Saturday, September 18, 2010



I know what you're thinking, not the sexiest name. But the brand's identity isn't bad. I came across one of their branches in Hong Kong last week and the store front and logo, that little snakey/DNA strandy thing, caught my eye. For the record I'm not sure what that symbol is supposed to be, but it's quite possible I'm missing something obvious. I don't care though as I like it, they use it a lot standing alone and it looks great. As far as the bank itself, wikipedia provides this interesting background snippet:

"Despite its British base, it has few customers in the United Kingdom and around 90% of its profits come from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Because the bank's history is entwined with the development of the British Empire, its operations lie predominantly in former British colonies, though over the past two decades it has expanded into countries that have historically had little British influence."

The bank clearly has an eye for design and even hired design superstar Stefan Sagmeister for the following commercial:

For my money the "long run" part is the best.

If your interested, here's a making of with SS:

Funny enough I once saw Stefan at a AIGA small talk and I remember he spent part of his early design career in Hong Kong, pretty cool all these years later he still has a presence here!

2 comments:

  1. The Standard Chartered bank logo looks like a blue S and a green C :-)

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  2. Ahh good point, and great eye! That does add an interesting layer.

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