MCC launches website and logo
Sydney Ritter
Mesa Legend
Maricopa Community Colleges (MCCCD) has released a set of logos for each of the 10 MCCCD colleges. The series of logos have been created by a team of six graphic designers. The project has been a continual effort between the MCCCD team and the community surrounding the schools for two years ever since the idea was first proposed in 2015. According to the Director of Communications at MCCCD Matthew Hasson, MCCCD’s goal was to make all 10 of the MCCCD colleges to have their own uniquely individual logo for the school but to also be connected to each other as an MCCCD college.
“This was a collaborative district-wide effort. Each college president and district leadership were a part of the development of the new logos,” he said. “The project focused on honoring the school’s’ individual identities and respective communities. The icons in each circle are each school’s original icon. School colors stayed the same. The circle and type treatment became the unifying element to create a family of logos.”
Although the project has now been released to the public and for the colleges to start using, the initial start of the idea did not sit well with some of the surrounding community. Former Vice Mayor of Mesa Dennis Kavanaugh, whose district included MCC’s main campus, was very vocal about his concern in the “rebranding” process while in office. “In the end, [the logos] were pretty good. [The district] achieved their goal while keeping each college’s individuality,” he said.
“I have to give credit to the chancellor and the governing board who decided to work on [the logos] and take our criticisms in a constructive way instead of digging their heels in and they ended up with an outcome that I think is beneficial to people in the communities and the colleges.” The project was proposed in 2015 and the team’s first designs to the city of Mesa, where Mesa Community College (MCC) has been rooted into the city for more than 50 years, did not take to the logos lightly.
“We got some good reactionary responses from a number of the governing board members. They also provided input so that we knew what the district was trying to do and we supported them but the heritage of MCC and the other colleges was too important to leave behind,” Kavanaugh added.
Along with the changing logos, MCCCD also was considering changing the names of the colleges entirely.
MCC’s chairperson for the alumni advisory board, Arlen Sykes, added his own commentary to the process when he heard about the change. “Last year when we started talking about taking another step and making the school Maricopa Community College then Mesa
my feeling was it did not give enough of the identity to the college,” he said. “Each [city] has it’s own identity, so each school has it’s own identity and I think this change that they did really did a really quality and creative job in being able to continue to have that identity but also show that affiliation to Maricopa Community Colleges.”
The 10 new logos were released to the public on August 24. “Mesa Community College has a strong reputation for excellence in education. Our logo is the visual representation of that reputation. It is our signature. It instantly identifies who we are and what we stand for,” according to the MCC website.
MCC alumnus and current interim president, Sasan Poureetezadi, is very pleased with the new modern logo that MCCCD has given them.
“The new logo really represents our local college and [the team] laid the connection between our campus and the college district. I think it does not only do that and connects us in but I also think it reaffirms our image and our brand,” he said. “Really the logo to me is really a modernized flair. The logo itself did not change as we initially thought but got more of a modern change so we were happy to see that.” Along with the new logo, MCC has revamped their website for the incoming 2017-2018 school year.
“The new logo really represents our local college and [the team] laid the connection between our campus and the college district. I think it does not only do that and connects us in but I also think it reaffirms our image and our brand,” he said. “Really the logo to me is really a modernized flair. The logo itself did not change as we initially thought but got more of a modern change so we were happy to see that.” Along with the new logo, MCC has revamped their website for the incoming 2017-2018 school year.
In an Intranet post to the MCC staff and faculty, the Director of Institutional Advancement Sonia Filan, explained that the new website is meant “to incorporate the updated logo and provide a more contemporary look.” “When we looked at updating the website, something we planned on the last year to coincide with the launch of the new logo. So with the new logo we also launched the new website because part of that is the logo is part of your brand so you want to insure the website reflects the logo,” Poureetezadi added. The launch of the website coincided with the start of the school year, on August 21.
