Posted on: Saturday, July 31, 2004

Support scarce for latest UH logo ideas

By Beverly Creamer and Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writers

The six potential University of Hawai'i logos that can be seen on the Web this week look like soft ice cream cones, Olympic torches or surfing companies, said students interviewed on campus yesterday.

But they don't seem to have much to do with Hawai'i or UH, according to a random sampling of half a dozen students and staff.

"This is jagged, not elegant enough," said Monisha Basnet, who graduated last year with a master's degree in business administration, as she pointed at No. 2.

"And this is a surfing company or a kaleidoscope," she added, pointing at No. 3. "And this one is conventional. Probably half the universities in the world have a book with a flame attached," she added, pointing at No. 4.

It wasn't a particularly auspicious beginning for the latest round in the logo saga that cost one consulting company its job last year, and sent the first two prospects to the scrap heap.

Under a new process initiated by the Board of Regents this year, yet another set of logos is up for discussion and decision-making on an image to "brand" the university internationally with a unifying symbol on everything from stationery and recruiting literature to products and signage.

E-mail comments were pouring in yesterday at the rate of about 25 an hour in the first six hours after UH posted the potential logos on its Web site yesterday morning, to "mixed" reactions, according to Carolyn Tanaka, UH associate vice president for external affairs and university relations.

The logos will be up on the Web site through Thursday, and a committee created by the regents will meet Aug. 11 to begin making a selection.

While public comments will play a role, Tanaka said, it's unlikely the committee in charge of finding a new logo will make the reactions public before a choice is made.

References unclear

With the campus in its second summer session, students and staff were more than willing to pass judgment on the lineup created by three Hawai'i design firms who each received $5,000 for their work. The winning designer will earn another $5,000.

"Number 5 looks like the lower half of a naked woman, with legs and a dropped skirt," said Jon Nelson, a 24-year-old graduate student from Hawai'i Pacific University. "I think they're horrible. They have absolutely no reference to Hawai'i, no emotion in any of them. They look like they've been pulled off a computer."

Not everyone was quite so harsh.

"Number 4 isn't bad," said Theresa Park, a junior from Pacific Lutheran University of Tacoma, Wash., at UH for summer courses. "But I don't know what they represent. I like something that represents my school."

Andy Lachman, vice president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawai'i, thinks the new designs are an improvement over the last two. His favorite? The book with the torch. His least favorite: the stylized "UH."

Priorities questioned

Though he thinks they're more appealing than the current logo, Lachman likes UH's current logo, and doesn't understand why changing it is such a priority. "I would say the old logo is more connected to the university," he said.

"There are a lot of things the university needs to address before the logo issue. We should spend some more time on the product before we look at the packaging around it."

Lynn Olete, a 20-year-old nursing student at Kapi'olani Community College, also said money spent on the logos would be better directed elsewhere. "I think they should spend money on more important things, like the courses and the dorms and maybe a parking lot for UH," she said.

Of the six submissions, she liked the Malamalama logo best, with the fire complementing the "malamalama," which means light of knowledge.

So did Yukiko Takaishi, a 26-year-old senior from Japan who has been at UH for three years and has followed the logo controversy with interest. She also liked No. 4.

"It's like a traditional logo," she said, adding that No. 2 was more like a soft ice cream cone or the Olympic torch.

"I might wear it," she said of No. 6 if it were emblazoned on a T-shirt. "But I want to get something more artistic. It's not like art. It's like a cartoon character."

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