Case Study: Financial Services

State Street Corporation
Corporate Literature System and Custom Collateral

Communication via Design (CviaD) has been working with State Street Corporation (SSC) since 1994 to develop a variety of printed materials including annual reports, product and service literature systems, client conference packages and special event collateral. In 1998, CviaD continued to work closely with SSC’s marketing communications department to identify and implement their new brand identity, corporate positioning and corporate guidelines system. This system and our role was to ensure consistency in communications while demonstrating an understanding of the needs of sophisticated investors throughout the world.

To reflect SSC’s reputation as a worldwide leader in financial services, CviaD created a dynamic visual approach to match their forward-thinking. By “painting with photography” and combining it with typography to imply a conversational tone, CviaD created a look and feel that uniquely portrayed specific products, services and events to support its specific and targeted messaging. CviaD allowed each piece to have its own look and feel while maintaining a unified look and system of pieces that distinctly reflects SSC’s brand. CviaD’s design strategy for the corporate literature system and its 4 tier hierarchy of components followed these distinct visual guidelines:
• Investor Relations: cerebral and monochromatic
• Market Segment: people in motion and colorful
• Product Aggregates: multiple reading levels and plaful text
• Support Collateral: text intensive details

A similar strategy was extended to materials created for other SSC departments such as State Street Community Affairs and State Street Global Securities Lending (SSGSL). For SSGSL,
CviaD designed a series of quarterly publications, In View, featuring market conditions and customer stories. For a landmark event, the introduction of the Euro, CviaD created a promotional marketing campaign.

Working in tandem with SSC, CviaD continues to provide an integrative set of shared values that define SSC’s performance standards to a worldwide audience, yet with sensitivity to local market practices and requirements. The value that CviaD brings to State Street is a combination of cutting edge design, strong project management, budget and deadline conscienceness. The result is a well-conceived family of literature that combines effective messaging with timeless design.