EDITORIAL
UH logo only part of creating identity

As any graphic artist or advertising executive will tell you, fooling around with the logo or name of a familiar product or institution is dangerous business.

People become comfortable with a particular identity and almost invariably are upset or unsettled when that identity changes.

So the University of Hawai'i was well-braced for criticism when it launched its effort to "re-brand" itself and adopt a new systemwide visual identity.

In fact, the decision might have been to leave well enough alone and keep the identity and visual symbols it already has. Except for one thing:

A lengthy study of the UH's institutional identity (by a local firm, the Brand Strategy Group) concluded that it didn't have an identity. The research concluded that the university had no distinct message or theme; that there were over 150 logos in use systemwide and, in short, there was no consistent "brand image" for the university.

The first step, UH decided, would be to bring a unified visual identity for itself. Two finalist logo prototypes were produced by a Mainland design firm and are now being circulated. (You can see them for yourself at www.hawaii .edu/ur/brandesign.htm)

Now, a unified logo for the entire system may make sense. But some of the head-scratching accompanying the release of the two final designs may be because the other half of this exercise remains incomplete.

There is still confusion and ambiguity over the university's overall identity. What is our University of Hawai'i and what does it stand for?

In its earlier years, there was an overarching identity that had to do with equal access to higher education for all Hawai'i students. Concepts of diversity and open opportunities for all bright young minds defined what UH stood for.

Clearly, the university has grown since then. We now have a world-class identity in science, in Asia studies, in ocean research and in many other areas. The very idea of the university has shifted from one that largely meant Manoa to a true university system.

But these threads have not yet been woven together into a coherent whole. That task is obviously more complicated than choosing a visual identity. But it must be accomplished.

A new logo is fine. But a logo does not by itself define or create an identity. It simply represents it.