How is it Still a (Midd) Thing?

It has been 285 days since the College unveiled its new logo. Each and every one of those days could have been just a tad bit better if the new logo never existed.

That’s 6,840 hours with a logo that looks like the College proudly unified with DeVry University to create one comprehensive institution. I look forward to our inevitable rebranding to MiddVry University and the opening up of student enrollment to the acclaimed DeVry School of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship Specialization.

Seriously, our new logo sucks. Yes, I know we complained about it plenty last year, but I did not write this column last year and it still fits the theme, as the logo is still a thing when it should very much not be.

If you haven’t yet watched the release video for the new logo, I highly recommend you do. The background music sounds exactly like the music you’d imagine an accounting firm would play in the background of its recruiting video. Look at us! Our employees are happy and the job totally isn’t boring! We’re lying through our teeth! Those are paid actors! Accounting!

On top of the accounting background music, the logo video does an incredible job at blatantly avoiding explaining why the College decided that emojis were probably the best things to include in the logo. Nothing says “esteemed global institute of higher learning” like a globe emoji and a book emoji, right guys? Guys?

Also let us not forget that the video tells us for a solid three quarters of its duration just how exciting it is that all of our institutions now have the same identifying logo and that this is a BIG DEAL.

And then the last quarter of the video arrives. PUMP FAKE. We actually have two logos! That’s right; Monterey has a different logo to embrace its “independent history and West Coast location.” So apparently we don’t have a comprehensive logo for everything … I’m just as confused as you are.

Here’s the thing: I fully get the desire to have one logo for all of the College’s entities. The problem is how the logo came into being. The logo release video proudly tells you that the logo went through screening after screening from a wide variety of people and then edit after edit until everyone was happy. The whole point of the logo is to apparently include as much as possible about what the College has to offer. The College shouldn’t have to do that.

We are not a for-profit institution functioning as a corporate entity attempting to brand our way into relevance. We are a 215-year-old, highly respected institution of higher learning. By putting the logo through focus group after focus group, we’ve been left with something that can only offend someone with its mediocrity.

Rather than representing a unique institution “that is more than the sum of its parts,” as the video proudly declares, the logo actually feels less than Midd. We can do better. Let’s get rid of the emojis and the focus groups and try again.