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On 1 October 2020 MasterClass, the streaming platform for classes taught by celebrities and leading figures, introduced a refreshed brand identity. Its announcement said the brand had moved into mainstream culture, from product to household name, and the new identity was meant to be contemporary, connected to culture, and something members and instructors could own.

Campaign US reported that the update included a new logo treatment, a brand architecture that balances the instructors' brands with the platform's own, a new course preview system and a sizzle reel, created with an independent New York agency. The previous logo was architectural, with horizontal lines climbing a bold M above a film light. The new one has a retro feel, with a chunky, modular M whose parts separate and reform.

The company's executive creative director told Campaign that the letter had been deconstructed so the mind has to put the pieces together, a feeling that requires critical thinking, which relates to education. The announcement singled out the underscore in the new logo, a nod to critical thinking that deliberately leaves room for interpretation.

The other half of the system is the instructors. Each of the more than 90 teachers received a unique nameplate and colour scheme for class pages and marketing, so their personal brands sit within MasterClass. Campaign quoted the aim as being less a house of brands and more a branded house.

Campaign described the scale of the co-branding: all 90-plus instructors, from Gordon Ramsay on cooking to Anna Wintour on fashion publishing, Serena Williams on tennis and Howard Schultz on leadership, would get a unique nameplate and colour scheme on their class pages and in marketing. A filmstrip device let people preview classes, with hero images that turn into video snippets when tapped. Building a system that lets famous people stay famous inside your brand is the hard part of this business, and MasterClass solved it more gracefully than most.

That architecture is the real achievement. MasterClass sells famous names, and an identity that lets Gordon Ramsay and Anna Wintour look like themselves while still looking like MasterClass is hard to build. The deconstructed M is pleasant but slightly overexplained.