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The journey toward a purposeful brand is hard work. And fraught with misled travelers. Being clear about who you are—it’s at the center of branding.
At Gardner Design, we’ve helped hundreds of clients refocus and relay brands that get to the point.
Join us as Bill Gardner and our clients discuss how they found their brand voice. In these episodes, we will correct misconceptions and dispel fears as we relate first-hand experiences of branding. None of these episodes are the full story for these brands but, we hope, offer helpful tidbits for your own branding journey.
Ep03
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[00:00:00]
Local Win Surprise
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Barth Hague: I was amazed that the winner of this national search for a new visual identity program for Wichita State was how many, 15 blocks down the road? Yeah, yeah. And, and, uh, and, and since then, I think it's been a, there's just been a, a tremendous relationship built that continues to this day. And, and the fact that, uh, Wichita State is your alma mater- Yeah
and I know your heart is in it- Yeah ... that made a big difference
[00:01:00]
No Rules Branding
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Bill Gardner: here with Barth Hague, who was the chief marketing officer at, uh, Wichita State University at the time that we took on a monumental task of, uh, not only rebranding the university, um, uh, from a visual standpoint and setting the tone of voice and the likes, but also in giving Barth a tool that he had needed for the longest time.
But we're, we're gonna be talking about the standards that were ultimately developed as part of this project. But you so beautifully tell the story about what happens when people would come in and ask you if they could do something.
Barth Hague: Well, I had worked in organizations before doing these kinds of things-
Bill Gardner: Yeah
Barth Hague: uh, where visual standards were, uh, [00:02:00] w- existed-
Bill Gardner: Yeah ...
Barth Hague: and people followed them.
Bill Gardner: Yep.
Barth Hague: And, um, uh, I would, uh, when I arrived at Wichita State, fairly quickly in the process discovered that none of that exists. Uh, there are multiple logos throughout this company- Yep, yep ... and multiple approaches to graphic design.
And, and our office, uh, was, uh, essentially the ad agency or the marketing agency for the whole university. So we would have a... You know, the Department of Anthropology might come and say, "Hey, we need help with this project." And, um, uh, the question would be asked What are the rules? Well, there are no rules, so you can do whatever you want.
So that, that's, that was how, uh, we approached the visual identity part of our marketing program historically at Wichita State, and certainly when I was there. And I ... It, it was very clear moving forward that if we were gonna build any kind of consistency in terms of how this is done, [00:03:00] uh, we're gonna need some rules for the road.
Bill Gardner: Yeah.
Need Consistency
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Bill Gardner: So, so, so getting into this project, and, uh, there, uh, we're at Wichita State University, which is my alma mater. Uh, th- th- there were two different logos. There was a, um ... They, they both were the WSU, and they both had wheat. One was academic. One was athletic. We ended up kind of merging them together, and that was a process that we, we'll talk about in another gathering.
But really, the, the thing that you were most concerned about in, in some ways was about this idea of building consistency- Mm-hmm ... in the brand. And, and we tell clients all the time that that's what branding is, is developing clarity and consistency.
Barth Hague: Well, and I come at it, Bill, as, as, as, not as a designer but as a, as a marketing executive.
I c- I, I think in very dollars and cents, black and white terms- Yeah ... about this stuff. Yeah. And, and for an organization to invest [00:04:00] anything in a visual identity like a logo without consistency, you're throwing your money away. Yeah. And I ... And, and so for us, I knew from prior experience that we needed this consistent roadmap for how to, how to manage this going forward.
Plus, I wanted it codified to some degree so that I could say to the director of the Department of Anthropology- ... "No, we can't do it that way, but we can do it this way." Yeah. And, and, and the visual identity program that was developed along with our new image and so forth, that really was the key to making this work at- Yeah
Wichita State.
Bill Gardner: And, uh, uh, and the fact that you had not had a set of standards, uh, was anathema to me. I w- I, I was... You know, when, when you start to think about a university, I have no idea how many different people had the authority to create, um, [00:05:00] all of the folderol that gets created- Yeah ... as part of the marketing.
I mean, you've got marketing department, you got communication department. Each one of the university's, uh, colleges has individuals designing their own thing. Oh, yeah. So I mean, when, when you start to think about the image that Wichita State University or any-
Barth Hague: Any ...
