The logo that Thomas Geismar created for the merger of the bank of the manhattan company and chase national bank is a nationally recognized design that’s had much success. This design was originally created in 1961 and has survived over four decades of mergers. This design features four blue quadrilaterals that lead the eye in a circular direction. The Chase logo provides a dynamic look that can almost be seen as three-dimensional. This helps add more interest to the symbol. This simplistic design is the essence of design for Geismar. He enjoys very simple designs. It’s challenging to create such a simple design that represents an entire company. When this is done successfully, advertising becomes a lot easier as well as name recognition. At the time, the logo was being created, many banks used logos that were inspired by their initials or the bank’s headquarters. The original logo for the Chase Manhattan bank used a map of the United States, with “Chase Manhattan” written over it, a globe was then stacked on top, and the phrase “world-wide banking” was written over the globe. This awkward and complex logo needed to be redesigned for their merger with the Manhattan Company. Geismar decided that Chase would benefit from a simple symbol. Since there is no symbol that represents banking or the word “Chase,” Geismar decided that an abstract symbol would be best. This was very unusual at the time but was very successful. This symbol became so popular that many organizations started to create similar abstract logos.

Citations:

Butler, Andy. “Tom Geismar Interview.” Designboom, 22 Feb. 2010. https://www.designboom.com/design/tom-geismar-interview/