Commercial Bank of Kuwait Logo
Many of you might not know this but the Commercial Bank of Kuwait logo was designed by one of the best design agencies in the world, Pentagram back in 1979. Not only that but the designer who worked on the Commercial Bank identity, Alan Fletcher, is also among the most influential figures in British graphic design history. I decided to share with you what Alan Fletcher said about the Commerical Bank project back in the 1980’s and also the idea behind the logo itself.
The text below was written by Alan Fletcher
Designing in the Middle East requires certain cultural adjustments to one’s normal working pattern and lifestyle. The Gulf States are seven hours’ flying time from London with a time difference of three hours. Travel by Arabic airlines is like arriving in the Gulf before you’ve left. It’s a dry journey - no alcohol. At midday, Muslim passengers are likely to say prayers prostrated in the aisle; one wonders about the flight deck! Normal working hours are 8.00 am to 1.00 pm, and even then a government survey indicated that the oil-rich Kuwaiti only works an average of ten minutes each day. Friday is a holiday but they work Saturday instead. Appointments, are not necessarily appointments, and frequently involve hours (if not days) of waiting.
The Commercial Bank of Kuwait had catered only for institutions and businesses within the Gulf States until it decided to expand into international markets and enter retail banking. The new policy created the need for an appropriate visual identity. Since the bank had neither the experience nor resources, it appointed Tony Vines, via Ogilvy and Mather, New York, to set up a marketing department and create a new identity within eighteen months. Vines flew to London in 1979, interviewed various advertising agencies and designers, and on reaching a rapport with Pentagram commissioned us to work on the program. His fast response to locating a design resource set the pace for the hectic schedule that followed.
In architecture the term ‘fast tracking’ describes the method of designing whereby the architect keeps one jump ahead of the builder. In this case the severe deadlines and cultural differences made it more of a jump in the dark. The brief stipulated that the corporate identity and design style should be Arabic in flavor, but be understood internationally. The symbol, in particular, was required to mean something to both an Arab and a Westerner. Designing within these constraints reduced the normal available options. The two different scripts precluded using the alphabet to form a logotype such as Unisys, or initials such as IBM. An abstract mark would take too long to establish. A pictorial device might have encouraged the client to insist on a heraldic solution such as a scimitar crossed with palms. However the design of the symbol proved to be the least of the problems. Designing from right to left, in a script and language one didn’t understand, and within an unfamiliar culture, required keeping one’s head fast on its feet.
The new Commercial Bank symbol is an amalgamation of calligraphy and image. the words commercial and bank are rendered in kufic, a geometric script, to make a decorative star, recognizable by anyone as a distinctive pattern and, additionally, readable to an Arab. The dual language identity has English type in Paul Renner’s Futura with a compatible Arabic script especially drawn by Ahmed Mustafa.
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16 Comments, add your own...
1. Pearls | April 9th, 2006 at 10:42 am
“oil-rich Kuwaiti only works an average of ten minutes each day.”
2. Mark | April 9th, 2006 at 10:46 am
well he is talking back in around 1978, i dont know whats the average today..
3. Pearls | April 9th, 2006 at 10:58 am
I think that’s an overstatement.
4. purgatory72 | April 9th, 2006 at 11:05 am
10 minutes is alot of work in a day, I think we should go down to 5 minutes.
5. Pearls | April 9th, 2006 at 11:18 am
what about a lunch break?
6. guessed | April 9th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I should be a Kuwaiti!
Like them, I love HARD WORK. And also like them, I can sit and watch it for hours!!!
7. Anon | April 9th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Great post mark, very informative… :)
8. purgatory72 | April 9th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Yeah we need a lunch break too!
9. dotone | April 9th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
I so wanned to see such a post or article to end the off-shore and basicaly outsourced branding work arguement and sensless/meaningless/nonexpressing identity and designs with many printed/web formal-hand-shaking-business-men photos bleneded with some keyboard and brief case stock photos.
I’m basicaly talking about the SMB segment, however it’s there in the big boys zone too.
Man gotta thank ya for this post. I’m lovin’ it! I’m deliciousing it ;)
10. OSHO | April 9th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Has anyone read Angels and Demons by Dan brown? The CB logo is quite reminiscent of the illuminati branding designs. Additionally, the pentagram name hits too close to home. Coincidence or Illuminati (Commercial Bank?????) in our midst?? You decide! (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
11. Annie | April 14th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Hey Mark, It’s your cousin Annie. The other day i saw the logo of Casino Du Liban and it reminded me of this logo. Wonder who came up with it first ….
The actual logo is very small on their website http://www.cdl.com.lb. But you can check out the black and white version here http://www.1stlebanon.net/uk/casinos.html
14. Patrick | September 30th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Good info to share.
Its an Okay logo, I personally do not see the “Pentagram magic” in it.
+ The information given on the logo creation & basics that the designer relied on are not enough, for instance, it does not explain why they used a star of 8 points, not 5 or 7 or 9.
Its clear that it is a common Islamic / Arabic geometrical shape but those are many, why a star, and why this specific 8 points one.
Also, the design was not an innovation as it has been used before,
not going too far, CASINO DU LIBAN have their logo very similar, which was done in 1959.
Adding more info: With time, the logo has been modified several times, if you look at the first logo image of the CBK, (the one used as a header for this topic)
which is a new version, you see that the star is positioned in a way where 2 points are on top, if u scroll further down to the photo, u see the logo on the wall in a different
position, one point is on top (Until these days, they use both positions).
I worked in an agency in the past in where we also used different variations; one of them was the solid star, with no calligraphy, another one was the outline version and in other layouts we used a 2D texture (gell-like effects) logo…
Anyhow, not to mean to be critic in here but, as a designer myself, i feel the urge of giving my honest opinion in technical and artistic manners.
I am a big Alan-Fletcher-work appreciator and respect the guy’s career a lot.
15. Malcolm Macaulay | December 10th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Bizarre. Today I was building some shelves in our furnace cupboard. Upon cleaning out the years of accumulated wood and detritus, I came across a Commercial Bank of Kuwait SAK bronze plaque. It’s about 300 x 200 mm and looks like the sort of thing you would see on the doorway of a older building in the city of London. We live in a flat in New Crane Wharf in Wapping (east of the city).
I thought someone might have souvenired it from a defunct bank, so I Googled CBK and found this website.
cheers
Malcolm Macaulay
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