Bill Gardner: organization projects, boy, that, that's just a worst case scenario.
Barth Hague: It is.
Website Chaos Reset
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Barth Hague: I... Our, our website when I arrived at Wichita State was a great case in point. Now, this was early in the world of websites- Mm-hmm ... but we had a website. There was very little depth to it, if you understand what I mean. It was the little
Bill Gardner: crate to the side of the computer. We, we did. Yeah, we had a squirrel.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Barth Hague: Uh, but, but, uh, one of the challenges we had was that the, the, the homepage of our website was just a mess of information, and there were, uh, there were tons of links and so forth. Well, only to discover that the marketing department over time had just basically given up. And if you would come to us [00:06:00] and say, "Hey, I want-
I want my program's link to be on the homepage," you'd get it.
Bill Gardner: Yeah. Back
Barth Hague: then. And, and so those, those were rules that had to be reset, re- rethought completely. Uh, and probably was in some ways the toughest sell, but I think, I think most of the organizations within the university setting quickly understood the value of it.
Yeah. So we were able to pull it off.
Bill Gardner: You know, when, when we talk about consistency within a, a brand, part of the thinking here is that the consumer, um, that, that audience that you're speaking to makes a lot of assumptions. Mm-hmm. And when they look at the website and it doesn't look like the signage on campus, and it doesn't look like, uh, the catalog of courses, and it doesn't look like, you know, the way finding, all of these things gather back here in the back of their mind.
And they start to make associations with consistency, and they go, [00:07:00] "Boy- You know, if this is this inconsistent here, then am I going to get, uh, uh, a professor that shows up when he says he's gonna show up? Am I going to get the education that I said I'm signing up for? Am I... You know, so all of these things are impressions that-
Barth Hague: Well, they are.
Yeah.
Marketing ROI Focus
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Barth Hague: And I th- I think your, your point that, that, uh, an audience's perspective- Yeah ... an outsider's perspective looking in is key. Mm-hmm. My, uh, marketing professor at, uh, uh, University of Notre Dame-
Bill Gardner: Yeah ...
Barth Hague: had a great definition for marketing. He said, "Marketing is the business of getting and keeping customers."
Now, in my world at Wichita State, marketing was the business of getting and keeping students.
Bill Gardner: Sure.
Barth Hague: That was our bread and butter.
Bill Gardner: Yeah.
Barth Hague: Stu- prospective students had to recognize, this is Wichita State. This is all Wichita State-
Yeah ...
rather than this fractured mess that, that it, it had been. It becomes a dollars and cents [00:08:00] decision that you have to make.
Do you want more customers or not? Yeah. Do you want more sales or not? I mean, that r- Yeah ... that's really from a university perspective, what it boils down to. And, and
Bill Gardner: universities and students are good.
Barth Hague: Yeah. I agree. I agree. More, more the better.
Beyond the Logo
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Bill Gardner: You know, the, the thing that, uh, you think about when you think about standards is it tells me how to use my logo, but the thing about a set of standards is that a logo is not a brand.
Right. You know? there are so many things that you're involved in that brand from, your, your colors and your typography, and the fonts that you use, and the way that you're using the textures, the patterns, the colors, the, the illustration style, the photography. All of these things end up coming together to create that, group of DNA, if you will- that you can build from, and as long as you continue to build from that group of elements, you will have that level of consistency in there. And I'm, [00:09:00] I'm recalling when we came on campus, after we had developed the brand, and, we started, developing the signage on campus, that one of the things that happened was we elected to really press the yellow button.
before, on Wichita State's campus, you, you very seldom saw much yellow, and there was a lot of yellow in there, and, uh, it was happening at a time when there was kind of a resurgence in enthusiasm of the students coming onto the campus, and they kind of bought into this. And part of it's because- There was some consistency that was starting to happen on campus, and there was a voice that they could chime into.
Barth Hague: Right. No, I agree.
Creativity Boundaries
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Barth Hague: I, I, uh, have told this story before, but, uh, with a previous, uh, employer who, uh, uh, a fairly large corporation that I, I was, uh, vice president of marketing and, and we went through a similar kind of process. And we brought in an outside design firm to help us develop a new logo, new standards.
