Sunday, October 24, 2021

Is It a Bank?

This may just be a reactionary, I-don't-like-change post, but I think there's a bit more to it than that. 

I have never been a fan of our local TCF Bank chain, given the politics of its long-time and well-known CEO. Its visual style was conservative, too — an odd bit of neocolonialism, but it was what it was. I mostly ignored it.

Here's a Google Street View image of the bank's East Lake Street location from some time in the recent past:

The one thing it had going for it was that it wasn't flashy.

Not too long ago, TCF was acquired or merged or whatever happens in the banking world with an out-of-state bank called Huntington. I have not paid any attention to this until today when I happened to see this same East Lake branch in its new Huntington branding:

As you can see, they have mostly added a lime green stripe along the cornice and a gray triangle over the door, plus the new name in a lit sign. But overall it looks completely improvised to me, and their color with the name and logo make me think of a test preparation business instead of a bank. (Test prep with a drive-through! What will they think of next.)

Checking around just a bit, I see that their preferred look is more like this:

Which at least makes more sense. 

But I guess we're stuck with these ugly retrofits for a while.

 

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