Hello and welcome to this video
Gareth here from TastyTuts.com
In this video we're going to look at the
Citibank logo, learn a little bit about the logo
and the designer behind it.
So the the city back logo was designed in 2002,
by an American designer by the name of Paula Scher,
born in 1948. Paula Scher has developed
identities, promotional material
environmental graphics, packages and
publication design for a broad range of clients
including Microsoft, Bloomberg and Coca-Cola
to name a few.
Paula began her career as an art director in the
nineteen seventies and eighties and has
been a partner of the New York office
of Pentagram since 1991.
Paula Sher is well known for her landmark identity for the
Public Theater in the mid 1990's
where Sher's text heavy posters present a
large amount of information in a dynamic
and expressive way. Paula Sher's work also
includes the design of the windows 8 logo,
the Highline logo and the Jazz at
Lincoln Center logo. To quote Paula Sher's Pentagram profile:
Paula Sher straddles the line between pop culture
and fine art in work. Iconic smart and
accessible, her images have entered into
the American vernacular.
So the citibank logo was designed in 2002 to replace the
previous logo that had been used since 1978.
It's important to note here that
Citibank is the consumer division of the
financial service multinational Citigroup.
The 'Citi' part of the logo had
already been developed in 1998 to
replace the previous Citigroup logos
that had been used since 1980 through to 1998.
To quote Paula Sher on the logo design:
I drew the city logo after we had
the first meeting on a napkin. They had
to merge travelers in the city.
Travelers have umbrellas and 'Citi' is a word.
The lowercase 't' is an umbrella.
You stick an ark on the top and you got it.
And here is the very sketch Paula drew from that meeting.
The Citibank logo is
essentially a Wordmark. The world Citi
is in a more heavier weight than the
word bank and the word Citi has an
ark shape element over the top to make
the umbrella. Today when Citigroup is
represented it is common to see just the
'Citi' Wordmark element alone with just the ark on the top.
So the initial idea of Citi
was sketch on a napkin and refined
and produced later in the studio and the
word 'Bank' was used as part of it.
The Wordmark is a Sans Serif typeface
called Interstate designed by Tobias Frere-Jones
and was released during the mid-to-late 1990's.
If you want to learn more
and take a closer look at the font,
there are some links in the description.
So what do I think about this logo?
Well the Citibank is a consumer division of Citigroup.
I like how city has become
part of the small system, it's versatile
Citi can work on its own when
representing Citigroup, and bank can be
added for its own distinction.
I think this is a clear system and is nice for
ownability and consistency.
The logo itself is clean and modern,
it's distinctive and appropriate, however
I don't think the umbrella reference is
immediately obvious, but then in this
case I don't think it has to be.
It's more on the subliminal side.
I did not see it at first, but now I know, I see
the umbrella all the time.
So what can we learn about this story?
Well to quote Paula again on the Citi logo:
It did not take long it happened in a second
and it's all over the world.
How can it be that you talk to someone and it's
done in a second? But it is done in a second.
It's done in a second after 34 years.
It's done in a second after every
experience, and every movie and after
everything in my life that's in my head.
This is really interesting, from this we
can learn that it is not always necessary
to spend hours weeks or months on the
design and development process.
Sometimes a great idea can indeed come quickly
from collaboration and of course having
a lot of experience. There are many
approaches a designer can take to
designing a logo, in this example we see
a more logical, intellectual approach
as opposed to a clever or abstract
approach which may have taken longer to explore.
As Paula Scher states after talking
to the client
the idea came to her in a second
from this we can learn how powerful
collaboration is, sketching and talking
ideas through, listening and sharing
thoughts with a potential client.
So if you'd like to learn more about Paula Scher,
you can watch her speak and read more
articles, links are in the description.
There is quite a few interesting links there,
I recommend you check it out!
So that's one of many logos and designers
I have spoken about. If you enjoyed this
video and want to watch more like it you
can see more episodes in the:
'Famous logos playlist' link is in the description
Well I hope you enjoyed this video if
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So until next time have fun guys,
and I'll see you in the next video!