The $1.5 million napkin
In 1998, the merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group gave birth to the world’s largest financial services company — Citigroup — valued at $140 billion at the time and with $700 billion in assets under management.
By default, the new group needed a new visual identity in line with its market value. Thus, in 1999 they turned to Paula Scher from New York, one of the 25 partners of the Pentagram company.
After a short preliminary negotiation, they agreed on the entire rebranding package price — 10 million dollars, out of which the logo worthed 1.5 million.
When they met again to establish the rest of the details, Paula started to draw the logo on a napkin.
“This is your logo,” Paula said, pointing to the logo drawn on the napkin in a few minutes.
The partners were skeptical that Citigroup would accept a logo made on a napkin in such a short time. But, Paula said that her working speed is the result of about 30 years of design experience at that time.
Briefly, the logo illustrates the merger between the two companies. The “t” arched inwards and the arch above representing the umbrella in the old logo of…
