Henry Steiner devoted his life to creating breakthrough designs
Henry Steiner father of Hong Kong graphic communication
Posters for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Henry Steiner
Henry Steiner exhibition
At the opening event for the Henry Steiner: The Art of Graphic Communication exhibition, Tina Pang, Curator of Hong Kong Visual Culture at M+, said, “We all carry a bit of Steiner in our pockets.”
Henry Steiner Exhibition
This is in reference to Henry Steiner, who designed the iconic HSBC and Hongkong Land logos and banknotes for Standard Chartered Bank.
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Forty years on, his designs remain memorable and can be seen in wallets and building fronts throughout our city.
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Steiner attended Yale University and studied under the renowned designer Paul Rand (who designed logos for American companies like IBM, ABC, and UPS, to name a few).
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In 1961, Steiner went to Hong Kong on a nine-month contract with The Asia Magazine, intending to return to New York after his contract ended.
Portrait of an Artist poster, 1989, offset lithograph, Henry Steiner
He never went back, remaining in Hong Kong to start Graphic Communications Limited, now Steiner&Co.
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Under the banner of Steiner&Co., his influence extended beyond the financial sector, including logos, ads and annual reports for retail services, hospitality sectors, media companies and utilities.
Steiner&Co designs
Notable logos he had a hand in designing include CITIC Pacific, Dairy Farm, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Hongkong Land and Jardine House, some of the most recognizable businesses in Hong Kong.
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For over thirty years, Standard Chartered Bank relied on Steiner&Co. to design their banknotes.
Chinese mythological animals
When Steiner started designing for The Standard Chartered Bank in 1975, he lamented that previous banknotes used Greek and Roman motifs rather than local symbols.
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His response was to incorporate four Big Five animals in Chinese mythology to make the banknotes more relevant to the local audience. These animals included the dragon, phoenix, qilin (a chimaera with the body of a horse, the scales of a fish, and the head of a dragon), turtle and carp.
Henry Steiner Banknotes
Although the newest version of the Standard Chartered banknotes no longer depicts these animals, banknotes that feature them are still in circulation.
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When examining Steiner’s impact on logo design, look no further than the icon of Hong Kong’s largest bank, HSBC.
Design of the HSBC HK$500 note, Henry Steiner
The HSBC logo uses Gestalt design principles of similarity, proximity and symmetry. Gestalt Theory is a psychology and design term describing how the human brain makes sense of imagery.
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When viewing an image, the brain associates individual parts to form an organised whole. To put it another way, ingredients in a recipe are combined to make a meal.
Iconic HSBC logo
To illustrate how this works, consider the HSBC logo. It consists of white and red triangles (similarity) that are pressed against each other (proximity) to create a vertically and horizontally mirrored image (symmetry).
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This adherence to a fundamental design principle explains why the logo is memorable and has remained relevant for over forty years.
Various promotions for The Hongkong Bank services. The white and red triangles of the HSBC logo is in the centre, Henry Steiner
Aside from his contributions to banks, Steiner’s older works offer insight into his creative vision.
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In Hongkong à Paris, a campaign by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to promote the local fashion industry, he juxtaposes a photo with a drawing, black-and-white with colour and 2D with 3D elements to create eye-drawing contrasts.
Hongkong à Paris poster & Mode aus Hong Kong folder for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Henry Steiner
The ad portrays a naked woman covered only in pink cardboard cutouts, reminiscent of paper dolls, a subject usually reserved for children, repurposed for an adult audience.
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The risqué and thought-provoking contrast draws eyes and forces the observant to think about the ad.
Chinese and western imagery
Steiner’s work is celebrated due to his purposeful inclusion of multiple-culture imagery.
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In the cover designs for The Asia Magazine (1961-1962), Steiner brought in a wide variety of styles to produce visually distinctive covers.
The Asia Magazine covers (1961-62), Henry Steiner
They frequently use Chinese imagery and western graphics to make insightful connections between the cultures. In one cover, he explores the concept of Eurasians, half-white and half-Asian, who were rejected by the West and unaccepted by the East, with a circle and two dots representing a face.
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The left side is yellow with a black eye; the right is white with a blue eye. The image is a reminder of yin and yang and the balance this philosophy should entail.
Poster for Morisawa Inc., 1991, offset lithograph, Henry Steiner
A few covers are composed solely of Chinese characters or employ Chinese-style painting and calligraphy, but in a way non-Chinese can interpret.
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These are a few examples of how Steiner captured cultural complexities in his designs, allowing his client’s products to be accepted across cultural divides and into the most influential sectors of Hong Kong society.
Henry Steiner: East/West Design Dialogues poster 1988, offset lithograph
His designs brought unity and shaped the visual language of banks, buildings and businesses to facilitate trust and growth.
We all carry a bit of Steiner, not just with currency but with shared culture.
Lasting legacy of design
His influence extends beyond logo recognition. He showed how graphic design could be a bridge between cultures, fostering communication and forging a unique visual identity for a city on the rise.
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As Hong Kong continues to evolve, Steiner’s legacy serves as a reminder of the power of design to shape not just how we see our city but how we see ourselves within it.
Text & Photo Cammile Wray
