There is a lot of work involved in developing a logo and setting design policies for its uses. Still, it looks like the University of Kansas was taken to the cleaners. Turns out KU’s new logo (the right one in the picture, and for which it cost KU nearly $90,000 to produce) is nearly identical to a logo that Kutztown University in Pennsylvania developed two years ago (and paid $20,000 for), the Lawrence Journal-World reported. I’m still wondering what was wrong with the old logo.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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14 Comments
Why is it so expensive. They could have had a college student do it for free.
I agree, It makes you wonder how much more money universities waste on projects that the students could do. Us and them utimatly pay for their waste.
Hey, we’re big spenders here in Kansas when it comes to education.
Actually the logos are completely different – the first two letters of Kutztown are similar to KU of KS but PA’s $20k paid for a whole word – that’s the funny part. Lyn at http://members.aol.com/lyngperry
That’s a god-awful price for something like that. I’ll use MS Paint and make them one for free if they’re that desperate ;)
But really, why does it cost so much to create a logo that could be done on any home computer!?
This issue needs to be further investigated. The KU Alumni were presented 4 semi-final choices from which to select and make comments about a half-year ago or more (Online). I could almost swear that one of those choices was identical to the Kutztown logo. If I recall correctly, I had emailed them back that I liked the long tail on the letter K extending under the U, but that I would prefer that the letters be the same height and on the same level. Of course, they never listen to my suggestions, because I don’t speak with enough dollars, but maybe this time there was more to the reason that they didn’t ;)
This same rediculous scenario played out at San Diego State University in the early eighties. The crux of that argument by the school staff was copyright laws. Still a wet argument by any means.
Heck, this is worse than the WSU hamburger if anyone remembers that. The athletic dept. decided they needed a new WSU logo since the current one wasn’t good enough and they paid around $30,000. In the end they logo they got looked like a hamburger. If they would have given me a semester or two of free admission and books I would have made one much better. Schools get robbed on these things. And the sad part is that most of these schools have graphic design and art departments where the students could have done a much better job.
I located a Blog that shows the four semi-final choices (mentioned earlier). Now that I look at them again, I believe that I had suggested a combination of the Goudy design and the Hill design. Such a combination would have looked almost identical to the Kutztown logo. Link: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/johnny_america/2005/may/16/newkulogos/
I also came across a 53 page Adobe Acrobat pdf file explaining all of the rules behind KU’s new logo, its sizes, colors, uses, etc., with lots of examples that KU fans or graphic art students would probably find interesting. This gives one a little better understanding of where some of the money went.Link: http://www.identity.ku.edu/KU_graphic_standards.pdf
It’s another Zionist plot.It’s Bush’s fault.Karl Rove is behind this.
It’s 2 freakinm’ letters for only $90,000 freakin’ dollars. Who gives a rats zass that they pretend to also need a freakin’ 53 page adobe file to spec those two letters out. How much did all those lawyers cost?
Just give Halliburton the money and shut up.
For all you budding graphic artists out there, a logo has to be copyrightable. That means a search of every copyrighted logo ever designed, to assure that it hasn’t already been taken, or you open the school and the state to a lawsuit that would make the $90,000 look pretty cheap. It isn’t as easy as sitting down to a computer and opening a graphic program.
Jed! You mean Trademarks. But basically trademarks are a piece of cake. You can go to the USPTO website and do a search yourself. You don’t need a lawyer for that.
I always think it is funny that people precieve that we need a lawyer to help form companies, trademarks, and patents, which is all hogwash. Anybody can do it.
If we have to resort to lawyers to get anything done or even to do anything in this country, then we really hit bottom.
Well, now we know ONE expense of Kansas Education Budgets… Its a shame to spend $90,000 on two letters…. Looks a whole lot like Kentucky’s letters, or Kincaid University’s letters.. Where is the Jayhawk?
Sounds like the folks on Snob Hill could use the brainpower of some of the Rhoades, Fullbright and Truman Scholars K-State has been putting out the last 30 years.Rock Chalk Chicken Hawk….