Banking is serious business

That's a good looking orange. Image courtesy (obviously) of ING Group.

My latest piece for Color Objects was published yesterday. This time, I wrote about the colours that bank logos tend to use. These logos are usually quite serious looking; they have to be because they want you to believe that the banks they represent aren't going to lose your money. As a result, they use rather ordinary typefaces and graphic marks. In the same regard, they often employ national colours of their respective host countries, making the bank feel larger, and part of a national fabric and culture. Here is the piece. I hope you enjoy it.

Writing about these reminded me of the summer that I worked as an on-call bank teller for Canada Trust. It was 1998, and over a period of about six weeks, I probably worked at eight to ten bank branches throughout Toronto. I was looking for a career path at the time and when this opened up, I thought the bank industry might offer that for me. I love the opportunity to prove myself and I love a "first day" somewhere too. 

Anyway, I did like the chance to wear a tie every day, and I liked the computer system I got to use, but damn, those people I worked with sure were serious. I was 26 at the time and most of them were younger than me and so so lifeless. I get it; it's money and it's not a joke, but wow, was it depressing. When my stint came to a close, I crossed it off my list of potential ways to take over the world.