Kennesaw State’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing issued a campus-wide email on Feb. 18, addressing its adoption of the new “KS” mark as the official university logo, replacing all other logo images.
In a recent effort to more clearly define the institution, KSU decided to ditch the “mountain” logo for the “KS” mark, which is primarily associated with KSU athletics. According to the email, official letterheads for the familiar logo and other various materials will be available to KSU’s colleges and administrative departments on March 15, with sub-brand logo packages intended to be ready by April 26.
University Spokesperson Tammy DeMel said that the mountain and KSU logos were not building an identifiable, unified brand and making the transition would consistently establish KSU’s voice within the community and abroad.
KSU’s departments and colleges are able to request a logo for a specific unit at visual identity program website, according to an email sent by Strategic Communications on Feb. 21.
The email stated that a brand extension “includes colleges, divisions, centers, offices and key administrative units” while a sub-brand is defined as “smaller departments and units that are associated within a brand extension.”
An example of a brand extension includes departments such as the College of the Arts while a sub-brand includes the department of dance within the College of the Arts, according to the email.
Since receiving feedback from more than 6,800 alumni, students and staff last fall, the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing finished the initial research and discovery phase of its rebranding process and has moved into its brand strategy and positioning phase.
Moving forward into the creative concept development phase, Strategic Communications will be creating formal core values and a mission statement to further demonstrate the university’s practices and policies to the public.
With several phases still remaining to be completed, Alice Wheelright, associate vice president for marketing and communications, stated that Strategic Communications aims to have the rebranding process completed by summer 2019.
Members of the Strategic Communications and Marketing team partnered with branding experts at an Atlanta-based firm, Tailfin Marketing, to get some additional consultation on the rollout. Tailfin worked with other in-state universities, such as the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as major corporations such as Chick-Fil-A and Lyft.
Tailfin Marketing teams up with clients in order to “help those brands find their stories and tell them far and wide,” according to their website.
Cade Lanktree contributed to this article.
