The
Citigroup logo is quite famous (or perhaps infamous) for being
designed in a matter of seconds by Paula Scherr of New York-based
design firm Pentagram. Citicorp changed its name to Citigroup after a
merger with Traveler's Group in 1998--one of the largest bank mergers
in history. At this point, the newly minted Citigroup was in great
need of a new corporate identity to communicate the merger and
revived corporate presence. Therefore, Citigroup approached Paula Scherr
of Pentagram to design the new logo.
After an initial meeting,
Scherr sketched what would become the final
logo of Citi on a napkin in a matter of seconds. Citi's executives
were understandably irked by this, and were reluctant at first to
invest in her design, as Scherr notes corporations often operate
under the belief that more time or "process" spent on an
idea equates to a better quality design. However, the Citi logo
demonstrates that just because a design is generated quickly does not
diminish its value. Rather, Scherr explains, her "one second"
design was actually the culmination of her thirty-four years of
design experience--it takes decades of hard work and knowledge to
come up with great designs on the spot.
The
Citibank logo is combined from the red umbrella icon of Traveler's
Group, and the word "Citi" from Citicorp. Scherr observed
that the lower-case "t" in Citi could represent the perfect
umbrella handle. Scherr added a red arch over the lower-case "t,"
connecting the dots of the two i's, to fully integrate the red
umbrella concept into the word "Citi." The result is a
seamless and iconic visual merger of Traveler's Group and Citicorp.
Sources
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