WaFd Bank, the Seattle-based regional bank formerly known as Washington Federal, introduced its current visual identity in September 2019 as part of a rebrand that changed the consumer-facing name to WaFd Bank. The parent company, Washington Federal, Inc., later changed its corporate name to WaFd, Inc. effective September 29, 2023. [1]
Design and History
The bank announced its rebrand to WaFd Bank in September 2019, adopting a name that had long served as a nickname, matched its Nasdaq ticker symbol (WAFD), and clarified that the institution is a bank. [2] The change addressed persistent confusion: because the word “bank” was absent from the old name, customers sometimes assumed Washington Federal was a credit union, a government agency, or even a federal penitentiary. [3] [4]
The rebranding process began about 18 months before the announcement, with executives enlisting a branding agency in Los Angeles. The bank tested entirely new names before settling on WaFd, which it had already been using in email addresses and social media platforms. [3]
The new logo features eight interlocking Ws, a design that references the bank’s Washington roots and symbolizes how the organization is linked across its markets. [5] A bank executive described the mark as “an interlocking set of designs that’s meant to symbolize how we’re linked with our teams across the markets we share, and linked with clients and bankers who work for us.” [4]
The rollout was incremental, beginning with new email signatures and business cards, with branch signage changes following over subsequent months. [6] [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The interlocking W motif carries the primary symbolic weight of the identity. According to the bank’s own description, the eight Ws represent the company’s Washington heritage and its interconnectedness as a team across the markets it serves. [5] [4]
The name itself was chosen for practical clarity: it was already the bank’s ticker symbol and informal nickname, and adding “Bank” made the institution’s purpose immediately clear to customers. [2] The bank’s president and CEO noted that the new name addressed repeated questions about what the company did and whether it was affiliated with the federal government. [2]
Typography and Design
The WaFd Bank wordmark uses a clean, contemporary sans-serif letterform with the distinctive capital F in the middle of the abbreviated name. The logo is described by the bank as “a fresh, digital evolution” of the brand it had developed over more than a century of operation. [7] The identity was designed to amplify the bank’s digital-first approach while maintaining its reputation as a well-capitalized institution. [7]
The bank’s origins trace to 1917, when it was founded as Ballard Savings and Loan Association in a community just north of Seattle. [8] The institution adopted the Washington Federal name in 1958 after a merger, and that name served the bank for over six decades before the 2019 rebrand. [8]
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