NAB’s branding is a good example of a bank that found a simple, distinctive symbol early on and has stuck with it ever since, choosing to refresh the details around it rather than replace it. The star at the centre of the NAB logo has outlasted several waves of banking mergers, marketing campaigns and even a temporary rebrand tied to a public health campaign.
Born From a Merger in 1982
National Australia Bank was formed in 1982 through the merger of two established institutions, the National Bank of Australasia and the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. Rather than carrying over either predecessor’s existing branding, the newly formed bank started fresh with its own identity, a decision that let it introduce a distinctive symbol without the weight of an older institution’s imagery attached to it.
A Simple, Distinctive Symbol
That new identity centred on a seven-pointed red star, marked with two white stripes that began at one point and extended past the middle without quite reaching the opposite edge, paired with the word “National” set in lowercase apart from the capitalised first letter. It’s a genuinely simple mark, and that simplicity has proven to be a strength rather than a limitation, the star has remained legible and distinctive through decades of banking industry rebrands that have often trended toward more complex, layered identities.
Weathering Internal Change
NAB’s history hasn’t been without turbulence. In 2004, unauthorised foreign exchange trading triggered a significant internal crisis, leading incoming CEO John Stewart to oversee a major restructuring, including around 2,000 job cuts in 2005. The bank also spun off its Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank operations as CYBG plc between 2015 and 2016, narrowing its focus back toward the Australian and New Zealand markets. Through all of this, the star logo remained the bank’s anchor, a consistent visual thread even as the business itself changed shape considerably.
The 2019 “More Than Money” Rebrand
In 2019, NAB partnered with agency TBWA\Melbourne on a rebrand built around the tagline “More Than Money,” which included a new typeface and a renewed focus on the bank’s well established star logo rather than a wholesale redesign of it. The bank’s chief marketing officer at the time explained the campaign was rooted in understanding customers’ needs and aspirations beyond simply their finances.
The “More Than Money” positioning has had unusually long staying power for a bank marketing campaign, with NAB still building on the same brand platform years later, citing strong customer consideration and audience connection as reasons to keep investing in it rather than moving on to something new.
A Temporary Rebrand for a Good Cause
One of the more unusual chapters in NAB’s branding history came in 2021, when, alongside several other major Australian brands, the bank temporarily altered its logo as part of a national vaccination awareness push, changing “NAB” to read as “JAB” across some marketing. It’s a small, temporary example of a well established logo being playful enough to bend without losing recognisability, only possible because the underlying mark was already so simple and well known.
What NAB’s Branding History Shows
The lesson in NAB’s story isn’t really about banking, it’s about picking a simple, distinctive symbol early and trusting it to carry decades of brand equity rather than reinventing it with every new marketing campaign. The 2019 rebrand is a good example of this in practice, a major campaign that leaned into the existing star rather than replacing it, precisely because that star had already done the hard work of building recognition over nearly forty years.
About Business Logo Design Australia
Business Logo Design Australia designs custom logos for businesses across the country, from new startups to established businesses going through a rebrand. Every project starts with a real conversation about your business, followed by original concepts, a set number of revisions, and a complete set of final files ready for web, print, signage and everyday use. Pricing is laid out clearly before you commit to a package, so you always know what’s included.
A Simple Symbol Can Carry a Lot of Weight
NAB’s star shows how a genuinely simple mark can outlast decades of business change, marketing campaigns and even industry upheaval. Business Logo Design Australia can help you find that same kind of lasting, flexible symbol for your own business.