my first thoughts – youthful, friendly, with feminine curves – a white cloud on a blue clear sky… but not sure if I trust it?

Oh it is supposed to be a Pig tail!

http://www.bnz.co.nz/About_Us/1,1184,3-156-503.html?tid=PHPPBFNewBrand

It is the second thing paragraph! “Pig Tales led the way”

I always viewed bnz as a conservative bank. Maybe they have chilled out a bit. The new logo seems casual and laid back. I don’t think its better or worse than before. Its just had pinch of web 2.0 e.g. gradient and round corners etc next it will be reflection logo.

mmm… don’t mind it. certainly looks better in-situe on the website than the logo on its own as above. It certainly repositions it as an accessible, modern, friendly bank.

I would absolutely love it if it was for a juice company. It is all squidgy, round and I kind of want to squeeze it.

I left BNZ earlier this year. I did not want to squeeze them once.

That’s funny! The Herald described it as looking like it was written in “toothpaste” :-)

It’s very ‘now’ – but will it still hold up a year from now or 5 years…i think its gonna date super quickly. It is very friendly, loose and layed back but thats not what i want from a bank! I am layed back with my cash i don’t want them to be! It’s not bad design its just not right for a bank and I don’t know about anyone else but i am pretty over the web 2.0-ness – yawn! Also reminds me of milk…

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Serrano/132132

Kris Sowersby’s custom typeface designed for the bank.

I reckon its dated already. To me its just not right for such a well established bank… I would’ve never thought of anything related to banking if u didn’t say so… But in terms of the font design, thumbs up!

Instant reaction: milky, Ami’s friendliness and ANZ’s logo is more like a bank logo.

The logo looks to0 playful for a banking business. It fits the character of the piggies but not the entire establishment. It looks good but I just feel somehow it is inappropriate.

If I didn’t know better I’d think this was for a budget airline…

It’s fresh but it’s not appropriate to the market.

reminds of toothpaste…?

No, no, no
First mistake is Rolling out a new brand logo while original is still in existence, Absolutely the worst Logo for a bank,
Childish very unoriginal and will date extremely quickly
I thought it was encompassing a pigs tail but not too sure now as a pigs tail is curly,
I very much doubt this is a rebranding exercise God forbid if it is, I wish they had called me first to steer them away from rubbish design like this
Shame on the brand manager and the ad agency who did this.

Looks like it was handwritten from toothpaste. Approachable, yes. Not sure it projects a bank that an older market could trust. Maybe kids could put their piggy bank money in it!!!

Hi all,

I realise I’m a bit late to the party, but I thought you might be interested in a few more opinions on the ‘rebrand’ here:

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/this_little_piggy_went_to_the_bank.php

I’ve chipped in where appropriate, it may help to give you all a bit of perspective as well.

I’d just like to reply to Andrew Symons directly. I’m not sure if you’ve ever undertaken a major rebrand, it’s hard to tell—I couldn’t find a portfolio site with your work. But you’d know that it is a huge, all-encompassing task to rebrand everything at once, from websites to internal livery to advertising to on-site signage. So to say that it’s a mistake to roll the new brand out while the old one is “still in existence” is rather unfair, in my opinion. Perhaps one day you’ll get the call that you desire—hopefully your work won’t be prematurely crucified before it’s fully finished.

–K

The gap between B & N irks me huge.. I could deal if the N & Z hadn’t been connected but that lone sliver of blue might as well be wedged under my fingernail.

Initially hostile to the new mark but have come around after being exposed to the roll-out. Kris is a legend in my opinion and is a surperb ambassador for our little kiwi type industry. Keep up the good work.

Ooops! Sorry about the typo! Bad designer!

If you’ve dealt with this bank it wouldn’t make a lick of difference. Damaged goods ha ha ha.

“It’s very ‘now’” is exactly what is wrong with it to my opinion. How old is BNZ and how much longer it is going to be around? Like a grandma that is dressed as a teenager! perhaps in a couple of years the lady needs to change costume again to go with the fashion flow. This time from a micro mini skirt to a crotchless bikini! :oD

Myself and a few of my friends have termed it the “turd”. I applaud the people who sold this idea to BNZ, well done.

At last the Bank of New Zealand has updated and become a ‘Store’ instead of a plain old fashioned ‘Bank’, Bank Managers will now be known as ‘Store Bosses’ tellers will now have the updated name ‘checkout operators’!

