The merger of Diamond Bank and Access Bank, has recorded its first casualty; The Logo. I’ve always loved the Diamond Bank logo. The dearth of it is the demise of arguably one of the best logos in Nigeria in my opinion. It deserves a minute of silence. Whilst it would have been costly to manage, owing to the number of colors, the Logo was indeed fantastic. It had this grandeur to it.
FYI: A Logo either suffers or enjoys greater glory when this kinds of corporate events happen.
On Sunday night, 31/03/2019, following the completion of the merger of the two banks, a new logo was launched. What do you think about it? I was asked by some friends. Is this an attempt to answer the question? No, not at all.
Usually in Nigeria, the expository of a Logo to the public is from a management staff. Most times someone in marketing. Never the CEO or Head of Brand. Worse still, we hear little or nothing about an identity from the designer’s mouth or point of reference. Recent unveiling of logos for corporations like 9mobile to Union Bank to Banky W’s MDC Party logo, etc, not a word from the designers. I’m wondering whose choice it is. Is it the media that reckons that it is not the designers beat, so why mention. Or is it the client or agency that considers it unimportant, I really don’t know. However, it is detrimental to the information economy of our dear country, especially for SMEs on the subject of corporate identity. There’s already a lag in the information economy as far as corporate identity and it’s importance is concerned. And the supposed Big Brother isn’t helping where it should (informal education as it were) as part of supporting emerging SMEs.
Think about going to an art exhibition to buy art and your information experience of the work is from the curator and not the artist. That’s a loss owning such work. It’s the reason why artists are either present at the exhibitions or there’s a scripted note by the artist that provides information about their works to the buying public. This is why you’d find that only those people who have the opportunity (usually people of class) to have the information experience of works of art from the artist tend to value art and creativity. Paula Scher partner in global design agency, Pentagram recently finished a Logo work for HOUZZ a home furniture company, her side of the logo’s story is well-documented. This is similar to her side of the story of Citibank logo. This kind of attribution to a logo’s existence causes:
1. Increased public exposure and culture shift towards the creation of a logo;
2. Better public awareness of the importance of corporate identity especially for SMEs;
3. Reduced tendency to plagiarize or covet and use stock “logo” from the Internet.
4. Impact on the profession and practice of identity creation, hence strangulating mediocrity;
5. Improved inspiration to brand building.
It is therefore not right that we just see a Logo and know nothing about where it came from, why it came to being and through the (quality) hand(s) and mind(s) it came to being. Knowledge is closely associated with the development of society. Where this kind of behavior is granted premium, we’d soon see less of poor logo works and more of good logo works – the kind that’s borne out of the determination to build a brand. There can be no greater motivation for SMEs in any economy than this.
FYI: The process involved I’m making a logo is a pointer to the quality of thinking or advisory behind a business.
It is important to bring to the fore this dilemma in our attempt to educate a new class of emerging entrepreneurs. It is in this regard that at Dayo Abiola, Nigeria’s foremost logo making company we ensure that we reveal the behind-the-scenes of our Logo creative process.
