The yellow and black diamond is one of the most recognisable marks in Australian banking, so ingrained in everyday life that it’s become shorthand for “bank” in plenty of contexts beyond CBA itself. But the diamond isn’t the bank’s original identity, it’s actually the fourth logo in a history that stretches back over a century.
A Government Institution’s First Mark
Commonwealth Bank was established by the federal government in 1911, beginning operations the following year. Fittingly for a government run institution, its first logo depicted a modified version of the Australian coat of arms, featuring a shield flanked by a kangaroo and an emu. It was a formal, heraldic mark suited to an organisation still closely tied to government identity.
Simplifying Through the Mid Century
By the late 1950s, the bank had moved to a rounded badge design built around a stylised “CBA” monogram in two shades of blue. A further update in 1961 introduced a circular emblem featuring a white outline of the Australian continent, paired with a thin wordmark, a more modern, streamlined look for the era.
The Diamond Arrives: 1991
The most significant change came in 1991, the same year the bank was partially privatised. Designed by Ken Cato, the new mark was a solid yellow diamond built around an abstraction of the Southern Cross constellation, the same stars featured on the Australian flag, with the yellow linking the points between the stars and a black section completing the diamond shape.
The wordmark that accompanied it had a small detail most people never notice: the two “m”s in “Commonwealth” were designed to merge into one, sharing a horizontal line as a subtle typographic flourish. The bank itself described the new identity at the time as bold, strong, modern and progressive.
Why the Diamond Worked So Well
The yellow diamond represented a deliberate break from the conservative, formal visual language banks had traditionally used, aiming instead to project confidence and approachability. That colour choice turned out to matter more than it might seem. Yellow doesn’t carry the same weight or exclusivity associations that navy or gold often do in finance branding, and that approachable, everyday feel became part of the bank’s broader positioning over the following decades, reinforced through extensive sponsorship of community sport and education programs.
The 2020 Refresh
Nearly thirty years after the diamond first appeared, Commonwealth Bank updated it again in 2020. The refresh kept the diamond shape but made it lighter, brighter and more dynamic, moving to a solid yellow diamond and dropping the standalone wordmark in many applications in favour of “CommBank”, acknowledging how customers had come to refer to the bank in everyday conversation. The bank’s chief marketing officer at the time described it explicitly as an evolution rather than a revolution, a conscious decision to refine rather than replace.
The Lesson in CBA’s Approach
What stands out across the diamond’s three decades is restraint. Rather than chasing a dramatic reinvention every few years, each update has protected the core shape and colour that had already built enormous recognition, adjusting only what genuinely needed modernising. For a brand mark that’s become this embedded in a country’s daily life, that’s a difficult balance to strike, and one CBA has managed consistently.
About Business Logo Design Australia
Business Logo Design Australia designs custom logos for businesses across the country, from new startups to established businesses going through a rebrand. Every project starts with a real conversation about your business, followed by original concepts, a set number of revisions, and a complete set of final files ready for web, print, signage and everyday use. Pricing is laid out clearly before you commit to a package, so you always know what’s included.
Building a Mark That Lasts
A logo built around a genuinely distinctive shape and colour, like CBA’s diamond, gives a business decades of runway to refine rather than replace. Business Logo Design Australia designs with that same long term thinking from the first concept.