Lloyds' Stallion Faces Forwards

Lloyds’ rebrand is youthful and sharp, with the iconic horse fully integrated into their digital look. They’ve adapted well to a digital-first world, but some things feel off. The bold green feels like generic finance branding instead of something uniquely British.

The horse now faces forward to show progress but loses its long-lived backward stance. And while the horse traditionally suggests an upper-class feel, the everyday photography doesn’t quite match that vibe. Overall, it’s a strong, future-ready rebrand, though some parts feel more trendy than original.

Beyond the equestrian motif, I'm not seeing truly characteristic traits that speak to the Britishness of Lloyd's throughout the branding. Sure the green nods to the greenery in Britain, but to the naked eye, green is a finance color, and doesn't invoke much difference from other fintech around it.

In attempts to become a digital-first brand, Lloyds and Wolf Olins have done well in adapting the horse spirit into the product UI and at every touchpoint throughout the journey. There's a good sense of typography, relevant use of iconography that resembles cell shading in the logo, and all other assets that make it feel like a 2024 with 330 years of heritage.

"Moving everyone forward" is the positioning Lloyds has chosen, but that means the horse can no longer gallop with its head tilted backwards. That's literally the longest standing characteristic about the logo that doesn't make it just look like a generic horse animal motif, but actually gave a reinforcing, almost defensive look to the logo. That's something we've lost here in the evolution. Otherwise, there's a clear progression to modernizing the brand, but that one bit is questionable and forces me to ask "what if" the horse continued with its backward facing stance.

The execution is as clear as you can expect from one of the world's top branding agencies, and a major heritage bank in the UK. There's a great level of sophistication and polish overall here, with even some enhancements to own the typography for their brand.

The originality quotient is a bit low. It's most successful wherever the touches of the horse motif are included, including the refresh animation on the app where the horse runs instead of the old school spinning wheel motion. But looking at things like the bright, contemporary photography, and exaggerated illustrations — its more of what we see in the market already. Add to that the strong use of a vibrant green, and cell shaded iconography — it's almost completely ownable for Lloyds, but lacks a true groundbreakedness.

Lloyds new positioning is "moving everyone forward". The forward momentum of the horse expresses this ideal well, but still the equestrian motif is an overly strong one. When you attach the everyday, grounded photography with it, it's hard to match both. The horse theme is one of upper class — yet the imagery speaks to middle and lower classes. This feels like a misalignment between the depicted virtues and likely the ones they wanted.

Not sure about the 3-4 year trend of rebranding that we've seen across many tech brands, but this new branding for Lloyds gives us enough for years to come. There are still some moments of trends that we've latched onto, and well done on that too because this is Lloyds major step into becoming a digital-first and future-fit brand. This one will last continuously, if they continue to stay signed up with it.