New logo part of rebranding effort at Lewis-Clark State

The last time the Lewis-Clark State athletics department teamed with the marketing and communications department on a rebrand of the iconic L and C logo, it was around the middle of the previous decade, when the school decided on one interlocking LC logo that would become the face of the program.

Now, in coordination with the rest of the school, the two departments have teamed up again to do another redesign of the logo, which was released earlier this week. This one is more finite. While not many fans would notice with the naked eye, there are some subtle differences, all with recognition of the school in mind.

“Recognizability. That’s the value of a brand, is that they can see us,” said Logan Fowler, LCSC’s director of communications and marketing. “They can see the styling, they see the colors and they have an idea that it’s all part of that school over there in Lewiston, Idaho.”

Fowler said the most recent interlocking LC logo, which was unveiled in 2015, had thicker outlines and there wasn’t much distinction between the L and the C.

The newest iteration is more well defined, and also is consistent, which is something the school was looking for.

“Consistency is king in branding,” Fowler said. “We’ve had elements in the past that people have liked or not liked, but above it all, what we want is consistency. That’s how we will build a brand, so with this, it’s a simple package for athletics. It’s a straightforward package that can’t be misused, can’t be confused, not too often. And ­consistency, we think, is where we will get value.”

It’s part of an overall school rebranding effort undertaken by the communications and marketing department. The goals were to use the school’s official colors (primarily Warrior blue) while using the official fonts of the school (which are proxima nova and arial) with no artistic liberties being taken. The goal was to use Lewis-Clark State College on first reference.

The school’s primary mark shows the full college name, the iconic Reid Hall clock tower (always ensuring the sun was hitting it). According to the school’s website, “the clock tower symbolizes LC State’s spirit of perseverance ...”

Fowler indicated some of the issues the school faced with the previous primary athletics logo.

“In the old iteration, the L and the C were a little wider and a little closer together,” he said. “So its fine when you printed it at large sizes, but we found when you go small-size embroidery, some of those gaps would just run together. You wouldn’t even see a gap between the lettering. Now, there’s a little bit more space, it’ll be more conducive for fine embroidery.

“It’ll also be more conducive for stroke, because as you know, there’s a strokeless version and then there’s the stroke version. On the old one, when you put a stroke on there, the space between the letters is neglible. Now when you put a stroke on it, you can see a nice, defined L and C from no matter how far away and how small you get.”

Uniformity is key as well. None of the athletic programs had a main secondary logo to use after the interlocking LC. Most of them did things on their own. Now, with the rebranding effort, each sport will have its own logo to show off.

“They’re all comparable and they’re all consistent to each other, which will be something that we haven’t done very well in the past,” Fowler said. “We’ve had departments that have built logos in-house, so they’ll get something completely out of brand coming out. So now everyone should be equipped to present, at least, a consistent message over time. We think the value will grow over time as that it is done.”

Bringing it all together is the interlocking LC.

“The interlocking LC is probably the most valuable branding element that athletics has, so we didn’t want to move far from it,” Fowler said. “It’s pretty recognizable on that Warrior baseball hat and on other uniforms. So we like the value that we had there, so it didn’t change much. It was rebalanced a little bit in this newest iteration. It’s more symmetrical now than it was before, more versatile than it was before.”

Walden may be reached at (208) 848-2258, dwalden@lmtribune.com, or on Twitter at @waldo9939.