Umpqua Bank

Type: Branding, Print, Digital, Environmental, Experiential, Packaging
Role: Senior Designer

This collection represents a few highlights of my contributions during my time at Umpqua Bank as a Senior Designer on the in-house creative team. My team included several designers and art directors, a creative director, copywriters, and design managers. Our team took a highly collaborative approach to most projects and while these selections represent work on which I was the principal designer, I want to acknowledge the support and contributions of the rest of my team. A list of many of those involved in the design, direction, and execution of our work can be found at the bottom of this page.

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Brand Identity

I joined the team at Umpqua at a very unique time. The bank had just finalized a merger with Columbia Bank, and both banks were going through a complex restructuring and rebrand led by our Creative Director, Naz Afshar. Umpqua, a heritage Oregon brand founded in 1953, became the face of the integrated retail bank locations throughout 8 states in the western United States, with over 300 individual branches—for the first time in decades, the logo was significantly changed from its classic pine tree badge.

The change was exciting, but also complex. Our team worked to ensure that the new identity for the bank paid homage to the historical look-and-feel that had earned so many loyal customers in the PNW, while also elevating the brand into something more sleek, modern, and versatile for a rapidly-expanding footprint.

Original Logomark

New Logomark

Brand Book

Every designer has dozens of stories like this, but as we scrambled to solidify the brand identity before the merger deadline, we found ourselves building the plane as we flew it.* After the rebrand officially launched in March 2023, we spent the better part of the next 18 months revising, fine-tuning, and codifying the foundation we had established. I was put in charge or designing and assembling our brand book under the direction of Naz Afshar in collaboration with leadership, pulling from the best standards and applications we had developed thus far, as well as pushing some boundaries and looking towards the future of the brand in years to come.

*Please forgive the cliché

Facilities Design

One of my common responsibilities at Umpqua was collaborating with our in-house interior design team (led by Anastasia Martin) to design branches and offices, both renovations/modernizations and new-builds. We would plan the customer or associate experience as they transitioned between programmed spaces, and developed a visual language to reinforce the brand in physical environments.

In addition to the actual build projects, I contributed to our built environment design manual to set standards, and a guidebook for our system of interior and exterior wayfinding and signage. The examples below show some applications of the built environment standards established by our team.

Irvine, CA Flagship Branch


Retail Exteriors

Seahawks Suite

As one of the principal sponsors of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and the Seattle Sounders MLS team, I had the opportunity to design animations for the various stadium displays in Lumen Field, as well as the interior of our private viewing box on the executive level. Despite being a private space with relatively limited foot-traffic, the suite design was an extremely important touchpoint for the brand, as it was typically occupied by company executives, their families and guests, and high net-worth clients. As such, it served as an immersive experience into our brand expression, and, for many, their first exposure to the Umpqua brand identity. It not only acted as a showcase, but as a sales and marketing tool for some of the most high-impact and high-touch business relationships in the company.

Final Mechanical Prep: Senior Designer CJ DeWaal

Barometer Report

The Umpqua Bank Barometer Report is a highly-publicized and widely distributed compilation of projections and trend analyses impacting the bank and the various business sectors of its commercial customers. The report acts as an important brand touchpoint for shareholders, corporate clients, high net-worth customers, and even competitors. Designing the Barometer Report is always a challenge, as it contains a wide variety of content, ranging from charts and graphs to maps, interviews, long-form writing, and photography. That said, the challenge often leads to strong results, and the 2024 report (shown here) was particularly well-received by company leadership, our clients, and even a few competitor banks.

A multi-channel marketing push accompanies the release of the report, including social media channels, email campaigns, advertising placements, and in-branch displays and multimedia kiosks.

Final Content Layout: Senior Designer Brian Abbott

Acknowledgements

CMO
David M Devine

Creative Director
Naz Afshar

Marketing Director
Aleigha Nation

Creative Team
Brian Abbott
CJ DeWall
Greg Sylvester
Jihad Lahham

Project Management
Claire Roberts
Katie Scott

Facilities & Programs
Anastasia Martin
Maggie Johnson

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