Nubank (Nu)Copied

On 17 May 2021 Nubank revealed a new logo. The Brazilian fintech's own announcement summed it up as a slightly different purple, softer curves in the logo and a brand more representative of its current phase, reflecting its journey, its maturity and what lay ahead.

Adnews reported that the company chose to make the logo simpler and more rounded, filling with white the word nu that had previously been an outline. It said the new mark would appear across social media, the website, emails, advertising and the cards, and quoted specialists describing the trend toward minimalism as a way to strengthen a brand that is strong enough to be remembered with simple symbols and few colours.

Canaltech added that the logo, with soft shapes and a slightly different shade of purple, would be used at every point of contact with the company's more than 38 million customers, with updates rolling out over the following months. Nubank wrote that its colours gave the letters greater weight, making reading more accessible and representing its more mature products.

Purple is the asset everyone associates with Nubank, and the refresh rightly keeps it. What changes is the attitude. The outlined lettering felt like a startup sketch; the filled, rounded mark looks like an institution, which is what a bank with tens of millions of customers has become.

Estadão's tech desk, writing on launch day, 17 May, described the change closely. The new purple is more striking than the old one, while the curves of the nu are more fluid and less square, and up close the letters read as two turned ribbons in an almost endless movement. The strokes are heavier, meant to signal maturity and closeness to customers. The paper noted that Time had just named Nubank among its 100 most influential companies, and that the update would reach the app, website, social channels, blog and email over the following months. Grown up without going grey: a fair outcome for a fintech with a huge young audience.

The risk with softening is blandness, and the new curves are close to generic. But on a card, an app icon and a billboard, it is calm, legible and unmistakably Nubank.