In a shopper tradition replete with model names, solely a relative handful of firms can get away with the intrepid transfer of leaving out their names and counting on their logos alone. Nike’s swoosh and McDonald’s golden arches can stand on their very own, for example. So can Apple’s apple and Goal’s target.

And, in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later, Walmart hopes to affix this membership, too—at the very least, if its newest model refresh is any indication.

On Monday, the retailing colossus unveiled the primary main refresh to its model belongings since 2008. The tweaks are delicate—largely a bulking up of its typeface together with some coloration changes—however the simplicity belies extra bold goals.

Talking with ADWEEK, Walmart’s inventive VP David Hartman acknowledged that the visible refinements are incremental. “We’re constructing on belongings that the client acknowledges from Walmart—we’ve strengthening these belongings,” he mentioned.

Subtlety apart, nevertheless, “we would like to have the ability to construct and strengthen the fairness now we have within the spark,” Hartman mentioned, “in order that it may be—ultimately—a standalone image for our model.”

At first blush, the design division’s tweaks aren’t simple to identify. So right here they’re, damaged down by the typography and the model badge itself.

Walmart’s lettering

Hartman’s workforce spent many hours within the firm archives, the place they got here throughout images of founder Sam Walton sporting his trademark trucker cap bearing the model title. Walton wore the cap to emphasise the common-man roots of the corporate. That hat—now within the Smithsonian—featured a bolder typeface, and the up to date wordmark marks a return to that extra assertive visible presence.

“I like what they did—I believe it’s fairly good,” mentioned Thomas Ordahl, founder of name consultancy OrdahlCo. The bolder look “is extra human, tapping into Sam Walton connection,” he mentioned. “With all of the modifications in know-how and AI, you need to keep a human connection together with your shoppers.”