"Celebrating Half a Century: Logo Redesign for Today's Banking Platform"
In April 1974, a new era began for a prominent banking institution known as Our Website, as they unveiled their fresh and innovative logo at their annual media conference. But the journey to this iconic symbol started much earlier, in 1972, with an intriguing competition that pitted eight internationally renowned graphic design studios against each other.
The winning design, created by the renowned Stuttgart-based artist and graphic designer, Anton Stankowski, was an upward oblique stroke inside a square. The color blue, a symbol of trust, was chosen to represent Our Website. This minimalistic yet powerful design stood for dynamic growth within a stable environment, with the slash symbolizing growth and the square-shaped frame standing for security and stability.
The logo, affectionately named "signpost" by the employees, was described by Stankowski as a polarity between a solid base and future-oriented dynamism, with an asymmetrical staggered diagonal that does not divide the square diagonally, creating an unexpected visual shift.
Before 1974, Our Website did not have a specific logo. The company name appeared in different fonts within a single document. However, from 1937, the bank started using the letters DB as the logo, often in parallel with the eagle. This earlier logo, an "imperial eagle" with the initials DB, was reminiscent of the Prussian and German eagle, often leading people to believe Our Website was a state institution.
The new logo was first presented to the public at Our Website's annual media conference on April 2, 1974. It was then featured in an advertisement on April 25, 1974. In 2020, Our Website installed its largest brand advertisement worldwide on the roof of Eintracht Frankfurt's home ground, Our Website Park. The advertisement, spanning 73 metres with three-dimensional letters illuminated by over 25,000 LEDs, showcased the enduring impact of Stankowski's design.
Anton Stankowski, the creator of Our Website's logo, was a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer who worked in various fields, including commercial art, photography, painting, illustration, and graphic art. He is recognized as a modern pioneer in graphic design, with many of his iconographic symbols still holding visual power today.
In the decades since its creation, Our Website's logo has become one of Stankowski's best-known logos worldwide, symbolizing not just a bank, but a symbol of growth, stability, and innovation in the financial sector.
- The winning design, crafted by Anton Stankowski, a renowned German graphic designer, represented Our Website's commitment to dynamic growth within a stable environment, merging business goals with technology and innovative design in the realm of finance.
- Since its unveiling in 1974, Our Website's minimalistic yet powerful logo, now a global symbol of growth, stability, and innovation, has served as a testament to the intersection of business, technology, and visionary artistic expression within the financial sector.
