TIAA-CREF Logo Redesign

TIAA-CREF: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund




"TIAA-CREF is a Fortune 100 financial services company and leading provider of retirement benefits nationwide."

Core Values/Goals and Target Market:
-- Provide financial security through a personal approach
-- Believe in socially responsible investing
-- TIAA-CREF started as a financial services company for university professors. Though this market accounts for the majority of its clientele, TIAA-CREF is open to companies and individuals throughout the nonprofit world

Logo Critique:
-- Though TIAA-CREF is by definition a financial company, the logo remains too stark. It lacks the personality associated with nonprofits and the academia worlds.

Competitors:
-- Competition for TIAA-CREF can be categorized into financial security services for teachers, socially responsible services, and companies targeting teachers. The logos for companies in the first two categories are very simple, straightforward, and a bit boring. The logos for companies in the last category are too juvenile to be taken seriously.








For the redesign, I wanted to introduce a human element into the logo to reflect TIAA-CREF's affiliation with academia while remaining true to the fact that it is fundamentally a financial company. The teaching theme is highlighted by the apple cradled in the person's hand and the four lines referring to writing on the chalkboard. I pulled colors from the TIAA-CREF website, choosing the dark blue as a cool and trustful representation of the financial world, and the orange as a more progressive and modern alternative to the lighter blue from the original logo.

I added the triangle in this version for both thematic and aesthetic reasons. The angle of the triangle ambiguously represents an open horizon or thought bubble. Additionally, its white background helps the letters stand out more.