A great quote from Bob Bayman, partner at London-based retail design consultancy I-am Associates in the recent issue of Design Week:

‘Banks are about as well branded as pieces of Lego,’ he says. ‘There is the blue bank, the red bank, the black bank, the other blue bank.’ Bayman says that banks need to stop thinking about design in terms of aesthetic appeal – for example, using a red corporate identity to signify ‘vibrant’ and a blue one to suggest ‘safe’ – and instead improve the customer experience. ‘Brands are about "standout" and "stand for",’ he claims. ‘They stand for very little, so they spend all their time, money and effort focusing on standing out.’

In the current economic crisis, banks are going to have fundamentally re-think their relationships with their customers. In fact, banks have the most to gain with the meltdown and the public’s lost trust in fund managers, brokerages and what are typically considered more complex financial vehicles. Banks have always said they wanted to do more for customers but who among them will seize this opportunity to do just that?