Lisbon banks on HLS team

Lisbon’s Crédito Agrícola banking group was after something simple for its investment bank. Central Banco de Investimento’s new identity had to be easily understood and work in a conservative market.

Central, which was recently born out of its parent company’s broking arm, was already operating with a locally designed marque. Henrion, Ludlow & Schmidt, which has a representative in Portugal, refused to take part in a free creative pitch against a Spanish and a Portuguese consultancy.

HLS instead offered up proposals and credentials and won the job with its international view, says group managing director Chris Ludlow.

Portugal is in the process of putting itself on the financial map. ‘The economy is having a turnaround at the moment, it is going through quite considerable growth,’ says HLS creative director Mark North.

Part of the consultancy’s brief was to retain the green, so HLS brought in the colour ochre to complement it. ‘The identity had to be credible and in keeping with them [Crédito Agrícola group] being quite conservative and had to look established,’ North adds.

HLS came up with a number of logo ideas and the final version was chosen for having ‘the most gravitas’, says North.

The identity will gradually roll out over the next few months.

Design: Henrion, Ludlow & Schmidt

Client: Crédito Agrícola