Yeah. [00:10:00] And that got rolled out that one of my, uh, chief opponents of this was our own art director-
Bill Gardner: Yeah ...
Barth Hague: whose response was, "You're limiting my creative ability. You're, you're giving me these standards that don't allow me to use any, any font I want, any color I want." Right. "And therefore, I can't be as creative."
And the, the design consultant who we were working with on this had a great response. He said to him, "We're not trying to limit you. What we're trying to do is set some boundaries- within what you're doing so that your creativity doesn't go this way. It should go this way. You should be more creative within these boundaries.
A smart way to say that. And, he left. But, but- Yeah ... uh, the, the, the folks who were in the organization, and I think Wichita State has done this well over time- too. They've been very creative within that set, that framework- Okay ... if you [00:11:00] will, of design standards that- And continue, yeah ... allow us to maintain that level of consistency.
Yeah.
Cost Savings Scale
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Bill Gardner: You know, the, the other factor that really works in here, and especially that, uh, is a enthusiastic, uh, component for the CFO of any organization, is, man, is it a cost savings.
Barth Hague: Well-
Bill Gardner: I mean- Over time,
Barth Hague: yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm,
Bill Gardner: yeah. I mean, you're making an investment, uh, in this, but, uh, if you're not reinventing the wheel every time you do something, if you are starting to produce things in quantities that can start to bring down costs, if, uh, people have a single point of recognition of you visually, I mean, all of these things ultimately are a huge cost savings for- It is
an
Barth Hague: organization. I mean, just think of, think of paper, for example. Yeah. There's an economy of scale just in terms of being able to mass produce things now- Sure ... that share the same look-
Bill Gardner: Yep ...
Barth Hague: and, uh, bring costs down per [00:12:00] piece- Yeah ... than we ever could have before. But I think with... I, I do believe you're right with, with, uh, a, a g- a great visual identity program with standards built around that, it gives an organization a much better chance of seeing a return on investment early.
Bill Gardner: Yeah, it really
Barth Hague: does.
Bill Gardner: Yeah.
Campus Pride Legacy
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Bill Gardner: And I think Wichita State is such a prime example of that, uh, when you start to take a look... And, and, and it was during your tenure there, Bart, that I really do see that, uh, there was such a, uh, tremendous level of enthusiasm that started to rise amongst the students, uh, where they were proudly wearing the logo, proudly wearing the gear, proudly, you know, associating- Yeah
with the university in, uh, such a way. Well, and,
Barth Hague: and remarkably too- Yeah ... faculty, faculty and staff. Yes. I, I was, I didn't think we'd ever get to that point. Yeah. It's hard in a, in a college setting or a university setting like that to win faculty over to anything. Yeah. But I'd say the majority, certainly not all, but the majority of [00:13:00] them were, were also on board with what we were doing.
Yeah.
Bill Gardner: I, um, look at the campus now- And with the expansion, uh, you know, I mean, it- it's doubled its size.
Barth Hague: It has.
Bill Gardner: You know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, in the last several years and with enormous building, uh, and construction and plans going on out there, new buildings and the likes. And as I drive by the buildings and I see the, the mark that you led, uh, our team through, um, as I take a look at, uh, all the new signage, as I take a look at all the materials coming off that campus, it's a tremendous legacy to you- Well, I appreciate that
and, uh, to your department for guiding, uh, us through this.
Team Effort Thanks
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Barth Hague: Well, Bill, I, I... it was, it was a team effort.
Bill Gardner: Yeah.
Barth Hague: And, and I remember the day when we, we, uh, of course, we're a state agency, right? Yeah. So we have to do- we have to run through this very, well, a pr- a, a big, uh, purchasing process- Sure ... with RFPs and a national search.
And I was [00:14:00] amazed that the winner of this national search for a new visual identity program for Wichita State was how many? 15 blocks down the road. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, uh, and, and since then, I think it's been a... there's just been a, a tremendous relationship built that continues to this day. And, and the fact that, uh, Wichita State is your alma mater- Yeah
and I know your heart is in it-
Bill Gardner: Yeah ...
Barth Hague: that made a big difference, too.
Bill Gardner: Hey, thank you. You bet. Thank
Barth Hague: you so much.
Bill Gardner: I
appreciate it. You bet. Pleasure.