Natwest

Creating a new visual identity that stands out on the high street for National Westminster Bank, while maintaining their iconic heritage. The famous arrows represented money circulating between the merger of three banks that made up NatWest in 1968. Pioneers of credit cards, mobile branches and contactless payments, ‘NatWest’ became the modern face of retail banking In 2000 the bank was acquired by RBS, which was damaged by the banking crisis. By 2016 NatWest had lost its edge. The brief was simple and ambitious. Visible, transformational change for a household name. A new identity that would signal the seismic shift in NatWest’s positioning, from a faded British icon to a loved brand built around people’s lives.

Differentiation in a category being reshaped by challenger brands and digital start-ups, where customers are looking for proof that banks are changing for the better. If we could build our own bank, it would perfectly fit our lives. It would know what we needed and when. It would be able to anticipate our needs and move in advance to solve our problems. The new brand isn’t flat. It’s three-dimensional, like people. It's not stationary. It’s agile, like we need it to be. The new three-dimensional graphic language is as recognisable as it is bold, colourful and new. It takes the overlooked cubes from the heart of the original identity and enlivens them to move, express and invent like a true 21st-century brand.