Allied Irish Bank is the largest retail and commercial bank in Ireland with more than 170 branches nationwide. The branches are strategically important as they give the bank a visible presence in local communities and act as beacons to attract new customers. In 2017, AIB updated their corporate identity for the first time in 26 years, introducing an app-style logo that repositions the bank for the digital age. All branch signage had to be updated to express the bank’s modern place in society.

Working with AIB’s brand designers and architects we used high grade materials to produce a sleek set of signs that reflect contemporary finance. On branch facades, the new logotype is written in stainless steel and lights with a crisp halo effect at night. Projecting signs, window lightboxes and door plaques display the full identity in the bank’s new corporate colour, a special shade of purple.

Consistent colour-matching was critical. A family of signs made of different materials could potentially appear on the same storefront and each had to be identical in colour. With rigorous testing we determined how to replicate the brand purple on every type of sign whether as a paint, powdercoat or printed vinyl. In this way we ensure that every branch we worked on ‘looks right’ and gives visitors a familiar welcome, from Buncrana to Bantry.

As well as the corporate identity kit we made and installed bespoke signs for a number of high-profile branches. These range from tall 4-metre totems and 5-metre-wide lightboxes to landmark logos fixed four-storeys high.