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by ethank 4905 days ago
A big part of why the faculty body of the UC system was upset is that not one of the 9 art and design departments were ever consulted about an identity change. Neither were the thousand or so art/design graduate students.

I used to be adjunct faculty in art at a UC. It is the worst of presumptive bureaucracies.
1 comments
taligent 4905 days ago
Why on earth would they be consulted ? The design departments aren't involved in the commercial realities of branding/marketing and the students are just that students.

People forget that isn't just about the logo it's about the positioning of the brand within the economic marketplace. Plenty of analytics, surveys, strategy etc etc is involved.

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jlgreco 4905 days ago
With all of their "analytics, surveys, and strategy", where they anticipating the backlash they have received?

If not, then they clearly did something wrong, so why should we give any weight to the rest of their conclusions? If so, why are they acting so shocked?

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taligent 4905 days ago
Firstly we don't know if they have done something wrong. The target audience for the branding change is going to be the NEXT generation of students not the current or past ones. And definitely not the general public. And I personally can't speak for 18-20 year olds and what they think of the logo. I would imagine that if the agency did their homework then it would be more appealing and commercially successful than the previous one.

As for them being shocked. It is always surprising when people become so passionate about a brand.

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gknoy 4905 days ago
People become absolutely RABID about their college brand, however. Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if Tennessee were to change their emblem from the T to something ... else? Heads would roll.

As a UC alumnus, I certainly saw that new logo and thought "what the hell is this??" -- GREAT point about the color bring wrong, for example. If it were better communicated that it wasn't meant to replace the seal, I might have liked it better, but it already seemed ugly to me, even before I read about what it was intended for.

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jlgreco 4905 days ago
If they did not anticipate the backlash, then they did something wrong.

If they anticipated the backlash, but decided not to care (because their target audience is the NEXT generation, as you suggest), then why are they surprised that this generation is responding poorly. They saw it coming and decided not to care.

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