We are now Simple. We love our name and the high standard it sets. We’d like to share some of our thoughts on our new visual identity and how it represents our company and philosophy.
Our old mark—a stylized wallet—did not adequately convey our mission to simplify the financial lives of our customers. A traditional wallet is not a tool for simplification. In fact, we took this idea a step further and will include a minimalist rubber-band and chipboard “wallet” with every Simple card we ship—perfect for holding a card and some cash.
Our updated logo had to be simple while still making a statement about who we are. It had to be beautiful and functional in a variety of contexts. It also had to grow with us—we’re a company in its infancy with massive plans. For this reason and others we decided to craft our identity in-house.
This new identity says a lot about us, our history and how we work.
The Icon
The Simple icon is a basic guilloche pattern meant to resemble a torus or ring. A guilloche is a complex pattern created from simple, repeated, geometric steps defined by elementary equations. It’s this easily generated, difficult to reproduce intricacy that has led to a guilloche appearing in some form on most of the world’s currency. It is a sign of authenticity and security. That their intricate beauty is derived from understandable, algorithmic methods is what drew us to guilloche patterns and ultimately led us to represent our company and mission with one.
It is no accident that our mark can be generated mathematically—variations are just an equation tweak away. By altering parameters such as repetitions, amplitude, frequency and scale we are able to create new versions of our industrious icon. Whether we are symbolically representing a particular data set or simply generating a version more suitable for a different application, our mark remains flexible and agile.
The Type
The typeface in the new Simple logo is a slightly modified Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The font, inspired by early 20th century American signage, is a straightforward and honest typeface. A font inspired by 1900s craftsmanship and simplicity, made relevant again using modern technology. Sound familiar?
