When I came up with ideas for creating the logo, my main thought was trust. Showing a symbol of trust helps to build a foundation.
Initially, my thoughts were sent to the Fleur-de-lis. I had created several concepts of such a logo, and while it did have the element of trust, there were potential issues with having that symbol as a logo. Despite its long-term affiliation with the term, the emblem was far outdated by modern times. Had I gone with this, the brand would've looked dated, which goes against the envisioned brand identity. Not only that, but the symbol was far too detailed, which goes against the concept of a logo. (It must be able to scale properly and can be seen from all sizes)
My next concept was utilizing the letter A. As I designed them, I found myself not liking the concept, as I had relied too much on the letter and not the meaning behind it. This resulted in some concept sketches becoming quite too literal in their approach.
This brought me to my next step, which was to reinforce the idea of trust. In banks, squares are often seen as a symbol of stability, and I wanted to focus on that. As I created the concept, I found myself thinking to combine the previous concept of the letter "A", and the square shape. This resulted in me turning the stem of the lowercase "a" into a square, to symbolize the foundation. While doing this, I found that the lowercase A was rounded, which matched another value of banks, which happens to be circulation.
