SILVERTHORNE — University of Colorado officials have adopted a plan to bring order to the chaos of logos used to market the system’s campuses and departments.
The plan calls for establishing consistency in the hodgepodge of symbols, said CU regents spokesman Ken McConnellogue.
“It is a very decentralized model, and we are going to have a more centralized model,” he said.
CU’s campuses and the system’s fundraising arm have been using hundreds of logos. This presents a problem during fundraising campaigns, for example, because potential donors receive letters that aren’t immediately identifiable as coming from CU, McConnellogue said.
Shortly after taking office last year, president Bruce Benson commissioned international branding firm Landor to design a branding campaign and logo.
Landor has a contract for up to $780,000. The money comes from a fund generated by investment earnings Benson can use for one-time projects.
Landor, which designed branding for shipping company FedEx, oil giant BP and other large organizations, was picked from among nine companies that bid for the contract.
The lowest bid was $500,000, and the highest about $1 million, McConnellogue said.
A committee made up of people from the campuses and the CU Foundation picked Landor based on its capabilities, Benson said.
Landor so far has billed more than $400,000.
The price tag is hefty, McConnellogue said, but CU already spends heavily on graphic design, photography, Web development and other things to promote the system that are less effective because of the inconsistency.
“Chaos is expensive for us,” he said. “We consider that to be the greater cost.”
Landor studied CU and its logos, sent out questionnaires to alumni, faculty and others, and received 12,000 responses, Benson said.
The company also interviewed a number of people, including Denver tycoon Phil Anschutz, a major donor for whom the Anschutz Medical Campus is named.
“We told them to go through and study the whole place,” Benson told regents gathered for a retreat Thursday at his ranch in Silverthorne.
The university system comprises CU-Boulder, CU-Colorado Springs and UC Denver, which includes the Downtown Campus and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
“We will try and create consistency within and among the campuses,” McConnellogue said. “The watchword is consistency.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
