Textless logos are often the sign of a brand that has supreme confidence. Many brands will use both a symbol and a wordmark in a lockup, but ditching the type to use a symbol alone is sometimes only possible when a brand's become firmly established.
For a textless logo to work, consumers need to recognise and respond to the design components that make up the brand identity. That usually takes time. Brands such as Nike, Apple and Mastercard all used text alongside their logomark initially until they decided the mark was recognisable alone. However, it's not impossible for a relatively young brand to use a textless logo, especially in the case of mobile apps, since the app icon can come to represent the brand.
