To Mexico with love

Ever since I laid my hands on The New Guide To Identity, by Wolff Olins, I've been an admirer of brand guru Wally Olins. His approach to brand strategy is more accessible than for example David A. Aaker's.

Olins is now the chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants, and to make a long story short, I came across their identity work for new Mexican bank El Banco Deuno – ‘One's bank’ (I don't think Saffron is responsible for the website, at least I hope they're not). Although the logo has a slight resemblance with Dunkin Donuts, I like the way it feels like Mexico (where I've never been, by the way, but have a clear brand image of it in my head). It's warm, welcoming and playful, but slightly serious at the same time (which could be good for a bank, right?). "The new bank for the new Mexico" is the tagline.

All in all I like the handling of typography (the alphabet is inpired by a pre-Columbian pattern), but what's up with the C? It doesn't optically align with the B and the U in the logo (sorry, I'm getting tangled up in details here). But, as I said, I like it, and here it is:



But hey, what's up with the name? I'm getting confused. Saffron calls them El Banco Deuno, but they call themselves El Banco de Uno (which of course seems more right, if you know a bit of Spanish)… Anybody know?