Vontobel is a Swiss financial services group headquartered in Zurich, founded in 1924 as a brokerage firm and renamed after Jakob Vontobel took over in 1936. The company’s current visual identity, introduced in September 2017, centers on a plain typographic wordmark of the company name, replacing an older square logo that featured white lettering on a dark blue background. The rebrand was developed by the global brand consultancy MetaDesign, working with the Zurich office, and was rolled out across all touchpoints including digital services, building signage, print products and vehicle branding. [1] [2] [3]
Design and History
Before the 2017 relaunch, Vontobel used a square logo with white lettering on a dark blue background. The new identity dropped the square format entirely and reduced the logo to the wordmark “Vontobel” alone, giving all of the group’s worldwide activities a single, consistent face. [1] [4] [2]
The rebrand was motivated by a corporate design that had become outdated and lacking in distinction, at a time when the financial sector’s reputation was poor and customer distrust was noticeable. Vontobel decided to revise its brand identity with the aim of turning the brand into a growth driver. The new visual appearance was defined by a strong focus on the plain wordmark, with the previous blue square retained as a starting point in the graphical structures. [1]
The new identity launched publicly on 18 September 2017, with the new logo displayed at bank buildings from that morning. The rollout included a redesigned website and a global image campaign built around the new claim “Own Your Success.” [5] [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The new brand colors are borrowed from the coat of arms of the Vontobel family, which dates to 1488. According to the company, the color spectrum reflects the roots of the company while the choice of colors signals an orientation toward the digital future. [1] [4] [6]
The color palette includes aquamarine, citrine and pink tones, used as overlapping color blocks and graphic textures that visually express a sense of progress and forward momentum. The wordmark itself is rendered in a dark graphite tone, with the brand name set in a modern sans-serif typeface. [7] [8] [9]
Typography and Design
Vontobel developed a distinct visual language using a custom font that the Red Dot Design Award jury described as having “high aesthetic appeal and unusual angles.” The wordmark is set in a modern sans-serif typeface without serifs, and the brand name is displayed in various colors across different applications. [1] [7] [2]
The rebrand also included a sound identity developed in collaboration with the audio branding agency audity, which created a distinctive audio logo and a web-based “Mood Mixer” tool for generating brand track variations. The sound design deliberately breaks with the conventions of the financial industry, embracing contrast rather than a traditional leitmotif. [8]
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