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Regional Bank Merger Logo Redesign - Hancock Whitney


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Back in 2011, regional player Hancock Bank (MS, LA, AL) purchased another regional bank in Whitney National Bank (LA, FL, TX). Hancock was based out of Gulfport, MS while Whitney was an old-school New Orleans banking institution. Whitney fell on some hard times and Hancock swooped in to the rescue. Both had fairly distinct regional brands at the time as seen below.

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Whitney's logo was based on the clock found at their original New Orleans office (seen below) which had since been duplicated many times at other branch locations. Hancock used a lighthouse logo given that their base of operations is on the Mississippi Gulf coast. 

 

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After the merger, the Company stated that the Whitney brand would be used in Louisiana & Texas while the Hancock brand would be used in Mississippi and states eastward. Both logos went through slight redesigns with the most drastic change being that the Whitney logo would be recolored in Hancock blue:

 

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More recently it was announced that the brands would be blended together under the "Hancock Whitney Bank" banner. This morning, the new logo was unveiled and will begin taking its place at bank branches across the Gulf South over the next several months. I, for one, absolutely hate this new logo.

 

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I can see they tried to do a variant of the old Northwest Airlines logo where they have both letters there.  Can easily see the W and H but it's definitely lost the charm the older regional logos had. 


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1 hour ago, Pharos04 said:

I can see they tried to do a variant of the old Northwest Airlines logo where they have both letters there.  Can easily see the W and H but it's definitely lost the charm the older regional logos had. 

 

Absolutely. My gripe really isn't with the HW logo in the middle, but just the loss of that classic charm. Plus, the roundel style just doesn't work for a bank, IMO. I work in banking, and this logo really sticks out...which may be what they were going for. I just think it falls flat.

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The icon in the middle is clever, and I kinda like it.

 

The use of the roundel and that font looking terrible in the roundel kill it.

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POTD 2013-08-22

On 7/14/2012 at 2:20 AM, tajmccall said:

When it comes to style, ya'll really should listen to Kev.

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I really dig the "WH" monogram in the center. It's sleek and modern, yet still clearly readable. That said, they clearly were afraid of losing some of that charm from the past, so they crammed it into a vintage-style roundel with the slab serif typeface. As a result, it's not cohesive and the two parts are really conflicting with each other. 

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13 hours ago, Kaz said:

The roundel isn't well done and just doesn't work in general for banking IMO.  The WH is kinda neat and all, but doesn't really fit the hyper-traditionalist aesthetic that is generally used throughout the financial sector.

 

I think that's what so jarring about it. Walking around downtown New Orleans yesterday and this morning, I've already seen the logo on the various Hancock Whitney buildings around my office....and it just doesn't look any better with practical applications, IMO. I'll try and grab some photos at lunch to post.

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Yeah, having grown up with both (my family is from Biloxi), I miss the iconography of both the clock and the lighthouse.

 

By the way, the lighthouse used by Hancock as their logo was the Ship Island Lighthouse.  There were actually two lighthouses with this iconic 4-sided design (there were several older ones);  but most people never saw them as they were on Ship Island about 12 miles from the mainland.

 

The first tower of this design was built in 1886, and had been decommissioned and was in decrepit shape when it was accidentally burned in a fire caused by sparks from a campfire in 1972. This is what it looked like a few years prior to burning down:

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A replacement was built in the year 2000 (Hancock Back was a major financial contributor):

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It only lasted 5 years. It was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and never rebuilt.  A smaller scale replica (with open bottom) was placed on the mainland at the Gulfport Marina a few years ago:

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Interestingly enough, the lighthouses were in Harrison County, not adjacent Hancock County, the bank's namesake.

 

It is what it is.

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