Southeast gets a look at logo options for university

Southeast Missouri State University's board of regents got a look Friday at preliminary concepts of a "brand and logo evolution" for the university.

A rebranding effort is intended to better position the university in the academic marketplace and streamline its messages to various audiences, including prospective and current students, their families, alumni and the community.

During a board of regents meeting at Academic Hall, representatives of Ologie, a Columbus, Ohio, firm hired to lead the university through a rebranding, showed the board, administrators and staff members its progress in developing a new look and message.

Kevin Tyler of Ologie said it is working to help Southeast market itself in a "really clear, unique, compelling way" and that more attention should be focused on the university's attributes, such as strong faculty and student relationships, a high number of academic offerings, unique programs such as cybersecurity and historic preservation, and its dedicated fine-arts campus.

"Southeast is first in many things, but we probably don't talk about that as often as we should," Tyler said.

Part of the rebranding involves developing a concept statement that focuses on the university's personality.

Ologie representatives, through campus visits and interviews with the university community, said they found an institution that draws hardworking and genuine students.

The statement they presented Friday to tell the story and capture the spirit of the university said:

"At Southeast Missouri State, we're here to put in the work. And we don't have time for boasting.

"We're too busy building, planting, healing, creating and learning.

"Because real credit can't be given. It has to be earned. By coming to the table with big ideas, and taking action while taking nothing for granted.

"Our region needed a cultural center, so we built one. Our students need cutting-edge programs, so we create them. Our community needs top teachers, caregivers, and agricultural minds, so we prepare them.

"We're giving everything we've got. And earning everything we get. Because progress isn't promised to anybody. It will be made by those with the courage to question. The hunger to know. And the will to do."

The concept statement carries over in visual language on drafts of marketing tools such as posters, campus banners and materials designed for prospective students.

The board appeared receptive to the firm's ideas, but questioned whether the concept and current positioning of Southeast would attract an audience of varying demographics -- from the St. Louis area to far Southeast Missouri, for example.

"We have to appeal to all sides, broad and specialized," said Southeast president Kenneth Dobbins.

New logo

A part of the initiative likely will include a new logo for the university. Southeast has used its current logo -- a detailed drawing of the Academic Hall dome with the university name underneath -- since 1988.

The firm presented several options to the board, and the discussion of the current and future logos prompted a lengthy discussion.

The university's communications and marketing staff said Friday they find the current logo and identity marks of the university have too many variations and are difficult to place in some materials because of intricately drawn details.

Most in attendance agreed the logo and fonts used by Southeast need to be updated, but keep a collegiate feel.

The university uses its current logo in red, black or white and often with the slogan "Experience Southeast ... Experience Success." Both the firm and the board agreed Academic Hall's dome should be kept a part of the new logo and possibly combined with "1873" to represent the year the university was established, along with new fonts and a focus on the words "Southeast Missouri."

Concerns regents expressed about the logo primarily were the depiction of the dome and whether it would be as recognizable when recast into a more modern, simplified form.

"We are going to do a lot of things that just have the logo, the Academic Hall piece," said board member Jay Knudtson.

He pointed out other universities, including those that had their logos compared with Southeast's in the rebranding, are using buildings but said he wasn't sure the options presented Friday would work.

"That, by itself, you have to make a big leap there to figure out what that represents if you aren't from here," Knudtson said, as he pointed to one of the options with a dome drawing.

The regents and university president requested the firm work on pulling together elements from several logo options.

"Maybe with changes in some of the detail, it will look more like what we see every day," Dobbins said.

Bev Ryan, founder of Ologie, said Southeast will get more refined options for logos based on Friday's feedback.

"We didn't expect you to point to something and say, 'That's it,'" she said. "It's a process."

The firm is expected to present a final rebranding plan in February, said Jeff Harmon, Southeast's executive director of communications and marketing.

The work associated with the rebranding is costing the university about $193,000.

University staff who produce marketing materials and work to communicate the university's messages said Friday they are looking forward to the results that may come from the rebranding.

"My excitement comes from bringing everyone together and having everyone talk about who we are and what those messages are being on the same page, so we aren't guessing what students want to hear and aren't guessing what parents want to hear," Juan Crites, the university's director of publications, told the board.

eragan@semissourian.com

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