$225,000 spent on PSU rebranding

The President’s Task Force for Integrated Marketing has $25,000 left of the $250,000 it received in 2004 to revamp and rebrand Portland State.

Part of the Office of University Development, the task force is made up of faculty from all departments in the university and was established in January 2005 to oversee the project of creating a cohesive identity for PSU. They plan to meet in February to determine how to use the remaining funds, according to Cassie McVeety, vice president of university relations.

“We have a lot of needs to prioritize,” McVeety said.

Out of the project budget, PSU made a contract of $120,000 in February 2006 for a new logo with Sockeye Creative Inc., a Portland-based firm that specializes in logo creation and branding. Sockeye Creative, who designed the new logo that raised controversy among some students who thought the cost of the logo was too expensive, was selected by a 14-member committee within the task force.

Another major expenditure was a photo shoot that cost $24,000 and yielded new, up-to-date images of the campus, according to Julie Smith, director of marketing at PSU.

Other costs, totaling over $100,000, include replacing signs on campus to bear the new logo, identity packets provided to staff and faculty at the beginning of the year (including decals, pins and a fact sheet on the new identity), and the redesigning of the PSU website.

The money allocated to the task force was intended solely for the development of the new PSU identity, Smith said. No funds were allotted for external promotion or advertising in the community.

The PSU Department of University Relations supplied some additional finances, but no exact number is known, according to McVeety. Their major contribution was employing the logo, she said.

“It’s not like it’s new money,” McVeety said. “Partly it is using the resources that we already have smartly.”

Rather than purchase advertisements, the task force has emphasized the use of the logo on campus, Boone said. Window decals and pins have been their nontraditional means of advertising, he said, to promote the identity of the university internally and externally.

McVeety said the remaining funds are “fluid,” because not all invoices have yet been deducted from the budget. She said the task force is close to knowing exactly how much they have, but the total is no more than $25,000.

McVeety said there’s not enough money left to do everything the task force wants to, and she said they would like to increase signage on campus and have more pictures taken of PSU.

There are still departments in the university using stationary, envelopes and other materials with the old PSU letterhead and logo. Faculty and staff members are encouraged to use the materials they have remaining, but they should implement the new logo on new materials, Boone said.

The university is now in a period of transition, Boone said. “Now it’s just a matter of people working this into their literature.”

Communication personnel in departments throughout the university will gather to determine a feasible time frame that new letterhead and logos can be incorporated into all PSU material, Smith said.

“Truly our goal is by the fall of next year we’ll be completely integrated,” Smith said.

The majority of Sockeye’s work has been completed, such as designing the logo, but the company still has 26 hours of work to fulfill as part of their contract, according to Smith. She said the task force plans to use that time to learn from the company experts.

“We’re going to ask them for consulting advice on some things,” Smith said. The remaining hours that Sockeye owes the task force need to be used by spring 2007.

Overall, McVeety said the project has been successful because people are using the logo.

“Everyone has participated at a high level,” McVeety said, adding that each time a staff member orders stationary with the new logo on it, it helps. “It’s even on the new parking passes. This is so much more than a logo. It’s a whole identity of PSU.”