Signalling real and meaningful change

CommBank

2021

Brand identity
Strategy
Digital product
Website
Campaign
Packaging
Motion
Editorial
Spatial & retail
Service design

How does Australia's biggest bank behave like it has actually changed — not just say it has? After the financial crisis, a reputation reckoning, devastating bushfires and a pandemic, faith in institutions was thin. CommBank's black-and-yellow diamond — unchanged since 1991 — had come to signal exactly the kind of authority Australians had stopped trusting. The brand couldn't announce change with a campaign. It had to behave differently in every interaction, or the change wouldn't be believed.

Daylit branch entrance with fluted glass, timber slats and a yellow line across the floor

The Commonwealth Bank is one of Australia’s best-known brands. Every Australian recognises the iconic black and yellow diamond, originally created by Ken Cato in 1991.

But a lot has changed since the nineties. The world has been through the global financial crisis, and had its faith in institutions shaken. The bank has faced challenges to its corporate reputation. Australians have weathered devastating bushfires and a global pandemic.

It was time for CommBank to present a new type of bank to Australians, embracing genuine change and adopting a more open and humble tone to communicate. Then in late 2020 for the first time in almost three decades, the Bank unveiled an evolved identity.

““With the work we are doing to reinvent the organisation around a new strategy and values, now is the right time to refresh the iconic diamond, making it lighter, brighter and more dynamic, and inject new meaning into the Can platform.”
Monique Macleod – Chief Marketing Officer, Commonwealth Bank

Travel Card poster: woman leaning from a van window, yellow angular rule and diamond mark

Black poster for the Ultimate Awards card, charcoal Mastercard and yellow diamond

All new Neo poster with oversized black type and a yellow CommBank credit card

Campaign poster of a father carrying two laughing children, 'Can lives here' in yellow script

Poster of a smiling woman in blue printed fabric, yellow chevron and 'Can lives here'

Poster of a woman laughing in sunlight, framed by yellow chevron lines and the diamond

Commonwealth Private banker brochure held open, portrait spread facing a column of grey text

Grey business card and envelope carrying the Commonwealth Private diamond, shot on black

Black slipcase box with a silver chevron rule and the Commonwealth Private diamond mark

Two CommBank sustainability ad layouts, one portrait and one square, on grey and black

Neo card campaign: street poster alongside yellow and white CommBank credit cards

StepPay screens on phone and watch beside a yellow 'Buy now, pay later' CommBank panel

Concrete wall panels split by glowing yellow light lines forming angular chevrons

Close crop of pale wall panels traced by a lit white diagonal turning a corner

Vertical timber battens with a diagonal shadow cutting a chevron across the wall

Seaside bus shelter panel carrying the CommBank Matildas football poster at sunset

Illuminated CommBank Stadium signage and yellow diamond, roof lit green at dusk

More work

DomainProperty possibilities

LinkedIn recruitment post mock-up with 'This is your Domain' over a concentric house outline

MistranslationsFor community, by community

Framed geometric poster where circles and faint floorplan lines carry a 1.5m distancing message

Mistranslations install: two grids of framed posters beside the introductory wall text

Bold black Chinese type and a photographed surgical mask on yellow, from the mask-wearing poster

Get in touch

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