A logo redesign for a successful Western Union brand
(East 1851) “The Western Union Company is a global leader in cross-border and cross-currency monetary movement. Our omnichannel platform connects the digital and physical worlds and enables consumers and businesses to send and receive money and make payments quickly, easily and reliably.
As of December 31, 2018, our network included more than 550,000 retail agent locations offering Western Union, Vigo or Orlandi Valuta brand services in more than 200 countries and territories, with the ability to send money to billions of accounts.
Additionally, westernunion.com, our fastest growing channel in 2018, is available in more than 60 countries, plus additional territories, to move money around the world.
In 2018, we moved more than $ 300 billion in capital in nearly 130 currencies and processed 34 transactions per second across all of our services. With our global reach.
This is the restructuring of the Western Union logo
Since its last redesign in 2013 which introduced a monogram WU, this has taken a big turn in defining the identity of the currency payment service provider Western Union Company.
The Western Union rebranding included the use of extra bold capital letters with a single letter word mark in an upper case word mark and in clear typeface.
As the old monogram had the challenge of how it dealt with the intersection of the letters W and U with a thin black line between them, the rebrand solved it by having to be different, bland but fine.
Opinion
There’s no information on this, but it’s a big change as it’s the first time Western Union has dropped the so easily recognizable, bold, baggy capital letter in a while.
In the last redesign, in 2013, they introduced a “WU” monogram which is now taking on a bigger role (due to avatars). The old monogram was a bit clunky with the way it dealt with the intersection of the letters and had it not been for the thin black line between them it might have been interesting on its own and decently matched the old marking.
The new monogram treats the intersection of the “W” and the “U” differently and that’s okay. Bland but okay. However, the brand is a mystery: why did they have to do what they did with the “s” and the title of the “i”? No need for customization. It is not terrible-horrible but it is certainly not pleasant.
It still amazes me that they dropped the huge capital letters as it made them stand out, especially in the smaller cities where they operate. Illustrated TV spots are quite nice, very well done on that.