Banca Mediolanum is an Italian banking group founded by Ennio Doris, headquartered in Basiglio near Milan. Its current visual identity centers on a blue circle that encircles the letter M in the wordmark, a symbol the bank adopted in March 2015 after retiring its previous emblem.
Design and History
For nearly two decades, Banca Mediolanum used a stylized serpent, known as the “biscione,” a historic Milanese symbol. The serpent had appeared on the group’s logo since 1997 as a reference to ancient Mediolanum, the Roman name for Milan.[1]
At the annual convention in Pesaro on March 4, 2015, the bank unveiled a new logo, replacing the biscione with a blue circle drawn around the M of the Mediolanum wordmark.[2] The redesign was announced by Massimo Doris, then CEO, who explained that the project had been underway for more than a year. He cited a practical reason for the change: the old logo’s lettering was too long and difficult to read compared with competitors.[3]
The circle itself was not new to the brand. It had been used in Mediolanum television advertising since 2000, where founder Ennio Doris physically traced a circle in various spots to illustrate the concept of a bank “built around you.”[4] Massimo Doris noted that by 2015 the public already associated the circle directly with the bank, making it a natural choice to elevate into the primary logo symbol.[4]
Ennio Doris described the change as a matter of recognition rather than a break with the past: “The biscione remains in our hearts, the first badge we had was the biscione, then when the group became autonomous and we were listed we stylized the symbol, but our symbol, the one by which we are recognized by everyone, is the circle.”[5]
The rebranding rollout continued through 2015. New lapel pins were distributed to family bankers at the convention, and by October the new logo had replaced the old one at the company’s headquarters in Basiglio, completing the group-wide rebranding.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The circle represents the bank’s positioning as “the bank built around you,” a concept that had been central to Mediolanum’s advertising since 2000.[4] Massimo Doris described the circle as “the symbol of Mediolanum,” noting that it was a physical circle first traced by his father and later by himself in television commercials.[7]
In the current logo, the circle is drawn around the initial M of the wordmark, with the ring open toward the following letter E.[2] The open circle motif also carries meaning in the related identity of Fondazione Mediolanum, where the opening toward the outside “symbolizes exchange and reciprocity.”[8]
Typography and Design
Massimo Doris stated that the bank decided to change the font of the wordmark as part of the 2015 redesign, specifically because the previous lettering was difficult to read.[3] The new logo is described graphically as the word “Mediolanum” with the M encircled in blue and open toward the E.[2] No designer or agency attribution for the 2015 redesign has been publicly documented in the available sources.
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