Wednesday at 9 a.m
Drinking my first cup of coffee for the day, I peruse through my email. Read, reply, archive– repeat. The QUESTLab is still empty, so I skim through relatively quickly. All I have left is “3.25.2014_QUEST_Logo_ReviewDeck” from Rachel George. I click on the email and examine the latest developments of QUEST’s logo redesign effort. Taking another sip of coffee, I catch the glance of a green mermaid grinning on my cup and wonder, “What will the future of QUEST look like?”
The Team, The Mission
Today, the logo is an essential element of any major brand. Logos have assumed an organization defining role, and no one understands this paradigm better than the creator of QUEST’s 20th Anniversary logo, Vidya Sathyamoorthy. Feeling QUEST’s logo was starting to look dated, Vidya wanted to “come up with a new logo that was more modern, streamlined, and reflected the current vision of QUEST.” Vidya, in collaboration with Kylie and Dr. Bailey, assembled a logo redesign task force that has now evolved into the QUEST Marketing Team (QMT).
Brought together by their mutual interest in design and passion for the QUEST brand, the team of Vidya Sathyamoorthy (Q16), Max Cooper (Q19), Eric Hamel (Q19), and Rachel George (Q21) combined their talents to redefine the face of QUEST. When asked about his logo redesign experience Eric Hamel noted, “the logo redesign effort was a unique opportunity to apply all the tools we learn in QUEST with students from different cohorts, alumni, and faculty.” Over the course of a semester QMT worked tirelessly to create a new and exciting brand for the QUEST community.
The Logo
The end product, based on my exposure to previous iterations, is sure to be stellar. When asked about the character of the new logo, QMT mentioned, “clean lines, a bold look, symbolism, representation from the three schools, timelessness, forward motion, fluidity, customizability, and a resonance with the QUEST community.” However, the most prominent change to the QUEST community will probably be the change from purple to Maryland colors (red, black, and yellow).
Max Cooper addressed the change in a discussion I had with him when writing this article. As a former Scoping TA, Max worked intimately with and pitched corporate partners on sponsorship for QUEST’s Consulting Practicum course (490).
By bringing Maryland colors into the logo we add a subtle reminder that QUEST is an academic program affiliated with a top-tier institution, even among those who have never heard of us before. My vision for a successful logo redesign is that a couple weeks after a scoping presentation, someone that sat in on our meeting could be cleaning off their desk, find the QUEST marketing materials, see the logo, and then remember that we are a University of Maryland honors program that fosters collaboration between three academic backgrounds toward continuous improvement.
While QMT believes we can build equity by improving cross-branding between QUEST and the University of Maryland, the team has a grander vision for marketing in QUEST. In fact, this logo redesign is the first of many for our program. QMT intends to create new logos for all of the QUEST teams– QUESTPress, QSO, Curriculum Review Committee, and QUEST Recruiting.