La Salle University is "brand"ed a winner

By Katie Williams
Collegian Editor
September 19, 2007

The leaders of various La Salle organizations were handed the fruit of years of labor Sept. 9: The Brand Book. This book is a comprehensive guide to the La Salle logo, and how the logo is to be used in the future. It is all part of La Salle’s attempt to create a brand name for the school.

“Our office was charged [in 2002] with doing a Marketing Research project about what people thought of the university,” explained Joseph Donovan, the assistant vice president of marketing and communiction. The office hired an outside research company to use both interviews and focus groups to poll a range of people associated with the University, including faculty, students and alumni. From the initial survey period, they were able to create an online survey for students to fill out.

“The overrunning idea of all this was, ‘What is La Salle? How would you describe it,” Donovan said. “Critical for us were descriptive statements, what we call key messages and language.”

After all this research was done, the marketing department approached a graphic arts firm in order to create a permanent and unique symbol for the University.

“There was a lot of variety in the symbol. Vehicles, letterheads, signs, business cards, they all would have a different La Salle logo,” Donovan said. “The idea was that at a time when we’re trying to create a brand identity, it was also time to look at our graphic.”

“It’s very important to have a brand. To know what your brand stands for, and what people associate with your name. Like any other brand, La Salle has a visual logo. The logo is simply the graphic representation of the school. By itself it means nothing, but when people look at it they think of La Salle and all that La Salle means.”

Donovan continued to explain the importance of a logo, by using banks as an example.

“Think about what bank you use. You know the color of that bank, don’t you? Commerce is red; Wachovia is blue, but not just any blue, that dark blue. You can identify what ATM is for what bank just by looking at the color.”

The department wanted the logos to be unique, but also have meaning to the school. There are three symbols for La Salle: The La Salle logo, which includes the school’s name – the coat of arms, or seal; and the athletic logo.

For the official school logo, the designers looked at St. John Baptist de La Salle’s original family crest. Not only were his crest’s colors blue and gold, but it also featured the same broken chevron that is featured on La Salle University’s crest.

The school crest was completely revamped during this process. Originally, the helmet and plume of the knight on top of the crest, as well as the words written beneath it, would become impossible to decipher when the picture was made small. The knight now has a very simple feather in his helmet.

“We simplified it so that it was easier to make out. We also focused the crest on the very important symbols in the middle of it: the star, cross and chevron,” Donovan said.

When creating the athletic logo, the school thought about the history of the Explorers.

“We are the only college in the United States with that nickname,” Donovan said. “There’s lots of Hawks and Wildcats, but only one Explorers. No one else can claim that.”

While the name has never changed, over the years the Explorer mascot himself has been everything from an astronaut to a superhero. Feeling the need to return to the school’s roots, the Explorer on the logo was changed to a 17th century French explorer.

Some student leaders have expressed concern that the Brand Book will be too hard to follow. When asked about the penalties for not following the book to the letter, Donovan seemed surprised.

“I don’t think there will be a problem. We give groups a lot of different options. We’re not trying to stop a group from doing what they need to do. For instance, the logo can only be on a white background. If a club needed to make green shirts for an event, they could put the logo on the sleeve, or we could give them designs to use. Or they could just use the name of the school instead of the logo. There’s a lot of different options.”

“I ask my staff to always tell [the club or group] before they make a change,” he assured, “We need to communicate to one another.”

williamsk1@lasalle.edu