Moving to the Big Citi

Original sketch of Citi logo, 1998

Citigroup has announced that it will be uniting its businesses under one name, “Citi,” adopting the now-familiar red arc design recommended by Pentagram nearly nine years ago. “Our unified brand represents the promise to serve our clients as one company, as one Citi,” Citi Chairman and CEO Charles Prince said in a statement endorsing the change. “Our extensive global research and analysis also confirmed Citi is a highly effective brand across many languages, markets and technology platforms. It is how most of our clients think about us already.”

The story of how Pentagram designed the Citi logo follows after the jump.

Pentagram was approached by Citi in spring 1998 when the bank first announced its combination with insurance giant Travelers, then the largest merger in the world. Working with consultant Michael Wolff, Pentagram’s recommendation was to unify the merged entity under a single, four letter name—Citi—and to adopt a logo that would transform the Travelers’ red umbrella into an arc over the letter “t.” (Not only is that letter Travelers’ initial, but it also is one of the few letters that looks like an umbrella handle!)

Original transition recommendation, 1998

The recommendation originally met resistance as a corporate-wide solution. The Travelers umbrella still had substantial equity, and various components within the bank were reluctant to surrender their customary house dress. However, Citi’s consumer banking operations and cards divisions—arguably the most visible, customer-facing parts of the organization—responded to the new identity with enthusiasm, and, thanks to the dedicated leadership of Citi’s brand managers, relaunched the company’s consumer banking operations around the world over the next three years. During that period, Pentagram’s New York, London and Berlin offices worked with Citi on the design of prototype banking facilities, signage systems and credit cards.

Over the last eighteen months, consultants Landor Associates conducted a brand identity analysis and concluded that the Citi logo had achieved such a level of awareness that it was, ultimately, the appropriate face of all its operations.

“We’re really proud of the work we’ve done with Citi over the past decade,” said New York-based partner Paula Scher, who drew the original napkin sketch nine years ago. “Adopting a unified brand is a long process for a company this size, but we’re as sure now as we were then that it’s the right thing to do.”