Scotiabank, formally The Bank of Nova Scotia, is a Canadian financial institution founded in 1832 in Halifax. Its current visual identity, introduced in 2019, centers on a red typographic wordmark and a companion icon known as the “Flying S,” a stylized letter “S” that has been part of the brand since 1974. [1]
Design and History
Scotiabank’s visual identity has evolved through several distinct phases. In the bank’s early years, a seal served as its corporate identifier, featuring a central shield with a sailing vessel, a codfish, and a plow with a sheaf of grain. In 1921, heraldic artist A. Scott Carter formalized the seal design and created the bank’s coat of arms, adding a stag and maple leaf, along with Scottish symbols including a thistle, unicorn, and St. Andrew’s cross. The coat of arms was approved by the Scotiabank Board in 1950 and by the College of Arms in London in 1951. [1]
The first use of the “Scotiabank” wordmark came in 1961, initially introduced in a dual-font design. The “Scotia” portion used a Spencerian script style, while a new font created for the bank was used for “bank,” based on magnetic ink figures used for mechanized cheques. In 1963, the bank adopted a “globe and arrow” logo to emphasize its international reputation. [1]
In 1974, Scotiabank introduced the “Flying S” logo, a stylized “S” designed around a globe, along with the official color the bank calls “Scotia red.” The globe within the “S” symbolized the link between the bank and its affiliates worldwide. [1] [2]
The logo evolved further in 1987, when the Flying S changed from red to white and was enclosed in a red box. In 1998, the red box was removed, the symbol moved to the left of the wordmark, and the font was sharpened. At that time, the corporate color was changed from an orange-red to a deeper, more vibrant “true” red. [1]
Scotiabank’s most recent logo was created in 2019. The redesign, developed by the agency OneMethod, updated both the Flying S and the wordmark to be more modern, confident, and digital friendly. The globe within the Flying S was replaced with a solid dot, and the wordmark became the primary brand expression, with the Flying S used mainly for small digital spaces such as the bank’s mobile app. [1] [2] [3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Flying S icon, introduced in 1974, was designed as a stylized “S” around a globe. The bank described it as a visual link between Scotiabank (the “S”) and its affiliates worldwide (the globe), reflecting the bank’s international presence. [1] [2]
The bank’s official color, Scotia red, was adopted in 1974. The bank chose the warm shade of red to be highly visible and memorable, describing it as strong, eye-catching, warm, attractive, modern, youthful, forceful, and striking. [1]
Typography and Design
For the 2019 redesign, OneMethod developed a custom Scotia font in collaboration with the type foundry Dalton Maag. The font drew inspiration from the motion found within the brand’s historic Flying S icon. The new wordmark was designed to be more legible and digital friendly, with the goal of presenting a consistent and accessible experience across screens. [4] [3]
The 2019 refresh also expanded the brand’s color palette. While red remained at the core of the brand, the new design system introduced a much greater use of color across typography, photography, and illustrations, inverting the previous approach of a red bank with colorful type into a colorful system rooted in red. [3] [4]
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