Visa's CMO is giving the brand a new look and betting that less is more

Visa CMO Frank Cooper III is freshening up the company's look.

Jason Mendez/Getty Images for The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative Visa is rolling out a new "V" to pop on mobile screens as people move to contactless payments.

It's the company's first refresh of this size since 2021.

Other brands have increasingly leaned on symbols and pared-down names for better mobile visibility.

Visa is betting that less is more when it comes to how it shows up to customers.

Starting Wednesday, the letter "V" will replace "Visa" in the center of its credit cards and on its digital properties, the company exclusively told Business Insider.

Visa's move signals that after 50 years of using the name, it feels it has enough brand recognition to be represented by a single letter.

The change is also meant to pop more on small screens as people conduct more of their lives on their mobile devices.

In addition to the "V," Visa is introducing a new font, called Visa Sans, lopping off the serif in the first letter of "Visa." "V" will now stand in for "Visa." Visa The changes were developed by Visa's in-house creative studio and Base Design.

It's Visa's first significant refresh since 2021, when it introduced a blue, white, and yellow flag-like brand symbol and a new font.

With the new "V," that brand symbol will go away.

"There was an opportunity for us to modernize that and make it feel fresh, particularly for the next generation of consumers," Frank Cooper III , CMO of Visa, told CMO Insider.

"We think it marries well with the evolution of the brand overall." Cooper said the process took about a year.

"We do not have an awareness issue.