By the close of the 1980s, the Japanese financial sector was entering a period of structural change. Liberalisation and the growing internationalisation of finance were eroding the protected conditions under which regional banks had long operated. Institutions that had once relied on local loyalty now faced pressure to express a clearer sense of purpose and character (See: Tomato Bank).
For Toho Bank, the principal regional bank of Fukushima Prefecture, this period coincided with an approaching milestone. In 1991 the bank would mark its 50th anniversary, and it chose to treat the occasion not simply as a commemoration but as an opportunity to define a new institutional identity for the twenty-first century.
Preparations began in 1989, when the bank’s Corporate Planning Department sought to consolidate opinion on how a new company philosophy might respond to the changing financial environment. In the same year a 50th Anniversary Projects Committee was established, and the decision was taken to make a corporate identity programme one of its central undertakings. A dedicated working committee was formed to carry out the practical study, and its report, “On the Introduction of CI”, was completed in 1990.
The programme was given the name NEXUS 50. The word was chosen for its meaning of connection or linkage, expressing the intention that the bank’s officers and employees would work as a single body in realising the plan. It also carried a secondary reading, NEXT + US, which positioned the anniversary as a moment of transition to the bank’s next generation.
The programme placed considerable emphasis on consultation before any visual work was undertaken. Employees were invited to propose a CI slogan, and the bank conducted surveys and interviews with approximately 4,000 people, extending beyond its own staff to business clients and members of the general public. From this research emerged a ‘Basic Philosophy’, followed by a ‘Corporate Philosophy’, a ‘Code of Conduct’ and a ‘Corporate Message’/ Together, these formed the conceptual foundations of their new logo and corporate identity.
Continue reading to learn about the concept behind the logo and see its variations.
Go behind the logos. Explore 200+ more in-depth and meticulously researched logo histories revealing the design decisions and ideas behind the world’s most iconic logos and important brand identities.
→ free previews
→ join here