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| The origins of the "Squirrel" logo
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Changes in the
"Squirrel" logo over the years:
1950
- 1960
- 1965
- 1968
- 1975
- 1983
- 1991
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| The
origins of the "Squirrel" logo
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After the ant, the bee and the
beehive – successively chosen to symbolize the French savings banks
up until the Second World War – came the squirrel.
The choice of this new emblem for the French
savings banks was the result of a competition, launched in 1942 by
René Laurent upon his return to France from captivity when he was
Deputy Director of the Central Office of the Caisses d’Epargne.
Designed to encourage savings, the competition invited French
prisoners of war in Germany to send in tales and short stories.
The first prize was awarded to
William Bate for his story entitled “Didy and Rascassot”. This tale
“breathed fresh life into the fable genre by applying it to
savings,” said René Laurent who chose it as the emblem of the
Editions de l’Epargne, a series of publications of which he was
editor-in-chief.
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The tale of
Didy
and Rascassot
The story is the tale of
Didy the squirrel, a mascot kept by a prisoner who, one day
when he and his companions in misfortune were suffering more
than usual from the pangs of hunger, contemplated whether to
eat the little animal… They decided to flush Didy out from the
oak tree he used to hide in. The starving prisoners cut a hole
in the trunk but were amazed when a multitude of objects
started spilling out: hazelnuts, biscuits, almonds… a thousand
little treats given to Didy who,
like a cautious banker, had stored them
all away, unbeknown to the group of prisoners.
Thanks to the squirrel’s sense of
thrift, the prisoners recovered enough food to live off for
a week, sparing the
little squirrel’s life. |
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| Changes in the "Squirrel" logo over
the years:
1950 -
1960 -
1965 -
1968 -
1975 -
1983 -
1991 |
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1950 |
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1960 |
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1965 |
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Although the logo evolved over the years,
it remained highly figurative in the versions used in 1960 and 1965, when
it was included in a circle. |
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1968 |
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In 1968, the logo adopts the
form of a more stylized, geometric squirrel,
with four characteristic horizontal lines at the top
of its tail. But, just like its predecessors, it is facing
the left and seems
to be looking back towards the past. |
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1975 |
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In
1975, the squirrel is given a somewhat fuller silhouette and, above all, it changes its direction
in order to look towards the future. |
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1983 |
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In 1983, the French savings
banks are recognized as a fully-fledged network
in the French financial system and given the status of non-profit-making
credit institutions. The squirrel now looks more “plump” and
appears in a square. It would now be used on all
the advertising campaigns launched by the Caisses d’Epargne,
which rapidly become identified with the thrifty animal in
the public’s mind.
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1991 |
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On
October 29, 1991, in order to reassert the new organizational
structure of the French savings banks, the logo is completely
reworked and given a new “high tech” appearance to express technical
skill, expertise and modernity through a new graphic style, with
moving lines drawn within a square (symbolizing strength) and made
up of several different elements. This more elaborated structure
symbolizes the diversification of the activities and products
offered by the Caisse d’Epargne. The red color is chosen to express
the bank’s commercial dynamism.
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Today, the squirrel has acquired widespread
recognition as an established brand logo in the French banking industry. For the
past several years, it has been playing a leading role
in an advertising saga, a series of animal fables of
which he is the hero, in the company of bears, ducks, dogs,
marmots, etc., all of whom accompany him in the different adventures of
the Caisse d’Epargne advertisements.
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The history of a logo 