I closed my account with the BNZ due to this logo and the subsequent advertising.

found this linked from another blog. I’ll keep following your stuff from now, cause this was rather informative. thanks.

NEWS FLASH: BNZ have announced to staff this week that the logo will once again be changing. Including the re-addition of the southern cross, a less rounded font, and dropping the tail off the B. Keep an eye out for this change!

[...] What do you think? Read some of the opinions from graphic design boffins here. [...]

We were shocked at the first attempt by DNA design – totally inappropriate for a bank, especially BNZ.

It was a classic case of the designers and the marketing manager not understanding the reality of branding in that business market.

Thank god they’ve brought the proud southern cross stars back and fixed the childish “toothpaste” typography. More credible now.

Its nice to see that awful appendage removed at last and the letterforms are improved,I still think its a bit primary school for my taste but its still better than the ANZ logo.That looks like some sort of health care provider,something cervical prehaps.I’m actually curious to know what sort of drugs the banks are on.One would think at this stage of post financial meltdown the friendly tone is already way past its sell by date.Reassurance and solidity please and no corny italics feel right for the times.

Definite improvement. Some credibility regained for the brand with this design evolution. The Southern Cross adds a visual representation of NZ without it being another barstardisation of a fern. And it’s already historically tied to the BNZ identity. Nice. Good on the BNZ marketing people listening and fixing it. Can be brave to admit you didn’t get it quite right. Logos are always politically charged.

I think the new new logo has completely killed the personality that the re-brand communicated. The typesetting looks exceedingly average, the typeface is un-inspiring, looks like someone has done a great job at butchering Serrano.

Actually its so bad I don’t know why I’m wasting my time commenting about this =<

I don’t like the new logo with the Southern Cross at all and definitely would prefer the previous one, The newish one looks simply boring especially the lettering to me it looks simply childish and ugly, Where has the piggy tail on the letter B gone? I truly liked the previous one…and what’s this I also hear they are getting rid of the pigs…Very disappointing if you were to ask me…It’s good to hear they have bought back the Southern Cross but to my tasting I hate it.

It’s nice to see that they bring back the Southern Cross to the BNZ logo because it represents New Zealand, but unfortunately the lettering looks very simple and plain, I don’t like it at all, I would rather have the one without the stars then have a logo with them, but that’s banks for you thinking they will make you happy by making changes but instead they don’t make you happy at all and make it look much more terrible, the previous logo was modern and fun..this one looks simple and rather horrible.

“The typesetting looks exceedingly average, the typeface is un-inspiring, looks like someone has done a great job at butchering Serrano.”

I’m not sure which version of the logo you’re talking about, but let me clarify for you. I drew the full “Bank of New Zealand” wordmark under direction from DNA. It’s an optically corrected ‘sloped Roman’ based directly on Serrano. Does that mean I’m a butcher? Is it ok with you if I can, at least, butcher my own meat? As you’re a professional designer I can only assume that your comments aren’t merely based upon on a small jpg version of the logo, that you’ve actually seen it—in use—out in ‘the wild’.

As for the new ‘bnz’ mark, I can’t comment as I wasn’t involved with that.

Reminds me of what they did to the to the auckland city council logo a while back, when someone decided that it needed to be more jazzy, so they threw in some fireworks.

Its a shame and a step backwards. The previous re-brand was one of the best to come out of nz in the last few years.

Even with the stars at least the logo is not as bad as the ANZs which looks like a 70s basketballer – truly awful.

@Kris

I was commenting on the new BNZ mark (with the southern cross). It just doesn’t float my boat.

Let me put the record straight, I am a big fan of Serrano and I look forward to its release(?).

@gattica

I agree, it was one of the best re-brands in recent memory

Better but still not great. Thankfully they have allowed “Bank of New Zealand” to be used again. Trying to kill off the name (all staff had been instructed to only call the institution “bnz” which was a terrible idea as the full name has a certain gravitas – especially to non-New Zealanders who think it to be the “country’s” bank). Good to see the “tail” go. It was once pointed out to me that when glancing at a piece of Latin script, those from an Asian or Middle-Eastern background will often naturally read it backwards as that’s how they read their own languages. Thus the former “b” becomes not a “b” with a tail, but a man with a very large bottom and a small erect penis. And what’s with this lower-case obsession? Apart from a website or email address, surely our country should always be initialised as “NZ”? Which looks better – “bnz” or “BNZ”?
Given a choice of my bank being “young and funky” or “conservative”, I’ll take conservative any day (particularly in the current economic climate…)