Posted on: Friday, August 6, 2004

Public 'vote' collected on selection of UH logo

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Decision-making on the University of Hawai'i logo is about to begin.

The public "votes" are in — more than 650 of them by close of business yesterday — and today the university is going to announce which of the six logos in the competition is favored by the public.

If any.

That doesn't mean a public favorite will be selected when a 15-member evaluation and advisory committee convenes to make a decision. But public opinion will definitely play a role — as it did last time when it led the university president to scrap both of the candidates under consideration last May — the "Spectrum" and "Wave" designed by a Baltimore firm.

At that time public opinion — 1,300 e-mails in a week — was running 60 percent against both logos and people poured strong emotions into messages to the university.

This morning Phil Kinnicutt, UH director of marketing and brand management, will read the last e-mails that came in up to midnight, and issue a press release letting the community know what the feelings are.

Kinnicutt said he'll also read some early morning e-mail but doubts if "a lot of last-minute ones are going to change things."

Signaling the end of the public comment period, the six logos were pulled off the university Web site at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, when the university closed out the business day.

The logos were created by three Hawai'i design firms — Sae Design of Maui and Clarence Lee Design & Associates and Graphic House, both of Honolulu — each of which received $5,000 for initial work in creating two images each. The three firms were chosen from around 40 who submitted their credentials in the process.

The winning firm will receive an additional $5,000.

A final decision rests with a committee that will meet Wednesday to begin discussion. Francis Oda, chairman and chief executive officer of Group 70 International, heads the committee.

Any new logo won't replace the athletic logos for Manoa and UH-Hilo, or the UH seal, which will continue to be used on diplomas. But it will be used to "brand" the university nationally and internationally on everything from recruiting brochures to signs and stationery.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.

Correction: The committee that will make the final decision on the design of a new University of Hawai'i logo will meet Wednesday. The date was incorrectly reported.