Washing instructions
Popular
solution
Rnhob.ink
Rabobank
Rabobank.These two organizations, the former a full sub-
sidiary and the latter a joint venture, will definitely not be
sporting the new look. Why? Common sense, reckons Polly
van Raam, the bank's design manager. Both the symbol and
the logo-type (for the uninitiated, that's the word Rabobank
in blue letters) have been created specifically for the bank
and should be
members of the Group have their own house-styles and
should stick to them.
'If you look at the example of Popular Rabobank,'Van
Raam says, 'then you see that its logo is a combination of
both banks' house-styles. If we suddenly start using our very
powerful new symbol, then the Popular side could lose
something of its impact.That is not the idea at all. So the
joint-venture will keep its own special look.' PIBA will also
retain its own identity, but will add a line to its stationary
indicating it isa memberofthe Rabobank Group.
While the implementation guidelines
appearexhaustive, London branch man-
aged to come up with a couple of very
British queries - flags and uniforms. When
the bank first started up, it was decided to
fly the flag every day. But the old blue logo
on a pristine white background didn'tfit
the bill in a city where polution - read:dirt
- is a real problem.The solution was to
reverse the colours.
Can we do that with the new one?
London asked innocently. Once the house-style
project people recovered from the shock of
imagining the glorious new banners in
reverse, they came up with a simple
solution: make it from synthetic fabric
and just wash it more often.They haven't
suggested who should be up to
their elbows in soap-
suds.
quickly decided they were better at private banking than at
implementing house-styles, so they called in a local designer
to do the job for them.The result was a perfect
business card which has now been implement-
ed for the whole bank.
When is a
Rabobank
not a Rabo
bank? When it is
PIBA or Popular
Rabobank
Marathon
