We’ve gone to great lengths to create a digital-first brand identity, ensuring that our design frameworks are usable, accessible, and fit for purpose. Through our Sandbox Programme, for example, digital toolkits are shared among our global design community for testing. Their thoughts and feedback allow us to collaboratively shape our identity, building toward a shared goal of creating enjoyable, memorable cross-platform experiences for all of our customers. 

Our ability to move ahead as one team under one iconic brand is a game changer for our customers, the communities we serve, and our business. Our refreshed brand identity is central to helping us grow and will generate higher returns on our investments by reducing costs and delivering iconic creative. Being consistent throughout customer journeys means we can offer more services more smoothly, in turn creating much higher conversion and cross-selling opportunities.

Our renewed brand identity reflects the many needs of our global creative community and their customers. We have an open design approach that invites the contributions from many hands and minds, across markets and channels. This shaped our updated foundations, helping us to flex where needed and simplify where we could, without sacrificing the customer experience. But we’re not done yet; our brand identity will continue to evolve as we do.

Our brand identity is part of a modular Create Design System. Each piece, from a digital button to a print graphic, makes up a part of our overall brand identity. It’s built to be flexible and easy to update. Plus, being connected and sharing ideas with our creative community means there’s less waste and duplication across the network. The design system may not single-handedly get us to our net-zero targets, but it does show that we’re serious about becoming more organised and efficient.

Following these brand design principles will help us to nurture and protect our brand, and make sure we’re consistent, wherever we show up. Our brand is only ever the reflection of customer expectations, as well as the customer experiences we deliver. When these two things meet, our brand is iconic and memorable. When there’s a gap, our brand becomes fragmented and forgettable. It's our job to make sure customer expectations and experiences are always closely connected with our brand. So, our designers:

• Make it proudly HSBC: there’s only one HSBC logo, it’s our most valuable and iconic asset, and helps us to stand out
• Use distinctive assets: these are our brand foundations and what makes us unique and iconic
• Embrace our angles: strengthening our iconic hexagon includes using its angles throughout customer experiences and creative
• Lead with red: it’s the combination of our hero red, and supporting white, black and greys, that makes us unique, recognisable and memorable
• Express internationalism: we help our customers to see the world the way we see it, through cinematic and expansive imagery and experiences
• Showcase our open, inclusive and human values: we demonstrate this through the people and subjects we use and with digital-first design

Our identity encourages world-class creativity in all the communications and experiences we create. The brand toolkit, guidelines and assets enable our teams to do the best work possible, work that lives up to our purpose and values. Every design decision we make affects both the impression our brand makes and our performance. If it isn’t serving our customers then we raise the bar, making sure we keep on 'opening up a world of opportunity'.