Written by Sam Imhoff
In the newest development of Colorado College’s arms race to become an elite, admission-denying school, a documentary entitled “A New Look. A Unified Voice” has been posted to the CC YouTube page about the process of creating our new logo. The six-minute video features interviews with three marketers (two in-house and one from Studio/Lab), President Jill Tiefenthaler, a professor, and a single student, while inspirational classical music builds in the background. Interspersed are distant shots of unknowing students laughing with their friends and footage of the campus taken from cameras attached to drones. As a student, I’m appalled at how much was shelled out just for a logo. But to the administration, cost does not seem to be a concern, and presentation appears to be everything.
The Office of Communication (read: marketing) and the President’s Office are located in the William Spencer building, the tall beige one across the block from Wooglin’s. Last year while walking around the building I was gawked at like I was a zoo animal who had wandered into the people’s food court. They asked me “Why are you here?” and “What are you doing here?” It was then apparent how the geography of our campus represents the widening rift between the administration and the students. The Spencer building resembled an outpost looking down on its subjects: the students, professors, and maintenance workers. The tower’s residents are the unseen, inaccessible masters. I’ve never seen any of the administrative people featured in the video in person, and this is the eighth block of my second year at CC visiting Worner twice a day. And yet the video uses the word “we” whenever possible. What we? I have never met or even seen any of them. And yet they’re the people who are spending your and your parents’ money. Of course there’s nothing wrong with a new logo and marketing, but what’s appalling is how much was invested in the logo, while the YouTube video that was posted almost four months ago has less than 4,000 views.
With pride, the documentary explains that Victors and Spoils, a Boulder company who has made ads for Adidas, JCPenney, and Smirnoff, was dumped in order to work with Studio/Lab, a Chicago-based marketing firm. Excluding two clips of students meeting in classrooms, a montage focuses on administrators, professors, Studio/Lab representatives, and alumni. They met in conference centers, classy dining venues, and high-rise offices to deliberate what would most “authentically” represent CC. They sip on glasses of wine and pour through enormous color-printed publications comparing “peer institutions’ logos” and blown-up sketches. Then Marcia Lausen of Studio/Lab explains to us the moment of “graphic magic that occurred” when they realized that a square, triangle, and circle represent CC, and that you can see “those forms when you look in the final mark.” Meanwhile, a graphic shows that the square resembles “Our pioneering block plan,” the triangle “Our place in the Rocky Mountain West,” and the circle “Our creative campus community.” Then the three shapes appear to fit as pieces of a puzzle in animation made after the fact to form the current logo. If you can’t remember what it is (I don’t blame you), it’s the outline of two C’s and three triangles (mountains) in white over two rectangles composed of diagonal orange lines that inexplicably overlap in the center. Then, in black letters to the right, “Colorado College.” Brilliant. I could’ve done something comparable in a few hours and I have no experience with design. But it’s important that two different marketing firms were hired and a whole wing of our school’s administration was put to the task so that a prospective parent might see the symbolic significance of squares, circles, and triangles. If you have any questions about the 5.6 percent rise in tuition this year, look no further. It’s not just wasteful, shameful, and embarrassing, it’s utterly disrespectful to paying families.
After the climactic reveal, we hear Tiefenthaler’s voice.
“You don’t go, ‘Oh my God,’ because it’s sort of like, ‘of course’…”
Yeah, it’s like “of course” because it’s so damn simple that anybody could sketch it up.
It is just a logo. It is surface-level, no substance. I don’t care. But if you ask visitors of Brand New, a website for designers that publishes articles on “corporate and brand identity work,” it’s not so hot. Of the 428 who voted, 15 percent thought the change was “great,” 44 percent thought it was “fine,” and 41 percent found it “bad.” You can check out the article “Between a Rock and Diagonal Lines” online (the comments are hilarious).
Now that we have a new logo, the outdated merchandise has been given away and the 37 banners that mark off the borders of campus have to be taken down and replaced along with countless publications and advertisements.
Towards the end of the video, Marcia Lausen returns to say, “Higher education is a place that’s still getting used to the idea of brand identity.”
Yeah, because a non-profit school is not a business. It’s time the administration starts working not for the prospective students but for us, the ones who actually go to and pay for your damn school.