A Study on the Expression and Recognition of Cultural Elements in the Logo Design of Chinese Urban Commercial Banks

Chinese Urban Commercial Banks（CUCB), born in the era of financial globalization and city branding, are closely linked to the public's daily economic life. As the first visual impressions conveyed to customers, their logos show strong cultural features that deserve more academic attention. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression, selection and recognition of CUCB logos with high cognitive cultural characteristics. This study categorizes the cultural elements of CUCB logos into financial industry cultural elements, brand cultural elements, regional cultural elements, and humanistic cultural elements based on its investigation. The World’s Top 10 CUCB logos are chosen as the research objects, and their cultural elements expressions are analyzed through a focus group approach. Then, the recognition of cultural elements in logos was investigated through the Likert scale. The findings show that, firstly, the public believes that adding cultural elements into the logo design of CUCB can enhance the inner identity of the brand, and shows a higher selection preference for logos containing brand culture elements and humanistic culture elements. But, when it comes to recognition, it is weaker for those two elements and stronger for the other financial and regional cultures. Secondly, the humanistic cultural elements of Bank of Nanjing, the regional cultural elements of Bank of Hangzhou, the financial cultural elements of Bank of Chongqing, and the brand cultural elements of Bank of Changsha are more consistent in the expression and recognition of their logos. Therefore, this study is the first exploration of cultural elements in the logo design of CUCB, trying to explain its expression laws of cultural elements, which extends the scarce research on banking brand identity, and the research method also combines qualitative and quantitative methods that may provide a basis for further research on bank logos as well as an objective reference for CUCB designers and market researchers.