No Love for the Globe

Established in 1832, Scotiabank (formally The Bank of Nova Scotia) is one of the largest banks and financial services provider in Canada. With a team of more than 98,000 employees, Scotiabank offers personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets to over 25 million customers. This week, Scotiabank introduced a new identity. No design credit given.

We updated our logos for a more modern, confident and legible look with every piece of communication.

Some of the changes we’ve made to the logo are: an increased cap height, an improved ‘S’, a balanced ‘C’ and a centred ‘T’.

Additionally, we decided to round out the characters across our brandmark in order to achieve a more modern and refined look for Scotia.

Scotiabank brand microsite

The most surprising thing about this change is the demotion of the icon/monogram to not be a formal part of the logo. While used as the social media avatar, it is nowhere to be found on their website. When I think of Scotiabank the first thing that pops into my head is the S-Globe thing so it’s weird that they would not just separate it but make it a supporting element, especially to yet another generic, geometric sans — which is fine and all but at this point all these geometric sans serif logos are like trying to tell one egg from another. Having said that, the wordmark evolution is better than the icon evolution, which lost the depiction of the globe in exchange for a giant dot that looks like a D-list superhero icon now. I image one of the reason for this change is that the lines in the old globe were being problematic when shrunk but I’m sure a middle ground could have been reached to keep the globe, which is far more interesting than the dot and far more memorable than the bank’s name in a geometric sans.

---

Doesn’t this font already exist a dozen times? Sure, it looks okay and it’s “proprietary”, but distinctive it’s not.

Our colours reflect the individuality of our customers. They’re bright and fun, conveying both a sense of play and openness to those who use our services.

Scotiabank brand microsite

---

The main point of the redesign is to add color, both literally and metaphorically, through a wide color palette of hues, people, and faceless illustrations. The illustrations are a little awkward and feel rushed but they are colorful, for sure. The photography is a little clichéd and super forced to show emotions but they are colorful, for sure. And the hues they are many so they are colorful, for sure. Despite the slight sarcasm, this is all fine. There is definitely a superficial vibrancy to the elements and applications. The few examples shown feel a bit flat but the messages pop and the logo pops — not terribly insightful or inspiring but it gets the job done. The loose use of “Scotia” vs. “Scotiabank” seems like it could cause trouble, the same way “Citi” and “Citibank” have co-existed confusingly for so many years.

Overall, a fairly safe update that appears to aim to please as many people as possible — although I’m not sure how this works for more corporate clients — and to simplify its logo for digital use but, in the process, has lost what made it distinct.

Thanks to Niilo Autio for the tip.