The Chase logo was introduced in 1961, when the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company merged to form the Chase Manhattan Bank, then the largest commercial bank in New York and the second largest in the United States.

At the time, few American corporations used abstract symbols for their identification, but we were convinced that the bank would benefit from a simple symbol that could not only unite the two newly merged corporate cultures but also come to stand in for the company’s unwieldy name. Chase Manhattan had tremendous advertising resources that could quickly establish an abstract symbol in the public mind.

The blue octagonal mark is abstract but not without meaning. It was inspired by a traditional Chinese coin, and, with the square enclosed in an octagon, it suggests a bank vault—and by extension the notion of security and trust. The 45-degree angles give the mark motion and dynamism, even a hint of three-dimensionality, yet it remains quite simple.

The presentation to the Chase Manhattan top executive board that would decide on the new symbol was quite dramatic. Two of the three top executives resisted the very idea of an abstract symbol, which wasn’t surprising. However, within months of the adoption of the identity, the same executives who had opposed the mark were proudly wearing it on cufflinks and tie tacks.

Radical for its time, the Chase symbol has survived a number of subsequent mergers, and is currently the property of JPMorgan Chase & Co. It has become one of the world’s most recognizable trademarks.