To clarify...

Union is still the Orange and Black. I regret that there are several people who are under the impression that we are now the Orange and Purple. Not so. By introducing a new color palette (a topic I addressed in an earlier post), we are adding accent colors—colors chosen because they're relevant—for marketing materials. I explained the significance of the purple a couple of weeks ago, so I'll not revisit that. But please understand that by having a color palette, we're doing a good thing for Union. We're establishing a color group that allows us flexibility, while maintaining a consistent look and feel. If I hadn't mentioned it, you probably wouldn't have noticed it. But we're going the extra mile by being transparent with our stakeholders, explaining almost every detail of the new brand.

What's happening here is we're explaining our secondary colors. The primary colors haven't changed. Tonight, I've introduced another color to the mix. The green you see along the border of the blog title is also included in our design scheme. Does that mean our official schools colors are orange, purple and green? Absolutely not. Green is another accent color to be used in our secondary palette. It represents our commitment to the environment and the beautiful lawns and athletics fields we're so proud of. But we're not the Orange and Green any more than we are the Orange and Purple.

As much as I'd love to claim it, this isn't my idea. Most colleges and universities have secondary palettes in their brand manuals. To help you fully understand, check out the palettes of Texas A&M and Clemson University.

And in the future, if you're concerned about colors or any other aspect of the new brand, please don't be afraid to post questions or comments here. That's what this blog is for...at least for now. Eventually, the purpose will shift to how we should live the brand and sustain it.

In closing, I've included a screen shot of the last blog post so we can reflect on the design process. As I've explained before, this blog will shape up as I introduce you to elements of our visual identity that we've either determined or are contemplating so far. Your input matters. Never doubt that.

Are fonts important?

Are fonts important to a brand identity? You betcha. They shouldn’t be chosen on a whim, as they are as important to the identity system as colors and photography style in creating a unified look, while inspiring an intended emotional response. Further, the system should visually communicate how a brand is different from its competitors. To say this is much to consider is an understatement. But we’re on it.

So how do fonts participate in the identity system to illustrate our story? Think about your dinner table. Our third meal of the day is a routine part of life, but sometimes the centerpiece is a pizza box surrounded by paper plates on Hot-N-Ready night (rhetorical pop quiz: Which brand am I referring to here?), while on rare occasions, the centerpiece is fresh flowers in a crystal vase surrounded by fine china and linens. Regardless of the entrée or the presentation, it’s still dinner. But the presentation is key in defining the mood and often the behavior of the people engaging with it. So it is with fonts. They communicate words. The language (like the entrée) paired with certain fonts (like the table settings) influences how people perceive a brand. And if they aren’t coupled in a way that makes sense, credibility can suffer. Imagine being invited to a formal dinner with take-out pizza as the main course. The conflict would be tough to reconcile, would it not? (But not impossible, in my view. It might actually be fun, but you get the picture.)  

OK, so my analogy makes common sense, but naysayers may need real-world evidence, so here you go: The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) released an important discovery in the summer of 2012 about how atoms stick together. This physics project was expensive and globally significant, but the public had a difficult time taking it seriously because scientists used Comic Sans MS to present their research. Instead of being in awe, the mainstream public made a joke out of it. Is the mainstream public superficial? Perhaps. But that’s really irrelevant. We’re not on a mission to convince them to pay attention to content rather than presentation; we’re campaigning to influence their perception. That means we must pay attention to what influences them. And fonts do that.

So what kind of fonts will appropriately tell Union’s story? In answering this question, we had many things to consider. For one, we had to look at our competitors so we wouldn’t have typefaces that could be confused with theirs. Differentiation is key to building a successful brand, right? Also, we had to think about the general message we want to send. Based on our marketing research, along with Union’s vision and mission, it makes sense for us to promote a brand based on strong social responsibility that resonates with connected consumers. (By “connected,” we mean those whose day-to-day experiences with friends, influencers and brands include many online touch points. More on that later.) And to communicate effectively with our target market, we must consider what’s important to students in our region of Appalachia. This part is easy, because the things that are important to them are in perfect alignment with what’s important to us: We all want to positively influence a change in the perception that many people have of southeast Kentucky. To erase a stereotype based on “Mountain Dew mouth” and other not-so-attractive beliefs, we must assert ourselves as confident thought leaders and contribute to the economic growth of our area.

