This is the old Kirkwood Bank & Trust logo. It’s a little dated, with its bold corporate colors, so it was apparently time for an upgrade. Adding to the need for new branding is the fact that they’re no longer in their old building on South 7th Street, featured prominently in the old logo. Since they’re not going to be using that building any more, it’s time to ditch the shape in favor of…a leaf?

This is the new Kirkwood Bank & Trust logo. I’m an afficionado of branding and corporate identity, so it struck me as familiar the first time I saw it. It didn’t take long to jog the ol’ memory, and…aha! It resembles the Lending Tree logo pretty closely!

I don’t know how much they paid for their new brand, or who did it, but it seems a little close to another prominent financial institution. I don’t know that it’s close enough to cry foul, but it certainly raises some eyebrows.

This reminds me of the time NDSU wanted new branding, so they spent tens of thousands of dollars on a new logo — out of state, mind you — to come up with a new one. What was it? The letters N and D stacked on top of S and U. Wheeeee. To make matters worse, it was basically identical to South Dakota State University’s logo. Truly a remarkable waste of money, even in the context of North Dakota state government.

I wish I was good at logo design…I’m not. I’m good at animating other peoples’ designs, which works good in my current job. But if I was designing logos for a living, I think I’d try a little harder to stay clear of someone else’s trademark.