This week was spent having one-to-one tutorials with our lecturer to get feedback on all the projects we have completed to date, so our CV, portfolio and the idea for our proposal document.
As there was no lecture content this week I decided to look at a design topic I had noticed recently.
As I was watching some TV recently, I saw an advertisement for the Nationwide Bank, and I noticed that they had changed their logo and wordmark. I had looked at several bank brands last semester as part of our own Bank branding project and I remember that Nationwide had stood out as a brand that had stuck with an older style of logo and wordmark. I wanted to have a look at what direction they had taken with this rebrand and whether I felt it was an improvement or not.
Below you can see a before and after comparison of the Nationwide logo and wordmark:
Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/nationwide-rebrand/ (Last Accessed 30/12/23)
The new logo has simplified the previous logo down to just two geometric shapes in red and using the negative space using the background corporate colour to give the appearance of the previous logo’s village logo. The wordmark has swapped a serif font for a sans-serif and has changed the upper case “N” for the first letter of nationwide to a lower case. The words building society have also been dropped from the combination mark. The core blue and red shades have been made darker for increased contrast and better accessibility. Overall, a more modern and minimalist style has been achieved.
New Commercial Arts where the design agency behind the rebrand and used the slogan “dependable disruptor” as the overall value behind the rebrand. They wanted to move away from the sameness of the visual identity of traditional banks showing that Nationwide is different (as a building society rather than a bank) but not go as far as digital banks such as Revolut or Monzo. NCA looked back through the design archives at Nationwide finding what they describe as “a real design heritage” there. They also found a lot of use of compressed fonts which are currently very popular.
The new wordmark features a customised version of the font Founders Grotesk with the lower case “n” being chosen to provide a better flow from logo to wordmark as well as making all the letters the same height.
Some critics on Twitter have said that the rebrand looks very similar to the work done for NatWest during their rebrand in 2016. While there are similarities in terms of logo simplification and the illustrations created, NatWest does stick with their upper-case letters and has moved away from blue towards purple.
Source: https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_natwest_by_futurebrand.php (Last Accessed 30/12/23)
The use of geometric shapes and a more compressed font are other similarities but I believe there is enough difference in the two brands to dismiss the allegations of sameness, between the two rebrands.
However, in my own opinion while I support the updated colour palette for increased accessibility and an overall more modern look, the change of font for the wordmark and abstraction of the logo are not as successful in my opinion. While looking at bank brands as part of my branding module a lot of banks had over the past few years made the serif to sans serif font swap as well as simplifying their logos. It was a clear trend I had noticed during my research at that time, and I had noted that Nationwide had stood out as a brand that had not followed this path, and that with their long history (founded in 1884) that the older style had suited their brand.
While I have no direct issue with the rebrand and it is more modern than its predecessor which when comparing the two side-by-side definitely looks its age, I do feel a rebrand that maintained that sense of legacy and tradition that a serif font gives could have given more of that value of longstanding and reliability I would link with Nationwide. While the new logo does suit the modernist aesthetic of the rebrand, I do feel it loses some of the connection with the previous logo that was familiar and had been in use since 1987, a very long lived logo in modern terms.
For a brand looking to position itself away from both traditional banks and the modern digital banks I do feel they have inadvertently perhaps followed the convention of recent banking rebrands, possibly explaining the comparison with FutureBrand’s work for NatWest.
For me the previous brand identity gave a sense of the solid history of Nationwide and gave a sense of comfort that they knew what they were doing, a safe place to look after me financially. I don’t get this impression from this rebrand and for me that is something as a potential customer I think is a move in the wrong direction. With lots of concern around what banks do with our money and how they are run I would have thought showing a tradition of good banking and financial decision making would be high on any brands, values to show list.
It's hard to criticise this rebrand too harshly it is nice, sleek and modern. It improves accessibility and moves the brand into line with their competitors. However for a bank putting a lot of emphasis on keeping branches open and offering a traditional banking experience (something they also say their competitors are not doing) I would have expected the rebrand to have more elements linking to this tradition and high quality service.