Landor embraces wide angles in its ‘hyper-vision’ brand evolution for BANCOMAT

As Italy’s primary provider of debit card payment infrastructure and ATM networks since 1983, BANCOMAT S.p.A. continues to play a crucial role in the country’s transition toward digital payments. Tasked with the mission of modernising this iconic Italian financial institution – mirroring their move toward a unified digital ecosystem, incorporating modern payment solutions like NFC, QR codes, and digital wallets – Landor has reimagined BANCOMAT for the digital age while preserving its trusted heritage.

They began with an update to the company’s historic ‘B’ logo, originally designed by Pier Paolo Cornieti in 1983, evolving from its seagull-inspired origins into a powerful emblem of vision and leadership. As Creative Director Alessio Galdi explains, Landor “freed it from the geometric grid where it once lived, making it a pivotal element of the new identity and redesigning it to be more contemporary and suitable for a digital universe.”

This ‘B,’ crafted in the shape of a seagull, sparked the foundational concept of ‘hyper-vision’ or a bird’s-eye view that drives the entire visual identity. It is expressed within the identity’s photographic and video style via “expansive perspectives” that reflect the brand’s vision and inclusivity. “Wide fields of view, dynamic compositions, and sweeping footage capture a sense of openness, progress, and interconnectedness, reinforcing a narrative of exploration and leadership,” Motion Design Director Salvatore Illeggittimo tells us.

The typography also underwent an evolution, with a custom-drawn wordmark, that draws inspiration from the original 1983 design with a contemporary twist. Here, it maintains its uppercase character while replacing rounded forms with sharp, ‘wide-angle’ curves that establish a distinctive visual language.

The lettering’s DNA, as Head Of Type Gianluca Ciancaglini explains, directly informed the look of BANCOMAT Display, a custom typeface created for the rebrand. “The ‘wide-angle’ curves infuse the alphabet with the language of BANCOMAT, defining an ownable typeface connected to the brand idea,” he says. “The typeface’s compact and display nature, together with a motion-based typographic system featuring fresh and bold perspectives, create an innovative communication for the brand.”

All of these elements are brought to life in BANCOMAT’s new motion system, whereby the typography, graphic assets and layouts also move with an open-wide view. “The wide-angle concept significantly influenced how we approached the typography, ensuring that the typefaces align visually with the expansive, forward-thinking vision of the brand,” adds Galdi. “By incorporating perspectives and varying scales, the type responds dynamically to the wide-angle principle. This means the type doesn’t simply exist as static elements but shifts, adapts, and expands, much like the imagery itself, enhancing the sense of movement and breadth.”