The Most Hideous Redesign Ever

...and the worst way to revive a company. The City Bank (not to be confused with the international banking giant Citibank) has revealed its new logo. It looks like crap. Their explanation is:

The Official Explanation

It's a simple logo. Its beauty is in its simplicity of arrangement which is also bold. Since it is simple, it connects with people easily.

The red and silver shape may mean a chess board. Chessboard stands for wisdom & vision. Since we are 25 years old, we are expert, wise & experienced. Chess is the game of the smart people who knows all the moves. Our game is to deal with your money matters and - as wise & experienced bankers, we are experts in that. The red and silver shape may also mean something dynamic. It may mean the checkered flag of Formula One Racing. Then it signifies speed and agility & fast pace. The red and silver shape may also mean a kite. It's a beautiful colorful kite, nose up, going to reach for the sky. In that case, it means the bank is soaring high into the skies of many possibilities in order to make customers' financial dreams come true The red and silver shape may also mean it's a flying chessboard. It's a chess-board that has taken wings and is flying. In that case it indicates to what extent this bank can go to serve customers better

The logo has a dynamic shape. Such dynamism stands for modernity, the 21st century. That signifies, this is going to be a techno-savvy bank, a state-of-the-art tech-powered modern bank

The color 'red' stands for emotion, passion, strength, vitality, action, confidence & courage.

The color silver symbolizes riches, just as gold does. Silver is glamorous & distinguished. Silver is the traditional 25th anniversary color or Silver Jubilee color. Another thing is: "Pieces of silver" means money or coin. And our pay-off line is "Making Sense of Money".

What it really is
With so many explanations, they don't know what it is. Its the flag of the Czech Republic with a horrendous typeface from the 1980's. When in doubt, stick to traditional typefaces rather than typefaces that are the result of a fad (in this case the Robocop movie). This logo makes AB Bank's redesign look good.

Mobile operators need a logo every couple of years. But banks, less so. Also considering how close Citybank is with Citibank, a rename would have been better with the hideous logo.

You can't change dismal performances of 25 years by changing your logo. But I guess you can always try. You don't see some other more successful banks trying to change their logo. From what I hear, Citybank's MD is the highest paid MD in Bangladesh. And yet he has been unable to produce anything from this lackluster bank but the hideous logo.