Anatomy of a logo: BBVA and its new brand identity

Never before has the idea of taking advantage of in-house talent rung truer than in the project to create a new brand identity for BBVA. Fifty designers from across the Group’s franchises, led by the global marketing team, are responsible for the new logo and its applications in the physical and virtual worlds. Supported by its in-house agency BBVA Creative, the agency DDB and the consulting firm Landor, which provided strategic advice, the BBVA team set out to update the brand in order to create a unique, global identity, optimal for digital environments.

Brian Farrell, Creative Director at BBVA, explains that nearly two years ago, BBVA started working on bringing together a team of in-house designers from different countries to “ensure it was a global collaboration that included different cultural perspectives.” For Farrell, who joined BBVA after working for companies like Delta, Verizon and WWF, “being able to work with such a diverse team was what really added value to the creation and design process. It is immensely gratifying to see teams learning from each other and contributing their unique experiences to create a definitive solution. It was a huge responsibility and a great opportunity.”

The design process took about four months of creative exploration, tests with users and finally, the creation of the final artwork. Several models were developed that were presented to nearly 5,000 customers in seven different countries.

"It was a huge responsibility and a great opportunity"

It was very important to custom design each letter meticulously so that the new logo could be globally adapted to all channels. A 'sans serif' font was chosen with a line width that maintains the strength of the brand. The blue was made slightly brighter to give a more modern, fresh feeling while staying within BBVA’s color palette, notes Farrell.

Once the logo had been designed, Blanca Fernández from BBVA’s UX & Design team was one of the designers who had the task of making the logo compatible with the different platforms, specifically the model to adapt and adjust the logo for BBVA’s mobile channel. “The implementation was done in conjunction with technology. During the process, we identified the design elements - icons, micro-illustrations, templates - for which we had references from the old logo and replaced them with the new one,” she explained.

But it wasn’t all that simple. “The difficult part involved adapting the emotional elements that give identity to the new logo. To address this, they worked on accounting for the behavior of the elements of the brand in other languages like animation and interaction until the desired result was achieved.

Like all projects also designed for digital environments, the audiovisual component of the brand was a priority so that BBVA would “look, feel and sound the same” in all countries where the Group has a presence.

“Working on the new brand has been an incredible challenge,” says Imanol Ramos, Creative Director at BBVA Creative, who worked on shaping the new audiovisual assets, including the audio-logo.

Another fundamental part of communicating this new brand was the global television campaign, which showed the same advertising spot for all countries. “We believe it takes BBVA one step further in communication. In my opinion, this change in brand will really reinforce BBVA’s image as a digital bank,” says Ramos.

The change will be gradually implemented over the next six to twelve months until the new identity has been adapted to BBVA’s over 3,000 applications and digital platforms and more than 8,000 offices - including buildings, branches and other facilities.