Work — Dallas Community College

"Everyone's Journey is Unique."

Challenge

To recognize and confer a single-named college degree for the benefit and clarity of its students, Dallas County Community College District was required by its board to merge each of its seven individually named and accredited colleges into ONE college. This new brand identity system would need to merge multiple campuses, centers and institutes into an easy-to-implement brand hierarchy that created consistency across the system while also giving each campus its own identity based on primary and secondary brand characteristics.

Pull In

Working with the College’s internal marketing team, Push conducted in-person meetings with faculty and staff in addition to using existing research provided on students to gain insight and understanding into both the brand and the organizational structure of the district and its different campuses. We also looked at the Dallas landscape to review other logos and master marks that were well known and loved.

Attain Focus

We also felt that the new logo had the opportunity to stand alongside other prominent and important Dallas organizations, sports teams and institutions, enabling us to “level up” the design. This would allow students, faculty and staff to feel proud and confident to be counted amongst their city peers. This also reflected the tone and personality traits we developed.

Push Out

Utilizing recognizable icons and imagery from both Texas and Dallas, the agency constructed various logos and letterforms to embrace the uniqueness and individuality that the Lone Star State is known for.

In presenting the original concepts, the agency utilized an in-person “tissue session” that allowed participants from both the district and various campuses to review and comment on the logos.

The final chosen logo had to be approved at the district level, the campus level and by a vote of the board. To enable all stakeholders to visualize the new logo in various applications, we showed the it “in-place” to give a sense of usage and implementation.

Athletics

While a single name and identity was approved for the district, each campus retained both the right and ability to have its own mascot represent their sports teams and spirit merchandise. Using the same Push Process as for the master identity, we worked with coaches, managers and other campus-specific personnel to find common ground and synergy to define a graphic style that is both consistent and flexible.