ByGeorge! Online

Jan. 15, 2002

Brand Loyal

GW Set to Unveil Bold New Identity Package

By Thomas Kohout

The George Washington University is set to unveil a new, unified identity package later this spring based on George Washington’s powerful name and visual recognition. The new logo and design materials, to be phased in this spring, will establish a consistent brand identity that unites GW’s diverse campuses, schools, and programs, while reinforcing the University’s name and reputation.

“This branding program will enable The George Washington University to speak with one distinctive voice visually while maintaining the important individuality of the various entities comprising the institution,” says Vice President for Communications Michael Freedman. “We wanted a visual image that speaks to the dramatic progress GW has made in terms of academic excellence and research, and as one of the world’s truly beautiful urban campuses. We consulted with virtually every constituency within the University community over a nearly three-year period and this has resulted in a visual image package that is classy, clean, distinctive, and flexible.”

One of the greatest challenges in developing the new word mark was to capitalize on the image of George Washington and then merge that image with the words. The University’s long-standing word mark contains no image. Sandy Holland, assistant vice president for special projects who headed the redesign efforts, and GW Graphic Design Director Kelly Livezey, who played a key role in the production of the new package, saw this as a tremendous opportunity. With one of the most recognizable visual symbols in the United States, let alone the world, as the University’s namesake it only made sense that Washington’s image should be incorporated into the new branding system.

“It’s a natural fit to use a George Washington image,” says Livezey, “especially with the number of schools across the country being called either George or Washington-something. The bonus is that GW owns a particularly attractive and unique painting of Washington by Rembrandt Peale, a very well-regarded portrait by a highly respected artist from the 19th century.”

The GW community may choose from four basic designs of the logo. The primary logo — what’s being referred to as the portrait word mark — has both a vertical and horizontal version incorporating the Peale portrait of Washington with typography based on Italian chancery forms. In addition to the portrait word mark, there are several other alternatives including a single line version and a GW monogram intended to be used in special instances for merchandise such as pens, caps, mugs, or signage. Word marks incorporating one-, two-, three-, and four-colors are available, dramatically expanding the potential variety available to University users.

“The way it’s set up, it has a very formal look to it,” explains Livezey. “I also think the cleanliness of it, in terms of the way things are spaced out and arranged, makes it very legible, makes it easily reproducible, gives it a freshness. It’s a new way of looking at type.”

All of GW’s campuses, as well as the GW Hospital and each of the University’s colleges have their own customized version of the mark. In addition, a complete stationery package will be available, as well as new official buff (PMS 873 metallic gold) and blue (PMS 302) Pantone color designations. To help the campus community adjust to the new system, a comprehensive graphics standards manual is currently in development and will be available this semester to help guide those responsible for the various departmental print materials.

“We’ll have many, many options in the manual, and we will be giving people guidelines for how to apply these marks successfully,” says Livezey. She adds that beyond defining how to use the new materials, following the guidelines laid out in the manual promises to guarantee successful publishing results.

“What we are really interested in, more than anything, is that this is successful,” Livezey says. “We’re not trying to dictate to people, on some whim, how to use this. We are really interested in the identity being maintained through consistency and through successful reproduction.”

Who are the first people who need to change over? According to Holland, that question needs to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. However, it’s safe to assume that anyone producing materials with a long shelf life, of say more than a year, who currently is heading into their regular production cycle should contact GW Graphic Design at 202/496-6220 or E-mail them at graphics@gwu.edu to get the new marks. Those departments whose publications or materials have a shorter shelf-life have more flexibility. The University community is strongly urged to use up all existing stationery before contacting GW Graphic Design for materials. No school, department, or program should throw away any unused stationery, or reprint publications, simply to switch to the new identity.

“They don’t have to throw them out after they read this in ByGeorge!,” says Holland. She explains that people are encouraged to use up their stocks of whatever supplies they have. The arrival of fall marks the full implementation of the new identity.

The project to unify GW’s brand identity began about two and a half years ago in a meeting between President Trachtenberg and staff. The president was reviewing samples of publications and materials produced by GW Graphic Design. According to Holland, one particular set of materials pushed the president to seek a change.

“Look at this,” Holland recalls President Trachtenberg telling her. “These are all very nice, but why don’t they look anything like each other? Each one, creative as it may be, looks like it could have come from any place.’ That’s contrary to all of the corporate and University branding theories — that you have to be easily recognized.”

President Trachtenberg asked Holland to explore how the University could establish a strong, more consistent brand image. Holland drew from her experiences from the last redesign in 1988 that resulted in the current University logo. She says in that process, a very small group of people got together and made the decisions. “What I mainly learned was to try to get everybody across campus who might be interested in being involved, participating as early as possible.”

Holland brought in an outside consultant to meet with people around the University community to see how they would feel about changing logos and trying to do things in a more unified way. After receiving favorable recommendations, Mel Farman, who had worked on various branding projects for corporations and entities such as the National Art Gallery and the Treasury Department, was chosen to conduct the interviews and help establish the new identity. He spoke to more than 40 people from around the University, including all of the vice presidents and deans, as well as many of GW’s communications professionals.

Local design firm Concept Foundry, which has a long-standing relationship with the University as the GW Magazine designer, was selected to translate Farman’s recommendations into the new marks. The firm’s familiarity with GW, as well as its relationship with GW Graphic Design, made it the right choice as the primary design firm charged with developing the materials, Holland says.

Once the initial marks were developed, the project was turned over to GW Graphic Design for the final fine-tuning of the system for the individual schools and campuses. GW Graphic Design, the University’s in-house design studio, is charged with maintaining the master sets of all of the logos, as well as providing the stationery package.

“We absolutely expect that we will have a transition period, requiring some further fine-tuning,” says Livezey. “At its outset, we are really excited about the flexibility built into this system. We’ve gone from having one mark to having an incredible number of options once you take into account color and configuration.”

All that being said, Livezey believes it’s important for the University community to understand why GW needs to have an institutional identity and they need to be patient during the transition period.

“One of the purposes of the branding is the uniformity it allows for the prestige of one entity to reinforce another.”

“Most gratifying, so far, is the overwhelming positive response to the new visual image,” says Freedman. “We’re tackling a challenge faced by nearly all universities and we believe we’ve come up with a winning formula, in part because we remain fluid and want to work with everyone so they can achieve a comfort level with the package. So far, so good.”

 

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