Brand identity

NatWest Brand Refresh

As Visual Creative Director in the NatWest Marketing team, I led the brand refresh from the inside out — setting the creative direction, guiding the design work, and making sure everything hung together across all channels. I worked closely with teams across the business to bring the refreshed identity to life in a way that felt true to the brand and relevant to customers

A fresh visual and verbal ID for a new audience

The challengeCreate a bold new identity to connect with under-35s and signal NatWest’s shift from traditional bank to modern, digital brand – all in support of the new platform, ‘Tomorrow begins today’, and its promise to help people achieve their biggest goals.

Meet Alex… The first TV spot introduced our new brand platform ‘Tomorrow begins today’ (credit NatWest / The&Partnership London)

Finding our point of differenceAs the visual creative lead of the NatWest Brand Creative Collective – a collaboration between our in-house brand team and agency partners at The&Partnership London and Edinburgh – I steered the exploration into brand archetypes and colour theory. Our goal: to carve out a distinctive visual and emotional space that would set NatWest apart in a crowded category.

A new energy and swaggerWe broke away from the safe, conventional banking palettes. Instead, we hurled NatWest into bold, clashing colours balanced by soft, muted pastels to create a fresh, unexpected visual contrast. Then we pushed our voice from formal and corporate to something more playful, human and self-assured.

A modern refresh for a classic icon

I wanted to shape an identity that honoured NatWest’s heritage, while pushing it firmly into its digital-first future. So I introduced a new symbol, the squircle, to modernise the brand’s core mark – think somewhere between an app icon and a screen-based action button. I also developed an original handwritten-style for the tagline, ‘Tomorrow begins today’, to bring warmth and humanity to a flexible new brand lockup.

Bringing it to life, loud and clearWe let rip with a bold new graphic world — full of scribbles, underlines, highlighter marks and playful, hand-drawn illustrations. It brought a sense of energy, personality and spontaneity to the brand, helping NatWest feel more human and less corporate. Everything was tied together by the new tagline, Tomorrow begins today, which anchored the visual system with purpose and intent.

Making our mark on the high streetNatWest branches – from flagship locations to local high streets – were reimagined with fresh signage, bold graphics, and vibrant brand moments inside and out.

Bringing everyone on the journeyWe delivered comprehensive brand guidelines, and a toolkit for partner agencies.

Myself along with my writing partner Clair ran masterclass sessions to immerse over 200 NatWest employees in the new identity.

ResultsNatWest saw a directional uplift in Brand Consideration from 1.0 to 2.0 in August 2021, and a strengthening in brand perception (Kantar Brand Health Report August 2021).

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Credits

Clair Whitefield In-house copywriting partner
T&P London Agency partner

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