State Bank of India - Refreshed
SBI launched their new and trendy logo this week. Since the bank has merged six lenders catapulting the country’s largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world.
The New logo of SBI retains the famous blue keyhole designed by NID designer Mr. Shekhar Kamath. Though a complete re-brand was in mind the final decision was to retain only the key-hole and abbreviation, drop every other aspect of the logo including the tagline 'Banker to Every Indian'. The entire decision was to de-clutter the logo, make it contemporary and trendy. A topic of renaming it to State Bank of India was also in discussion but the team decided that the abbreviation 'SBI' is pretty contemporary and in sync with the current generation.
The new logo has shed a lot of weight to blend with contemporary design. There was so much weight on the old logo such as the regional name translation, English name, logo and the tagline and its regional translation. All these are now refreshed to 'SBI'
The logo is compact and can be easily scaled through a lot of platforms. Retaining the blue key-hole was a safe and best choice as it is part of people's life and bringing in a change would affect large demographics of bankers from 50 and above. Banking (Brick & mortar banks) has always been a bit of a struggle with the younger generation (including us). Moreover young bankers quite often complete all their banking transaction with the touch of their fingers so they would definitely welcome the new logo.
The key-hole colour is retained but the colour of the abbreviation 'SBI' is changed from black to royal blue. In colour psychology the blue hues stand for integrity and confidence and it has always been a sought after colour in industries like banking & automobiles.
Considering the legacy, existence and its customers the refreshed logo should definitely work as an advantage with the older and the younger generation bankers.
Let us know what you think of the new refreshed look of SBI.
Image Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Bank_of_India
https://vanihegde.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/indian-banks-their-symbol-and-slogans
https://bemybanker.com/uploads/banks/
