Banco Sabadell, a Spanish banking group founded in 1881, has used a typographic identity built around a blue circle containing a white “B” paired with the wordmark “SABADELL.” The current mark is documented in official trademark registrations, which describe a white letter “B” centered in a blue circle to the left of the word “SABADELL” in black letters, with blue, black and white claimed as colors of the mark.[1]
Design and History
The bank’s corporate visual identity was redesigned in 1991, according to an IESE Business School case study that traces the evolution of Banco Sabadell’s graphic identity from its founding in 1881 through the 1991 change.[2] The designer responsible for the Banco Sabadell graphic identity is Mario Eskenazi, an Argentine-born, Barcelona-based architect and designer, as confirmed by multiple sources including the ADG-FAD association and Eina design school.[3][4]
Eskenazi chose the Franklin Gothic typeface for the identity, using Franklin Gothic Demi for the symbol and logotypes and Franklin Gothic Book for subsidiary names, according to a brand manual for Banco Sabadell.[5] An official Spanish trademark registration from 2003 confirms the Franklin Gothic Book typeface and specifies the blue as Pantone Process Blue, with the first word of the name in blue and the second in black.[6]
The identity was designed to work as a family of brands, since the bank acquired other institutions and kept their names as regional or business-line brands. In 2004, the group created the Sabadell Atlántico logotype, designed by Mario Eskenazi, which used the same white and blue colors and maintained the corporate typography.[7] In 2012, the bank’s blue replaced the orange circle of CAM’s identity when the group introduced the SabadellCAM commercial brand in the Valencia and Murcia regions.[8]
In November 2012, the bank introduced a simplified version of the mark, rebranding as “BSabadell” and applying the new logo across its offices, including those of Sabadell Atlántico, Sabadell CAM, Sabadell Urquijo and Sabadell Guipuzcoano.[9] The symbol continued to function as a standalone element, with the “B” and “S” placed in a hierarchical relationship.[10]
Typography and Design
The identity is fundamentally typographic, built on the logotype and symbol rather than pictorial imagery.[11] The Franklin Gothic typeface family forms the basis of the wordmark, with the symbol consisting of a white “b” inside a blue circle followed by a larger black “s.”[6] The official color is Pantone Process Blue, with black and white completing the palette.[12]
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