Logo redesigns, while nicely profitable for designers and consultants, rarely do a heck of a lot for the company behind the logo. Consumers generally don’t care or even notice.

But sometimes, subtle changes are meant to convey important changes, although it can take the skills of an old-school Kremlinologist to decipher them. Take the case of Mastercard’s new logo and typography, rolled out last week. At a glance, the new logo just seems to be an updating and streamlining of the same basic logo that has been in place for decades (you can see a history of Mastercard’s logos here). But when you deconstruct those remarkably unremarkable changes, you see that this is all meant to usher Mastercard into the digital age, and indeed to de-emphasize any connection between Mastercard and plastic magstripe cards.

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