SM Mall of Asia is a Pasay-based Philippine shopping mall which belongs to SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the largest shopping mall and retail operator in the country.
The mall opened in 2006. It was the 25th mall in the chain of shopping malls owned by the company. Today it ranks the 4th in the Philippines and the 12th in the world. Mall of Asia provides excellent facilities not only for shopping, but also for leisure and entertainment, which has made it a popular tourist destination.
Having utilized the idea from the “SM” logo used by numerous malls, the designers created a new and unique logo.
The brand identity for Philippines’s most popular shopping mall features the abbreviation “SM” characteristic of all “SM” logos. The letters stand for “Shopping Mall”. They are of navy blue color with a white strip in the middle.
This distinctive element is paired with the name of the mall which is below the “SM”. The “MALL OF” is in blue color and the word “ASIA” is in red. The words are written in all caps but they are different in size. Thus, the letters in the word “ASIA” are almost twice as large as in the “MALL OF”. Besides, the letters in it are straight while in the rest of the wordmark they are inclined.
The yellow horizontal curve goes across the word “ASIA” creating a horizontal bar in the letters “A”. It suggests community and tranquility.
Below the name of the mall and a bit to the right there is the slogan “No Other Mall Comes Close” in a thin handwritten script.
The 2010 modification was caused by the changes in the SM Prime logo. The letters in the abbreviation “SM” are less stylized than in the previous version and they are framed by a circle that conveys the idea of community.
The designers placed all the elements in one line. The most noticeable change was the introduction of a vivid blue that looked radiant in combination with white. It also featured very fine strokes for “Mall of Asia”, while “SM” in front of it was printed using a much bolder line. They did not forget to include the round monogram but inverted the colors, making the base blue and the letters white.
The updated logo looks bolder and more confident. It was achieved with the use of a double blue line for the lettering, which created a much thicker stroke. The font was not changed though. In addition, they removed the “SM” before the name and replaced it with a monogram. This version looked more balanced and easier to see even from afar.
The bold sans serif font in its bold italic and bold regular versions catches the attention at first sight.
What concerns the typeface used for the slogan, it looks as if it was written by hand and created specifically for this logo.
The color palette of the logo consists of blue, white, red and yellow. Blue has been the SM Supermalls’ signature color for years. It always symbolizes solidity, while red means excitement. The yellow color may be interpreted in a variety of ways. It may be regarded as a symbol of friendliness or sunshine. The mix of these colors makes an attractive combination.