Fifth Third Logo Lays an Egg
After working with Deskey, a retail product branding consultancy for 18 months, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank has released its new identity. Unfortunately, they traded in a readable, recognizable mark for a trendy, often parodied swoosh/horizon/.com logo (see before and after marks above).
Granted, the original mark with its 1980s Optima font was badly in need of an update, but it was easier to read, less detailed and better suited to meet today’s multi-channel media requirements.
Deskey has done some nice work over the years (Crest, Luvs, Downy), but here they’ve encumbered the graceful sweep of the “new horizon? arc with a modified boxy 5/3 shield. To get the arc from one side to the other, they added more detail and ran a line around the shield. The result resembles a head-on lumbering albatross.
Logos 101
See the mall placard example at right as a visual reference point.
- For better readability, use upper and lowercase letters (Fifth Third at top) instead of a small cap treatment in a lightweight decorative font (bottom)
- Omit superfluous words like “Bank? (see Chase or National City)
- Enhance, update and streamline a well-established mark, don’t add decoration or embellish to the point that individual elements compete with the whole of the mark (bottom)
- Keep overall proportions in mind and don’t entrap the logo with size-limiting top or bottom elements (bottom)
According to Inside Indiana Business, Fifth Third plans to infuse the new brand into every facet of their operation, from call center retraining to a revamped customer Bank Center experience. They get high marks for listening, research and action planning, but the new mark—the cornerstone symbol of all Fifth Third hopes to become—is pragmatically, aesthetically and thematically lacking. Its mishmash of colloquial, trendy and passé decorative elements doesn’t reflect their brand promise of working hard for tomorrow.
Fifth Third’s hard-earned and longstanding brand equity deserved a better effort.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I guess it’s a lot easier to make a deposit to the “World Bank of Kitsch” than to the “Fund of Originality”.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Isn’t EVERYbody tired of seeing a swoosh in a logo??? I understand that market and design trends spread, but at a certain point, enough is enough. The 5/3 mark is conservative, appropriately so for a financial institution, but is also an established mark that holds up well visually next to other marks. The added swoosh makes it harder to read, is unnecessary, and complicates the legibility. Update the logo, yes, but leave the swoosh alone.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Nice one! I couldn’t agree more… and have another thought to add… the choice of colors. Why are they walking away from the red and blue? They have SO much equity in those colors? Like them or not, I cannot tell you how often I have thought how SMART they were for going against the typical bank colors and choosing such a bold “anti-bank” palette. I bank at Fifth Third and immediately recognised “fellow bankers” by their easily recongizable, bold and bright red 5/3 check card. And when I was looking for a bank in an unfamiliar city, it was easy to spot those bright red and dark navy signs amongst the sea of other ones. It may be ugly, to be sure, but it is MEMORABLE… and UNIQUE… every bank in the world seems to use blue and green in their logo and materials (Sky, Huntington, Chase, etc.). Considering how cut throat and competitive the banking business is, I would think the kind of equity they have built in that trade mark red color would not be something to just toss out the window. I hope Deskey at least put up a fight on that one! Shame on whomever lost that battle!
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Interesting, a number of people have mentioned the color selection. Both how the blue and green was not forward thinking as well as citing the dangers in ignoring entirely the equity of established palettes.
One person equated the apparent green=money (albeit pea soup green) include as tantamount in principle to the: swoosh horizon=”new horizons,” analogy, i.e., ill-conceived.
There were a number of tangent issues I decided not to explore in the interest of fairness and an equitable critique.
Probably the single most egregious disservice rendered by this new mark, for me, was the lack of appropriateness. This is retail at the street level…not on a shelf. To that end, certain universal understandings must be taken into account.
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:18 pm
As an older American, we hate to see lighter colors and smaller letters. We can’t read them! Do you or do you not want our business?
February 27th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I find it quite entertaining that you advocate original thought and uniqueness and then proceed to lay down hard and fast rules about what a logo must be. Just so I am clear the next time that I begin a new brandmark project I should: only work in caps and lc because legibility is key in making a mark recognizable, omit extraneous words like what the company does, and insure that the mark can be distastefully large on a mall placard so it can scream with all of its competition.
It is nice to see some passionate conversation about the new brandmark. After all we are all creatives and healthy dialogue makes us all better. We wrestle daily with the subjective struggle to communicate to consumers. In that struggle we often chose between the familiar and the unique.
Branding is about experiences. A service industry, such as a bank, needs to hang its hopes on its product, which is its people and how they interact with customers. I hate to break it to the design community but, the logo is just the tip of the strategic iceberg. Even the best brandmark can only act as a mnemonic for a brand‘s experience.
I assure you all of the elements of the Fifth Third Bank brandmark were decided upon for a reason. Your mall placard game of “one of these is not like the others? comforts me that the correct decisions were made.
I love passionate talented people who are open to creative discussion. If you are one of these please submit your resume to hr@deskey.com.
February 28th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Doug, Thanks for joining our dialogue. We welcome your comments.
March 12th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
[...] Jimmy John’s identity supports the brand: bold, well crafted, full and meaty. Their logo makes proper use of upper and lowercase letters, spanning eleven characters in a bold yet distinctive font. Designed to function independently if need be, the logotype is unencumbered by busy integrated graphic lock-ups and therefore easily read and recognizable at great distances, unlike our most recent identity review. [...]
March 19th, 2007 at 1:22 am
You take a look at that mall sign.
What’s the most recognizable logo there?
That of the good old reliable Chase Bank.
That octagon logo’s been around for over 45 years now.
Them Rockefellers done good, no?
March 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I was surprised when I saw this logo for the first time, today. My initial thought was, “why is their logo a hood ornament?” (the “horizon” line reminds me of the curve of a hood on a car)
Conceptually, I think the line can have a negative connotation. I understand that it is supposed to be a “horizon” line, but the mark reminds me of a financial chart. The 5/3 at the pinnacle of the chart. To the right, a decline. Even as a horizon line, since I am viewing the mark left to right, it appears that the future of 5/3 is moving downhill.
I am not going to touch on typography, since it has already been mentioned.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Reply to Doug Sovonick:
Very brave of you to come on here and attempt to defend this logo. I’ll give you credit for that at least - but not the mark. Your argument would be sound if the mark supported the vision you lay out. Frankly this is a terrible piece of work - predictable, bland, with one of the worst type executions in recent design memory.
The debate/attack - although very one sided about how poor this work is also rages at:
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/two_thirds_off.php
Doug new resumes - you sure need them!
July 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Deskey seems to have has lost any edge it once had.
Is this the last gasp of a dying company killed at the hands of it’s own mismanagers? Reading a recent press release certainly could paint that picture.
http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2007/07/09/daily26.html
Buying out partners, VP’s jumping ship, only 25 people remaining? Spin that all you want you’ll never make it look clean.
Didn’t this company have a 6 story building all to itself stocked with around 70 workers just a few short years ago? Are they now reduced to taking on tenants and clinging to a few key “untouchable” personnel? That last resume comment is maybe more accurate.
Donald would be disgraced.