The new UCLA logo is slowly starting to show up everywhere at
UCLA, from letterhead to magazines, but it could be as early as the
beginning of the next school year before students will see it on
merchandise.
UCLA trademarks and licensing, a division of the Associated
Students of UCLA, is working to make the new UCLA logo available to
manufacturers by March, said Cindy Holmes, director of UCLA
trademarks and licensing.
A small team of designers from Keith Bright Strategic Design
made the $98,000 logo which was intended to be a new graphic
identity for UCLA and address the variation in the UCLA name
throughout UCLA departments.
“The institution’s graphic identity has been
fragmented, due to the proliferation of many different logos,
symbols, colors and typefaces,” said Chancellor Albert
Carnesale in a letter on the UCLA graphic identity Web site.
While the university is looking to unify its image in the form
of the new logo, this does not mean this logo will be the only one
seen on merchandise in the future, said Lawrence Lokman, a
university spokesman.
“In terms of product there’s a lot more leeway in
interpretation,” Holmes said. “It will not be the case
that you will only see (the new UCLA logo) on our
product.”
Lokman differentiated between institutional usage of the new
logo and the spirit usage of the cursive UCLA Bruins script.
Athletic departments will still use their cursive UCLA Bruins logo
on team uniforms and athletic merchandise.
Currently, the UCLA name can be seen in a variety of forms, from
cursive lettering to capitalized block lettering on things like
coffee mugs, sweatshirts and stuffed Bruin bears.
Holmes said there are also “authenticators” which
represent the university’s image that can also be used in
merchandise, like the university seal or even Royce Hall.
“There’s a lot of material that goes into product
development,” Holmes said. “If we only produced shirts
that had one logo on it, it’s not as interesting.”
Before materials and merchandise can be made available for mass
consumption, licensees have to send samples of the products back to
trademarks and licensing for approval. UCLA trademarks and
licensing hopes to see the new logo in other international venues
by spring of 2006, Holmes added.
Currently, the new UCLA logo is being used by international
licensees in China ““ because they are the newest
international licensees ““ on neck labels inside garments and
tags hanging from UCLA garments.
There are guidelines stated in the graphic identity Web site
that determine how the UCLA logo can be used and which shades of
blue and gold are to be used. UCLA trademarks and licensing will
try to stay in line with these guidelines but will also try to find
ways to increase variety by changing things like background colors,
Holmes said.
Whether students will purchase merchandise with the new logo
remains to be seen. Some students, like third-year history student
Daniel Haney, think the new UCLA logo is better suited for
letterhead and newsletters and is “too basic for a
sweatshirt.”
For fourth-year sociology student Jennifer Vonghack, wearing a
sweatshirt with the UCLA logo is about more than keeping warm. It
is a matter of pride.
“If it doesn’t stand out, what’s the point of
wearing a logo?” Vonghack asked, adding that the new UCLA
logo is plain to her.
But to others, the new logo just takes getting used to.
“What’s critical (is that) as people move through
UCLA … the graphic mark that was created becomes very common and
a very accepted representation of our institutional
identity,” Lokman said.