Michaela Lumpert, Campus Carrier News Editor
Last semester, the college announced its plan for a new branding of the school. Just after students left campus for the winter holiday, the first phase of the new logo and branding was released when the Berry College Facebook page changed its profile picture. It did not take long for students and alumni to react to the logo.
Students and alumni went to social media, sharing their concerns with the new logo and how many believed it made the college look “childish” and it resembled Covenant College’s logo too closely.
“The feel and spirit of Berry seems lost in the logo,” one Facebook commenter said.
A majority of commenters were also concerned that the new lighter blue accent color was too different from the navy blue that Berry had used last year and it did not make sense to be in the color scheme.
Those who did not like the logo signed and shared a petition with a goal of 5,000 signatures. The creators of the petition hope to raise awareness for the concerns that community has regarding the new logo. Currently, the petition has about 3,300 signatures.
On Jan. 7, the college posted a response to the numerous concerns on Facebook. The post discussed the fault in correctly communicating with the community and tried to further explain their choices.
“In updating our logo, we regret not paying sufficient attention to how it should be introduced on social media and how the logo might translate into a social media icon,” the post said. “As a result, we created some confusion about what the logo is replacing, what is staying the same, and the flexibility that the new logo provides.”
At the SGA meeting on Tuesday Jan. 15, Nancy Rewis, vice president of marketing and communications, explained and answered some of the questions students had about the new logos. Her presentation explained where the logo design came from and how it had incorporated the heritage of Berry. Rewis also said she would stay after the meeting to further answer any questions students had on the logo.
On Jan. 14, the Berry College Facebook profile changed its profile picture to the logo incorporating the navy blue from last year.
“Berry community, as mentioned previously in the Q&A there were several social media icon options,” the post said. “The decision has been made to switch to this version.”
Next week, as two-part series, there will be an article discussing administration’s response to community’s reactions on the logo change.