After a comprehensive audit of the Citi’s decade-old branding, a new design language emerged, aimed to amend the shortcomings of the earlier system, and function as a dynamic evolution for one of the world’s leading financial institutions.

The Blue Wave

A commanding blue gradient, referred to internally as the Blue Wave, was at the core of the prior system, which was developed mostly to handle print communications.

The flexibility of the Blue Wave template fell short in the digital space while also creating inconsistencies when applied to communications for the brand’s numerous global markets.

Five Core Blues

There is certainly a sense of brand equity in the Blue Wave gradient, so to completely abandon it would be unwise.

The new system needs to be flexible and progressive yet remain rooted in what came before it.

By deconstructing the gradient and extracting five core blues, we can begin to demonstrate the many facets of Citi in a way that is simple to convey, yet adaptive enough for a brand that is constantly evolving in a digital world.