The black horse seen in the Lloyds logo was inspired by goldsmiths, who are considered the forerunners of our modern banks.
John Bland, a goldsmith from Lombard Street, adopted the black horse as his emblem by 1728. In 1884, Bland’s firm (which was already known as Barnetts, Hoares & Co) was taken over by Lloyds Bank. Lloyds, which already had an emblem of its own (a beehive), added the horse to its logo. By the 20th century, only the horse remained.
The early logo of Lloyds Bank was created at the end of the 19th century and featured a black contour of a horse, which looked pretty similar to the way it is depicted in the current logo, although the front legs were a bit lower. The graceful animal was drawn on a plain white background, standing on a twisted thick figure, set in black and gray.
The redesign of 1920 has redrawn the Lloyd’s Bank logo in a more complex way, with a thick ring featuring an intricate pattern appearing around the horse, which got its contours slightly refined too. At the bottom of the circular medallion, under the image of the horse, you could now see the “1677” datemark.
A more distinctive and confident version of the Lloyd’s Bank logo was introduced at the beginning of the 1930s and stayed untouched for almost two decades. The concept was the same — the black horse insecure a circular frame — however, the strengthened lines and clean contours made it all look very progressive. The legs were now quite high, and there was a ribbon symbolizing that the horse was the winner. Apart from that, the bold serif lettering was added under the emblem, set in a classy and sharp outlined font.
In 1950 the concept of the bank’s badge was simplified, coming back to the early version: the black horse standing on a narrow ribbon or stick, without any additional elements. However, the contours of the animal were stronger and more elegant than in the original version.
On the logo, created for Lloyd’s Bank in 1980, the horse was placed inside a white circle, which, in turn, was located inside a green crest with black trim. The name of the bank in a traditional serif font with classy contours of the title case characters can be seen next to it, set in plain black.
The redesign of 1998 introduced a brighter version of the traditional heraldic Lloyd’s Bank logo: the glossy black contours of a horse, standing in a rampant pose, was now placed on a square banner with an intense blue-to-green gradient background. This version of the badge had no lettering on it.
The bright background was removed from the composition after the redesign of 2009. The only element of the Lloyd’s Bank logo now was the black horse with smooth grayish accents over its body, which added volume to the simple image. No additional graphical text elements were added to the image. This version of the badge stayed active for about two years.
In 2013 the blue and green background was brought back to the bank’s visual identity, however, both shades of the square calmed down and blurred, adding a mysterious touch to the image of a black horse, which was still making up the central part of the composition.
The fancy black stallion with gray lines on its back was placed against a transparent background, on the right from the uppercase wordmark, written in a dark shade of green. The inscription is set in a medium-weight geometric sans-serif typeface, which adds progressiveness and strength to the elegant historical emblem of the bank.
The redesign of 2024 has modified the composition of the Lloyds Bank visual identity, enlarging the emblem and placing it above the stylized uppercase inscription, set in solid black bars against a white background. The green color is now used for the accenting lines of the body of a redrawn horse, creating a super sleek and sophisticated image.