Reviewing New MTN and Flutterwave Logos

First, I am not a branding expert. So, anything I write here is irrelevant. Nonetheless, I see my feed as a mini-school. So, we can co-learn. MTN and Flutterwave recently updated their logos. My call:  I do not like either.

On MTN: the new logo is a win for very well educated users but for non-educated customers who continue to use colors and shapes to associate consumer brands, they could be adding a marginal confusing layer. Using pure black for a consumer brand does not cut it for me. (However, I have read that the black is actually blue.)

Vanguard gathered that already, the former logo with the red, white and blue letters was replaced with a new one, having all blue letters surrounded by an oval.

According to MTN,  the new logo is necessary as the firm transmutes from a telco to a digital technology firm. Sure, but digital technology companies do not use “texts” to represent them because in digital ecosystems you may not have space to write those texts. Yes, the ability to create a shape, no matter how small, is there compared to writing texts people can read. By writing “MTN” inside an oval as a logo, MTN will struggle to represent its logo in small devices as it may not have space all the time.

No matter how, a symbol solves that problem so that the symbol can represent where the texts cannot fit.

Flutterwave: A merge would have been better where the new lettering is superimposed with the old symbol. The new symbol appears common while the old was simply unique. My suggestion would have been what I showed. Removing the uppercase on Flutterwave is great.

Comment on Feeds

Comment 1: Well, with time all would get used to the new logos. For the MTN new logo, there was so much anxiety from some people. Here is the post I made about the new logo 3 days ago. From what angle you may look at that logo, fact is that when change wants to occur, people would always want to resist it at the initial stage.

Assuming the proposed new logo was the one previously used by MTN and the old one now becomes a proposed new logo, people would still be of the opinion that the previous one was better, they would also point about color riot (4 colors).

When the merger occured between Diamond and Access bank, the new Access bank changed their logo and I recall the heated arguments and keyboard wars in Naija Graphic Designers Group on Facebook, about the look and feel of the logo, as it was not very cool from the design perspective. Same thing happened when Instagram changed theirs and so on… The new MTN logo might not even be approved by the NGD group admin because it may look unprofessional.

A logo is simply a symbol of identity for a brand. It is part of what makes a brand unique and differentiates it from other brands especially if they offer similar products or service.

Take a look at some of the world’s popular brands ==> Meta(Facebook), Google, Bolt, Nokia, PayPal, Samsung, Sony. These brands just have simple logos and makes/made great business impacts.

So a logo is just a symbol, nothing more. Whether the design is ugly, beautiful, complex (or any adjective you can think of) it is not a mark of certainty that a business would succeed or fail. The business model a brand operates would determine that. Today, I’m sure none of those designers that once criticized Access bank logo would reject a Credit alert from the bank simply because they hate their logo . Access bank is still one of the top tier(5) banks in Nigeria based on valuation. As it is with anything that have changed, they have embraced it and moved on(just like all of us with APC and Jubril of Sudan).

Another point to note is that designers make so many design decisions based on what their clients want and not really from their creative ideas. I’ve made a couple of designs that don’t even sit well with me as a designer.

Maybe the MTN logo designer just followed instructions, las las, the guy don cash out. A big time Whale and a bag Hodler.

My Response: Certainly, Access Bank logo post-Diamond Bank deal was far better than the old Access Bank logo. I liked that logo because the old Access logo was simply poor. On MTN, as I noted, writing MTN inside an oval will struggle as a logo in small devices because of space. As I noted, if they have a symbol, that would do it. This is all academic but around the world, brands are removing texts (Mastercard, Apple, Nike, etc) because in small devices, texts struggle.

Response to my Response: Yeah, I agree with your take on text logos with regard to small devices. Some brands have been innovative in creating different variations of their logo for device adaptability. Take a look at the Heineken and Guinness logos for instance, they have the main logo(which I call master logo) that contains all the information they want to communicate. Other variations of their logo has some details removed in cases were scaling down is necessary, especially for small and extra small devices. This is actually very innovative and brands should begin to think in that regard.

Comment #2: I will speak from a perspective of a Brand strategist and Identity designer.

As Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe said, anything I said is also subjected to scrutiny and can be challenged, but I stand to put out my view.

From the first day that I saw the MTN logo, it was a NO for me for many reasons. The new one is too basic to be the reason to leave the old one ( almost the same reason for flutterwave ). Many people tend to be subjective about it but for a brand like MTN and flutterwave, you have to expect what others can learn from them.

As we can begin to review many reasons why brands change their designs, some things are not just welcomed because it is what everyone can see and not to be subjective about.

My conclusion, in the design industry in alignment with business, if a change of brand identity has nothing to do with a change of rationale for existence to a higher level of convincible evidence, I think anything done is just a show of they don’t care about their perception, image, impression and the place they hold in the mind of their customers. Because I believe the part of the processes of coming up with a new logo should include testing with stakeholders and likes and that should have taken away the subjectivity. Thanks

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