Lyndon State College recently received a letter from a private college in Vermont addressing the similarities between their respective logos.
Landmark College located in Putney, Vt. specializes in providing an education to students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD. The logo used to represent their school is a shield portraying an image of a path leading to a sunrise that is being surrounded by mountains on both sides. According to a news article published by the college in August 2005, they feel that this is symbolic to not only the geographic location of their college, but also to the goals that they have for their students.
The new Landmark logo was unveiled in August 2005 in celebration of its 20-year anniversary. The college felt that this was a good time to debut the new logo because it symbolized their unique mission.
The letter was sent after Lyndon’s new logo was unveiled in 2009, which Landmark claimed looked similar to theirs. LSC President Carol Moore said that Landmark expressed concern that the similarities between the two logos would cause confusion among the two schools. Keith Chamberlin, director of communications and marketing and the designer of the Lyndon logo explained where the idea for it came from.
“A mountain and a sunrise represent Vermont,” he said. “There are only so many ways that you can interpret a mountain and a sunrise. This same kind of symbol is used for many Vermont businesses, and also for Champlain College, and I feel as though we own the symbol as much as anyone else in the state.”
Chamberlin added that the logo was designed as a symbol of the college motto “towards the enlightenment of the kingdom.”
“When a situation like this arises,” Chamberlin said, “there are several conditions that have to be met in order for any legal action to be taken, including who can claim usage first as a priority, whether or not the other image hurts your business in some way, and whether or not consumers are confused by it.”
No legal action was taken. Moore said that the presidents of both schools talked and agreed that the logos were not similar enough to confuse students. To be sure, they agreed that students who called the schools would be monitored to make sure they were contacting the right school.
Lyndon also agreed that the new logo will appear with the words “Lyndon, a Vermont State College” next to it. This was a written agreement that was signed by both presidents.
Chamberlin, who had designed over 500 logos in his lifetime, said that it is hard to create a logo for anything that looks completely original from something else. He is the owner of Elements Restaurant in St. Johnsbury, and said that he found another Elements Restaurant in Canada that had a logo almost identical to that of his restaurant. He says that he is not bothered by this because this other restaurant offers no competition to his.
“There are only so many ways that someone can portray the four elements,” he said. “We are located nowhere close to each other, and their logo will not hurt my business or cause any confusion among consumers.”