Last year, the president’s office decided it was time for a more modernized look when it came to Washburn University’s logo, so they enlisted the help of Waltz Petric Advertising Agency and formed a marketing and communications committee.
Lori Hutchinson, executive director of strategic communications and marketing, said this was an “evolution of the brand, not a revolution.”
“We wanted to better unite and unify our brand, trying to integrate Washburn University and Washburn Tech, and just emphasize the point that we are many pathways, one Washburn,” Hutchinson said.
The original deadline for the rebranding was July 1, however, it wasn’t ready by then so the team has been slowly releasing it instead of doing an unveiling.
“There’s been so much to it, I think maybe even more than we had imagined,” Hutchinson said. “But we’re really grateful that we had the time to really make some thoughtful decisions and to consult a lot of people and to base decisions on a lot of data and input from different stakeholders.”
Hutchinson also said the committee gathered input from students, administrators, faculty and alumni. However, George Burdick, senior president of Washburn Student Government Association, said he hadn’t heard of the rebranding and when WSGA sent its marketing director, Kate Coulter, to one of the meetings, she reported back that it felt like a presentation instead of a discussion on what could be done. Burdick said that while discussion for the new logo began in October of 2023, WSGA was not informed of the decision until August of 2024.
“We kind of learned about it pretty late as they were like, ‘Ok, we’re going to start rolling this out’ and we were like ‘Ok, this is interesting,’” Burdick said.
Burdick said they were concerned about the new Ichabod because the index finger was removed and students had said it was too corporate instead of human. He said they were hesitant on whether they wanted to pursue this in case they couldn’t win. However, they heard other people voice concerns and decided it was their place as representatives of the student body to take action.
WSGA took a poll on Instagram and received over 300 answers from students expressing their opinions on the new Ichabod. They presented the information to the PR team and they were told one of the concerns that they’ve heard is that the Ichabod is a straight, white, cis male, which many students at Washburn would find hard to relate with. They wanted everyone to be able to see themselves as the Ichabod.
Hutchinson said she wasn’t worried about losing the Ichabod’s sentimental value because of the research and surveys Washburn had done.
“We think he looks maybe a little stronger, and we think he really looks like he’s going somewhere because Washburn’s going somewhere. I think we’re making some fantastic moves, and I think he is very representative of who Washburn is, and the good momentum we have going forward,” Hutchinson said.
Hannah Kirby, assistant director of campus visit experience, said she’s not worried about the rebranding erasing Ichabod’s history.
“I think that we’re staying true to our history,” Kirby said. “We’ve always been an open-access institution from our very first day. We always accepted students of color. We have always accepted women. We have never had any admissions requirements based on any of those factors of a student’s identity.”
Hutchinson said the brand is our identity, so they gave students a rebrand with a variety of symbols. Washburn also wants to use this rebrand as a way to convey that education can help put students on their own path.
“We feel like we have something for everybody and to meet them where they are,” Hutchinson said. “So we had to establish that first before we could move on and figure out what best represents us, as far as a visual look.”
The rebrand is expected to be finished by the end of this month, however, it is visible on social media now and will gradually appear in the Ichabod Shop and around campus.
Hutchinson said any student groups who want to get in touch or update their logo should email [email protected] or stop by Morgan 119.
Edited by Stuti Khadka and Morgan Albrecht
