UCPB or United Coconut Planters Bank started in 1963 as a small commercial bank catering to coconut farmers hence the name. Their last logo remained unchanged since the 1980's -- until now.
The infinity-like sign in our new logo represents two hands clasping each other – yours and ours. They symbolize the solid partnership that we seek to build you. The perpetual motion they suggest reflects our commitment to continue innovating to keep abreast of your evolving needs.
The rationale above conjures up a lot of logo and branding ideas for UCPB to strengthen and communicate their renewed core vision as a premiere banking company. They had a chance to improve and impress on their first rebranding in 29 years with the introduction of a new logo but sad to say, all we got is this curly-finned logo that is nowhere near the company’s heritage.
If I had a say on the color, I would have still retained the old blue and green color scheme (or tried other similar hues, see Fig.1) The green color has already established a brand recall on consumers so why change it? When I see a green ATM, I already know it's a UCPB machine (are there any other green colored ATM machines out there?) Besides, having "coconut" and "planters" is enough for me to give green another chance or some other earth colors.
As for the infinity-like dragons. I don't mind the swirls, just the fins. It would be fine if China Bank or any oriental company had this yin-yang shape as their logo. The Chinese culture can excuse that but farmers won’t get this at all.
The lighter version of the logo looks more tolerable (see Fig. 2) maybe because it looks more serious and corporate than the baby blue one.
It is common for companies to have 2 logos for different applications. One is used on dark backgrounds and the other for lighter backdrops. UCPB’s alternate white logo will be used on documents while the baby blue will be used on signages and other print collaterals.
Photo courtesy of hrudu @ flickr
