New logo and name for Nationwide Super by DMG

Nationwide Super (formerly NSF Super) is an Australian superannuation fund that launched in 1987 and serves multiple industries. It manages over $500 million in assets, and considering that the entire pool of superannuation assets in Australia amounts to around $2.2 trillion, Nationwide Super is certainly one of the smaller funds out there.

The company recently shifted its focus to small businesses, and, in its newest campaign, revealed a new logo by DMG.

The old name had a bit of RAS syndrome as it read Nationwide Superannuation Fund Super when expanded (although it never was expanded). The logo itself had the name in Century Gothic, with each word contained in interlocking shapes. At first, I likened the junction of those shapes to a finger joint in woodworking, which, to me, connoted strength and longevity. But then I also interpreted the shapes as jigsaw puzzle pieces, which suggested immaturity and instability. The colour scheme was passé, and, overall, the logo had a PowerPoint SmartArt feel to it. It was tired and needed a change.

The new logo features the simpler name set in good old Gotham, with the letter-spacing expanded to a sensible degree. A new icon reintroduces an interlocking element with what appears to be a chain link, and it’s a much more convincing signifier of strength than before. It also reveals a letter “N” in the negative space, so bonus points there. The main colour is a dull af blue, and while it’s not cringe-inducing like the old scheme, it would have been nicer if the saturation was pumped up a tad to give the logo more presence.

Despite my niggle about the colour, the new logo is an improvement, with well considered type and a nice icon to boot. Not quite Nationwide Super, but Nationwide Better.