Brand New

• Author: Amanda Robert
• Pages: 62-62

PHOTO BY EARNIE GRAFTON

your Aba

EDITED BY LEE RAWLES

LEE.RAWLES@AMERICANBAR.ORG

62 || ABA JOURNAL MARCH 2019

The ABA House of Delegates got a

glimpse of the future at the 2019 ABA

Midyear Meeting in Las Vegas with

a sneak peek of the association’s new

branding.

Executive Director Jack L. Rives

presented delegates with the new

logo design, which had been ap-

proved by the Board of Governors the

day before. While the current ABA

logo has been in use for more than

40 years, a new logo could assist the

association in proving its value to

both potential and current members,

Rives said.

“How do you change an iconic

logo?” Rives asked. “Carefully. You

don’t need to make it a revolutionary

change, you can do it evolutionarily.”

Rives pointed to several issues with

the current ABA logo, including that

it’s di cult to read and does not place

enough emphasis on “bar.”

“Even though we’ve gotten used

to it, those in the business say it is

not artistically pleasing or designed

all that well in the beginning,” Rives

said.

There’s also the issue of di eren-

tiating the ABA from organizations

with similar names and acronyms.

Rives said there are more than 5,000

associations in the country that begin

with the word “American” and end in

“association.”

A user who visits ABA.com would

reach the American Bankers Associa-

tion, while a user visiting ABA.org

would reach the American Birding

Association.

NEW LOGO’S IMPACT

The ABA worked with marketing

agency Finn Partners, which went

through dozens of possibilities before

recommending the new logo design.

Burkey Belser, managing partner of

Finn Partners, told the Board of Gov-

ernors that his team received a posi-

tive response to the new design from

four focus groups in various parts of

the country.

“It’s contemporary, it pays homage

to the past while moving forward to

the future, and highlighting the look

is the subtle colors that are used,”

Rives said. “This was their recom-

mendation, and when you look at the

logo that was proposed and compare

it with the current logo, you will see

how much more powerful the pro-

posed logo is.”

Rives said that the use of the new

logo will coincide with the launch of

the new membership model May 1.

The new membership model is

designed to address a decline in dues-

paying memberships and revenues,

Rives said. Between 2008 and 2018,

dues revenue dropped from $86 mil-

lion to $67 million.

The new membership model will

implement a sensible dues structure,

said Rives, in part by transitioning

from the previous 157 di erent dues

price points to fi ve dues price points

by fi scal year 2020. T he new dues

structure was approved by the House

in August during the 2018 ABA An-

nual Meeting. The ABA will also un-

veil more member benefi ts, including

personalized content for members

and a CLE marketplace that will in-

clude 650 courses by early 2020.

“We are going to do a lot to im-

prove the member experience,” Rives

said. “We are going to make it very

apparent that people get a lot more

than what they pay for with their

ABA dues.” Q

Brand New

Executive director unveils redesigned logo, branding at Midyear Meeting By Amanda Robert