens to be’, declared Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb.

In order to come up with a identity that could speak up for the brand and to the community, four members of the creative team pursued on a journey. They visited 13 cities from four different continents and met 18 different hosts. The result? Something that shaped the way we understand travel.

The visual representation

The new identity on fonts

Firstly, this new identity needed a fresh new font. The previous logo was designed by one of the owners of Airbnb. In order to write down the brand’s name, he used a font called Bello. Although it looks nothing like the current one, it somehow managed to send out a sense of comfort and casualness which helped at developing the brand’s new image.

Through its appearance, the 2014 logo managed to attract a more mainstream audience and to create brand awareness. For this new logo, the designers used a font from a particular font family: Lineto. Thus, the brand’s name is written in a customized version of Lineto’s Brown font, while other messages are written in a customized version of Lineto’s Circular. Check out a pretty similar font called Smooth Circular! It’s a nice and clean sans serif font that you must keep in mind.

The new identity on colors

Secondly, another step in redesigning a brand’s image is choosing a representative color. Or, if you are really creative, coming up with one. The main color that stands for Airbnb is called after the street where everything started: Rausch. Pretty cool, right?

The new identity on logo

Finally, let’s focus our attention on the brand’s new logo. Commonly know as ‘The Bélo’ – remember the whole belonging concept, right? – the logo is an abstract representation of four ideas: people, places, love and Airbnb. They are beautifully blending together in an A shaped logo. You can check out a short video about ‘The Bélo’ here.

To sum up, when it comes to the travelling community, this new face of Airbnb has the potential of becoming as famous as the WIFI icon. Or the Apple’s logo. In addition, besides all this sense of community that this new identity indulges, Airbnb made us aware of one significantly important thing. It matured and it has the ambition to become a worldwide known brand. In other words, this change was beneficial.

However, do you think that changing the identity of a brand should begin with a new logo? While you think about an answer, check out whatfontis for lots and lots of fonts that can come in handy for your creative project!

The post The new identity of Airbnb: right or wrong? appeared first on WhatFontIs.com Playground.

The older logo

Since 2016, the Mastercard logo is represented by two imbedded circles: a red one and a yellow one. The brand’s name is sitting under those circles, written in a sans serif font ( if you like this font, check Axioma Medium – it’s pretty similar). Even though the logo itself is pretty easy to recognize, we can call this a transition period.

Change was the main drive that influenced the new Mastercard look. Nowadays, we live in something that can be easily identified as a digital era. We want more and we want to achieve that more in a simpler, efficient way. We appreciate novelty and we embrace change easily. And last, but not least, we live in the present while thinking about the future.

With no further ado, these characteristic are the main reasons brands need a refresh. So, in order to identify itself with its audience, Mastercard came up with this logo. A logo that represents simplicity, authenticity, connectivity and modernity.

The new Mastercard logo

At the beginning of 2019, Mastercard dropped a new logo: one that’s missing the brand’s name. Pretty bold move, right? Well, Mastercard conducted a research for almost two years before making that decision. As a result, they found out that people easily recognized the sole logo, without needing to see the brand’s name underneath it.

After coming to these result, Mastercard was finally ready for this big and significant change. The brand was ready to accept the fact that its omnipresence led to instant recognition of the brand. Also, by embracing this change, Mastercard is getting ready to take over the post credit-card world. How is that, you might ask?

With an easier to read logo (you don’t actually need to read it, right?) on digital screens, placing Mastercard among those elite brand that don’t really need a name underneath them to be recognized.

Are you aiming to achieve an instant recognizable logo? Follow Mastercard’s example and embrace change step by step. You can start with switching to a modern font. Therefore, we have great news: WhatFontIs is here to help you with lots of fonts. Here, you can find over 500k fonts. Check them out and tell us which one is your favorite!

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