During a project downtime in 2003, I took an initiative to redesign our Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago seal. The original seal looked quite outdated and did not represent a grandeur quality of century old, yet important institution; At least that was the impression I had of it.
If I remember correctly, it took months just to come up with decent stylized Eagle redesigns. There were several concepts that were appealing to me. I combined them with a star-and-stripe crest and the branches – but none of them were quite there yet.
One day, I was standing on the side of the Continental (now Wintrust) building across from the Chicago Fed. I stood and looked straight up. Right above, in the middle of our building’s pediment, there was this bas-relief of an eagle with 7G on it’s crest, which represented the 7th District of Chicago. It was a part of the architectural elements of the building when it was built in 1922. I quickly rushed back to the drawing board.
The finished Seal redesign gradually rolled out. It was first used as a design element on the cover of the Chicago Fed’s 2005 Annual Report. Later it appeared in a more official manner when it was used as the screensaver on our bank-wide phones. The seal’s usage continues to grow, as it progressively appears on various items and applications.
The New Design
The Design Process
Applications
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Thank you!
Nice, love the thought and detail process on how you come out with the idea. Years ago, I also did some logo for a well known hospital. It so old, I forgot to keep it in file. But, they still use it till the day.
Thank You, Ly! : ). Good to know your design is still being used by the hospital! That’s amazing!
Awesome logo design, Ping! It has dignity, bold and crisp imagery. I wonder, in the application on wall somehow it look like 3D form, or just optical illusion?
Thank You, mba! 🙂 It’s an optical illusion — it’s the light glow makes it look like a 3D. It’s just a plain and flat logo with a back light.