There is a huge scandal brewing amongst the University of Waterloo community regarding the new banners that are now affixed to lampposts all around Ring Road and along University Ave. Angry students (and apparently faculty) are arguing that the new logos ignore the academic purpose of our institution and disregard professionalism for a showy marketing strategy. Others think that the logos are a statement of the innovative and bold stance that the University of Waterloo is known for fostering in its students.
Personally, I find the faculty logos to be interesting. Although Math has been attached to the Pink Tie logo for some time now, the new logos, which are common in design but varied in colour across faculties, look quite good. I’ve also seen a lot of the banners that are being placed around campus. They are in the faculty colours displaying messages like “courageous”, “risk-taking”, and “innovative”. Frankly, I am just glad that there is a bit of colour around campus, and for a student body that frequently complains about the drab exteriors of our buildings, you think people would be thankful for the colour.
The Facebook group is just buzzing with angry people. Some of them are actually reacting quite irrationally. After commenting how I liked the banners and the splash of colour that they brought to campus, one person asked “And where is your art degree from Jordan?”. Apparently, you cannot have an opinion on whether something is aesthetically pleasing or not without the proper certification. My mistake.
Honestly, I find the faculty logos to be pretty appealing. The main logo leaves much to be desired. I see what they were going for. Black lettering with each faculty colour shooting across as a ray within it. It is sort of a “We’re only as good as the sum of our parts” type message. I’m mostly ambivalent toward it. It is nice, and I can see myself adjusting to it. But it certainly didn’t jump up, grab me by the shoulders and say, “Isn’t this the sexiest new thing you’ve ever seen?!”.
The biggest concern with the logos seems to be its appearance on our degrees. The easiest way to ease that concern is to point out that it will not appear on the degrees. For all the important stuff, the standard crest and lettering still stands.
Otherwise, I don’t understand why people care (although I don’t fault them for caring). Personally, I take no particular pride in my institution of choice. Waterloo has some excellent math professors, and if you want to learn you go where the brightest teachers are. If Vanderburgh, Furino, Wolczuk, McKinnon, etc. were out teaching in a barn on the outskirts of Waterloo, I would be learning there instead of here. The people who seem to care the most are the type of people who will go on to talk about their alma mater with great pride after they’ve been gone for many years. Frankly, the University of Waterloo has done nothing for me. I will proudly talk about taking Elementary Number Theory with Vanderburgh and History of Math with Furino and so on. But I was taught by the professors, not the institution. It is to them that I will be indebted. It is at their feet that I will pay respect.
But I ramble.
Beyond the appearance on degrees, people are worried that we are shunning our professional image for something trendy. Frankly, I’m convinced that this is merely an advertisement campaign that will last about as long as our 50th year, “The Spirit of Why Not?”, promotional material that was everywhere. We’ll cycle to something new and more cutting edge in a year or two.
Even if that isn’t the case, plenty of Canadian universities (Brock, Carleton, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, and York University, to name a few) have either diminished the presence of their coat of arms or removed it entirely. They do not appear to be suffering in any way, nor has their reputation diminished since the change. People seem to put too much stock in the image, and not the community that we have fostered here together. It is we - the people - that make this university. Logos are meaningless in the end. I don’t think you can be granted any sort of prestige by a logo. You have to work for that kind of acknowledgement.
Now, another big (and I mean big in huge letters big) problem seems to be the lack of communication with the students. This is something that I understand completely. Now, perhaps someone can correct me on this point, but I believe the University of Waterloo is - essentially - a business. They can conduct their affairs (or most of them) without being answerable to their chief consumers (the students) because we have no control over them. This - to me - is the same as Pepsi changing its logo recently. They didn’t ask Pepsi drinkers what they wanted. It is irrelevant. Pepsi was free to change their logo if they wanted in the same way the University of Waterloo can change their logo. Granted, we enlist the services of UW longer than it takes to consume a beverage, but the point still stands.
That being said, the administration of UW must clearly understand that we are all building a community here together. We are all working together to make something better out of the world we live in, regardless of what part we choose to play in the transition. UW, the student body may not have a say in the way you choose to rebrand yourself, but they deserve a little honesty and disclosure. A little transparency. Quit pulling all this secrecy nonsense. People don’t typically like it when you are dishonest or deceitful. It just isn’t nice.
As far as I’m concerned, they are free to change the logo to whatever they want. It makes no difference to me, but I don’t throw all my chips in with the institution over the people within it. Other people buy into the prestige of the place itself…frankly, I could care less. Probably the apathy of our generation kicking in.
Now, I reach the point where I run out of steam. Guess I’ll some up a nice conclusion. I feel the faculty logos are nice, the main logo needs a bit of touching up, and could the UW administration move forward with a little more transparency in their actions. All of this controversy can easily be avoided. I’m sure someone was really psyched to be cutting the ribbon or pulling back the curtain on this new logo, but sometimes being upfront is better than pulling out a huge surprise.
EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention that I do like the main logo, but only when it is small enough that you cannot individually distinguish each coloured line. Considering this is how it will be viewed on most items, it doesn’t seem that bad. The more I look at it, the more appealing I find it. It looks sleek, while giving us a design schools look of trendiness, innovation, and style. Still think the lines could have been better as gold and crimson, but I’m not a graphic designer.