Student Design Competitions
Symbolic Controversy: How A Simple Logo Divided A University
A recent newspaper story reports what occurred when a major university thought it a good idea to design a new logo and it turned out to be awful. I think the opinion of the public was wrong in that they were getting the news that the media wanted to report and left out a lot of extremely important facts that go along with designing a logo. Read this site if you want logo contest information.
The university admits to it’s mistake of not allowing students to give their opinion on the logo, and also delayed issuing graphics standards on how the logo and the university seal should be used. Besides these things, the institution hasn’t been involved in anything that should be considered unethical against anyone because of what they did.
There are those who say that best idea for the university is to standardize their logo in order to use it with the university seal. Graphic identity programs encourage for standardization of logo marks for institutions, with basic, easy to understand regulations for the use of such logos, which will help to ensure that the institution is easily recognizable by their symbol.
Trying to immprove upon what was once a confusing and fragmented graphic identity was a smart move on the part of the university’s administrators. Creating a logo can be more complicated than it seems, especially if the institution in question is highly diverse. You could only imagine how hard it must be to create a logo for a university that offers everything from academics to sports. It is a difficult and stress-filled task to undertake, and I say this as one who has been in attendance at many a corporate meeting’s argument over a new design. You will find that further information on logo competition is on that site.
Many people seem to be disgusted with the, supposedly, large sum of $20,000 payed to the logo designer, but this is a fairly standard fee and is nothing in comparison to the amount of money that goes into having all the university’s material reprinted. There is nothing that can really be done because whenever an established entity changes logos, there will be some backlash from dedicated members of the community.
When you change something as emotionally charged as a university’s symbol, you have forgotten how little people like change. Another reason is because people can use the change as a reason to bring up other things they dislike about the institution. Finally, it is a somewhat frustrating fact of life for people in this business that everyone is a critic, and no matter how much someone actually knows about the subject they know that they are always right.
The logo itself is going to take some time to grow on people. It’s just not feasible to think that a new logo will be accepted by the masses when there was no clear standard besides the university’s seal for the last 120 years. In the business world it is extremely important that employees use only current, approved company logos rather than outdated or otherwise unofficial logos in their e-mails, letters or signature files. The reason they weren’t fired is because even the bosses seemed to have a problem with changing something they had become used to. It isn’t the administration’s fault that there has been a hard time getting rid of the old symbols.
While the university should have consulted with students in the development of the logo, there is still absolutely no way that everyone would have ever been pleased with the re-design and in fact, if they did try to please everyone, the results would have even been more ugly.
An effective logo is distinct and unique, as well as appear to be familiar, and has enough clarity to appeal to multiple uses, both digital and print. A graphic identity program complete with its own manual for clear direction should be established to ensure consistency in logo design. I believe that the new logo fits each one of these requirements, or will do so before long. Since the institution had nothing set in stone before, this is much better.
ASABE Int’l 1/4 Scale Tractor Student Design Competition Overview