First, the logo. My first impression of the logo was "Hey, that's actually pretty cool and simple". When I thought about it later, however, I started to question whether it matches the prestige as a top university that Western desires to be seen as. The logo in fact, looks a lot like Skagit Valley College's, as shown below.
I wish the logo was something more along the lines of the old one, which represented Old Maine, Western's oldest building. I believe one of Western's key differences between other universities is how focused it is on academics over sports, and the quality of the professors. The old logo was close to giving off that image. With that being said, I believe the student that created this logo has amazing talent and will have an amazing career in Graphic Design, but it's not the right logo for Western's brand.
As for the tag-line, "Active Minds Changing Lives", I don't think it really sets Western apart, but it's not bad. I think you can plug that tag-line in any University and feel it could work. Then again, I'm not much of a fan of tag-lines.
I'm hoping that the new website will be a substantial improvement over the previous one, but we'll have to wait and see. It's too bad that cost was what prevented the site and logo rolling out together. Anyway, that is my take on Western's new branding strategy. I hope I'm proven wrong and it helps to accomplish Western's goals.
What do you guys think of Western's new brand image? What do you think Western's brand is all about? I'd love to hear the thoughts of some marketers
I do not like the new logo! It reminds me of a ski resort logo. And since you have Skagit's logo up there too, WWU's looks way too much like it.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, it should go back to being Old Maine. It represents WWU's foucs on academia and qaulity of professors more than mountains do. One main aspect that made me pick WWU of other schools is that they have a better prof-student ratio when you get into your major's classes. I also like the fact that the prof's here aren't concentrated on writing for journals. I like that we have our professors in class and not their TA's.
I've talked to some of my other friends and roommates and they don't like the new logo either. I feel like WWU is trying too hard to compete with UW and WSU. Frankly, I don't think this is going to help them.
I think they should send out a survey to the students and get their opinion about the new logo and other new changes they want to make to the school's "brand."