Abbey adds insult to injury with new identity

Regarding last week’s letter (DW 3 March) saying we don’t need people who can’t value design skills, there’s a big hoo-ha about free-pitching and I believe it should be up to individuals – just because some do free-pitching, it doesn’t mean they don’t value design.

I’ll tell you who doesn’t value design skills: Abbey – well, Grupo Santander. In recent weeks Abbey announced plans to rebrand its UK branches, but it only rebranded 18 months ago. What a waste of money – more so, a waste of time and skills. How did it get past the board anyway? Not that I liked the new, well old, I mean transparent brand, but at least it was creative.

It has been confirmed that Wolff Olins will oversee the implementation of the new identity – to me, this is undermining Abbey’s internal designers. Surely, if the brand is to be developed internally then it should be managed internally as well. But to work for the brand and be overseen by an external consultancy, I have to ask: does Abbey really value its people and their design skills?

Bharat Parmar

Creative and managing directorMarksman DesignNewport PagnellMK16 0JN