The Wüstenrot & Württembergische-Gruppe, commonly known as the W&W-Gruppe, is a German financial services group based in Stuttgart. Its visual identity has undergone two significant redesigns since the group was formed in 1999, most recently in 2019 when the Düsseldorf agency KW43 Branddesign developed a new corporate design for the umbrella brand.
Design and History
The W&W-Gruppe was created in 1999 from the merger of the two traditional companies Wüstenrot and Württembergische [1]. In 2008, the group introduced a unified visual identity for both brands, designed by the agency Jung von Matt/Neckar [2]. This redesign replaced the previous separate brand presentations and documented the merging of the two business fields into one company [2].
In November 2019, the group presented a new brand appearance with a new logo, color concept and imagery. The new logo “w&w gruppe” replaced the previous umbrella brand logo “Wüstenrot & Württembergische” [1]. The corporate design was developed by KW43 Branddesign, which had previously designed the corporate design for the Wüstenrot and Württembergische customer brands [3]. The new design applies to the non-customer brands, including Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG, W&W Informatik GmbH, W&W Service GmbH, W&W Asset Management GmbH and W&W brandpool GmbH, while the customer brands Wüstenrot and Württembergische retain their own brand appearances [1].
Meaning and Symbolism
The strategic core of the 2019 design is the concept of “Verbundenheit” (connectedness), which refers both to the traditional connection with the business model of Vorsorge (provision) and to the connection of the companies within the group [3]. The design symbolically connects two elements throughout: two colors in a violet-red gradient serve as the new W&W house color, and in motion design, image and gradient can form a flexible, kinetic connection [3].
The logo itself consists of a red square with white letters [4]. This square format was also used as the basis for the wayfinding system at the W&W campus in Kornwestheim, designed by büro uebele, which extracted the red square and white lettering elements for the signage [4].
Typography and Design
In 2016, KW43 Branddesign won the pitch for the communication design of the W&W financial group [5]. As part of this work, a new house typeface was developed for the group, derived from the lettering of the logo [5]. The type foundry HVD Fonts created the full typeface based on the existing letters from the logo, refining the original letterforms and developing both a bold weight and a regular weight optimized for text setting [6]. The earlier 2008 identity used The Sans by Lucas de Groot as the house typeface [2].
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