So what kind of font communicates confidence, focus, determination and forward thinking? We think Museo is an excellent choice for this. But it’s not perfect.

Museo is the typeface you see in the blog title. It’s also overused. Google it, and you’ll so what I mean. Problematic? Yes. But we think we can work around it by modifying the presentation to make it more unique. We plan to use it as a display font, which means it will be used sparingly. More about that tomorrow.

For now, I’d like to draw your attention to another font we’ve chosen to help us communicate a brand that exudes confidence and forward thinking: Optima. Unlike Museo, this font isn’t new or trendy, but it’s appropriate. 

Thank you for reading, and please comment about how you think we could graphically modify Museo to create a unique headline for Union’s marketing messages.  

Why should we rebrand?

Is it really necessary for Union to rebrand? Absolutely. There are many reasons, but today, I'll concentrate on just one. Or more specifically, one-to-one.

Our current brand is based totally on personal attention. We're good at it, so it makes sense...or does it? The problem is, this doesn't differentiate us in any way. All small, private colleges brag about their small class sizes and personal attention students receive from faculty and staff. The brand that we've claimed is actually a characteristic of our category. It doesn't define us within our category. Would Pepsi brand itself as a sparkling soda? No, because that describes their category.

By leaving this brand behind, will we also ditch personal attention? No, no, no! We're still committed to that. Always will be.

More on this later.

Before I sign off, let's take a look at what the blog looked like yesterday compared to now. Today, the blog title features one of our chosen fonts. It's a slab font called Museo, and it's extremely versatile and modern.

More on this later, too.

Have a great weekend!

So what is branding?

While educating our college community about the new brand, we included a quick lesson about branding itself. Chances are, you might need a crash course as well. Think of this post as Branding 101: The Bumper Sticker Version. 

Not surprisingly, there are a great many folks who think a brand is all about a logo and a cool tagline. Those things are important, but a brand is so much more than that. Marketing materials and logos are merely visual representations of what businesses and organizations want stakeholders to perceive them to be. A brand itself is a perception that lives in the minds of the consumers, and the business has no control over it. A branding effort is an attempt to influence that perception, not just with a visual identity system, but through actions as well. And it won't work unless the business or organization is true to the brand promise. For example, BP worked diligently for years to promote itself as a "green" company, but the public ultimately didn't buy it. Public perception was influenced more by BP's highly publicized environmental negligence. On the flip side, Apple's "Think Different" campaign totally worked (and still does) because the public believes its products are innovative.

I could ramble on for hours about what it means to delve into a branding campaign, but I'll stop for now and take advantage of teachable moments as they arise in future blogs. My intention is to keep you here, after all. But I found a cute video that sums it up nicely, and I encourage you to watch it if you have a spare three minutes (the running time says it lasts more than five minutes, but it actually ends at 2:55).

Let's switch gears now as I unveil something new about the new brand: A lot of things are changing at Union College, but our orange isn't one of them. We're still Pantone 165—the same color on this blog's background. While we haven't taken colors away, we have added a few. One of them is the purple you see in this blog's dateline. This color will be used as an accent in marketing materials and various other applications. Here's a better look at it. 

Why purple? It's all about the brand. One of our goals in influencing public perception is to demonstrate that we are truly committed to our region. We've implemented and continue to develop new programs that prove this commitment, so we're completely confident in building in a visual representation to illustrate this through the brand. And we're confident enough to broadcast what this color means. Here it is: When we tinkered around in Photoshop using Union's orange and the blues owned by Barbourville Independent and Knox County schools, we came up with this amazing and majestic purple—we call it "High School Spirit." This is a color that symbolizes solidarity among Knox County's educational institutions, and we love it. (That's why we're presenting it here in a heart shape, by the way, which is not the norm.)
 
We actually developed an entire color palette inspired by Union's values. We'll show you more as time goes on, but for now, we'd love to know what you think, as it's not too late to add or substitute colors. Is there another color you have in mind to help us convey Union's commitment to Knox County and Appalachia? Leave us a comment with your recommendation, along with a rationale. We live for that kind of thing.

In closing, I've included a screen shot of the last blog post so we can reflect together on the design process. As I explained in my first post, this blog will shape up as I introduce you to elements of our visual identity that we've determined so far. 

Missy Reid '91
Director of College Communications