As can be seen from the above pictures, Gringotts, within the world of Harry Potter, is considered a rather old, and traditional institution, as reflected by it's traditional, imposing architecture, and it's traditional, and almost heraldry, style of logos. Many real world banks are also companies with a relatively long history and a large info structure, but many of their logos are more modern, clean and simple in style, as shown in the examples below.
From looking at these logos, and other modern banking ones, it inspired me to create a logo for Gringotts that was less heritage inspired, but simpler and cleaner, or as I liked to think of it, what logo would Gringotts have if it tried to enter the "muggle" market. Some elements I had to consider was how the logo would look when it was made smaller and also in black and white. Many logos also incorporate the text within the logo, and it is often not just an image, highlighting the importance of typography within the final logo. One of the first decisions I made about the logo, was that although I wanted the logo to look simple and graphic, I also, at the same time, wanted to reflect the traditional style that is clearly important to Gringott's image. Thus, I decided that a Roman typeface would work well, similar to that within Well's Fargo's logo, another bank which uses it's heritage as a selling point for their services, as seen below.
I then started sketching, and this was actually where most of the designing took place instead of whilst working Illustrator. The initial idea was to try incorporating the recognisable shape of pillars into the logo, for which Gringotts is known, as shown in Sketch 1.
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| Sketch 1 - Initial ideas |
Also seen in Sketch 1 is a list of words generally associated with Gringotts. These words, as well as inspection of the first Gringotts logo shown on this post, led me to take one element of said logo, namely a key, to try and incorporate into my version of Gringott's logo. My attempts to sketch this is shown in Sketches 2 and 3.
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| Sketch 2 - "Key" ideas... no pun intended |
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| Sketch 3 - Including the decided upon concept for the logo. |
The concept that was decided upon for the logo was the sketch in a box shown in the top-left corner of Sketch 3. Utilising a key I felt worked very well, because the goblin's within Gringotts are known for carrying huge rings of keys, and whilst they might not necessarily know for their mortgage rates or saving account benefits, they are known for being incredibly secure, as in, impossible for even the most powerful wizards to break into. Also, this particular design was chosen, as I felt it incorporated the text the best into the image. They were not two separate elements, but the image was part of the text and vice versa. In addition to this, the teeth of the key, whilst representing the two 't's within the name also echoed the shape of the pillars. Also shown in Sketch 3 were various designs for the head of the key, and it was decided in the end that the initial design of three circles would be used, as it was cleanest and would also translate the best when made smaller. All that remained was for the logo to be transferred and created using Illustrator.
At first it was made by creating identical ellipses, with no fill, which were then manoeuvred into place and a shaft was created upon which sat the text. The typeface chosen was Charlemagne Std Bold, because of it's roman based lettering, but clear and bold style. Screenshot 1 shows these initial steps.
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| Screenshot 1 - Initial stages of creation |
Also seen in screenshot 1, on the bottom right of the art board, was an experimentation of something to put within the circles of the head. This was simply created by creating a smaller circle and then changing the line style to a floral one. In the end however, I decided that the logo looked better without it, as when made smaller, the design would be too detailed in order to keep it's clarity. What can also be seen in screenshot 1 is the colour chosen for the key, a dark yellow/gold. This was to invoke a feeling of old gold, thus representing Gringott's age and wealth. The text was kept as a simple black, as I think that was the colour which looked best against the dark yellow, and was clear and bold.
The logo was initially creating using lines, not shapes, however in order to experiment with potentially using gradients, I later went on to create a complex shape by creating the outline of the circles by using two circles for each one, and rounded rectangles, and combining with the Pathfinder tools. However, after experimentation a gradient was decided not to be used, as unless it was particularly marked, it would not translate well to black and white, or even perhaps when the logo was made smaller. In addition, the teeth of the key were adapted to not have blunt ending, but tapered ones, which looked more 'finished', and less harsh and blunt. The final logo can be seen below.
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| Gringotts Logo Design |
Overall, I think the logo works well. In particular, I feel that the initial concept, the combination of the text into the key, is very strong. It also successfully fulfils my own created brief of creating something simpler and cleaner for the Gringotts brand. Some potential drawbacks of the logo is the ability of the image and text to work separately, as they are integral to each other for complete understanding. Although, the image alone could become more recognisable if the company was to become well known. Also, the space around the logo is important, as it has the potential to look cramped if there isn't enough space, as can be seen as the logo is compared to the Screenshot 2 of the finished logo, including all the space on the art board.
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| Screenshot 2 - Final Logo |
Love this take! What if logos also hinted at brand values, not just visuals? 🤔
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