welcome!
Southern State is reinventing itself—new degrees, new academic calendar, new campuses. Now it’s time to reinvent how the world sees us. By this fall, Southern State will have a new identity woven into everything we do.
Here you can follow along with our progress on our rebranding project!
new site preview
May 11, 2012
The launch of our new, fully responsive site featuring our new brand is just around the corner! You can look for it to go live around July 1st. Until then, here's a glimpse of what you can expect.
comments
B. F.
I appreciate the simplicity of the website design and the fact that it will be fully mobile device compatible. I am less enamored with the logo and the color scheme, however. The black-and-white theme just feels "blah" and the logo unimaginative. Sorry, but my opinion.
May 16, 2012 @ 2:15 PM
D. Steele
I am impressed with the new home page setup. It looks like it will be easier to navigate through. I agree with Sean Anderson that the main website should be student focused with faculty info on a seperate site. Plain and simple.
May 12, 2012 @ 1:10 PM
Sean Anderson
Oh yeah, it should adapt to small devices. If you break up the content into separate sites (student(main), staff, and faculty) it will be much easier to fit everything when the website scales down for a mobile device. HTML5 forms of course. Check out JQuery Mobile and JQuery UI to make this easy.
May 11, 2012 @ 3:45 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
We really appreciate your enthusiasm, Sean. The site is being built to be fully responsive which means the layout will adapt to fit the screen size of the viewer's device! And it's all being done through HTML5 and CSS3, no JQuery needed!
Sean Anderson
Main website should be completely student focused, keeping all the other staff and faculty cruft on a separate site.
sscc.edu==Main site (for students)
staff.sscc.edu==site containing stuff that is needed for staff (forms, tools, links etc..)
faculty.sscc.edu==site for faculty-centric content...
May 11, 2012 @ 2:45 PM
presenting our new logo!
March 27, 2012
We asked and you answered. We asked for a new logo design and 923 of you flooded us with 3,755 design ideas. And trust us, we pored over each and every one. Hosting a contest on 99designs was our first experience with a crowdsourcing project and we were humbled and awed by the willingness of designers to work with us on our new campaign.
So allow us to step back for a moment and say thank you. To all of you who submitted designs to the competition, we want to extend our most sincere appreciation for sharing your time and talent with us.
At the close of the competition—and with the guidance of the full rebranding committee—the field was narrowed to seven designs. From there, the gates were opened. We polled faculty and staff, members of the board of trustees, students, folks out in the community, marketing experts, you name it. Of the seven, one design rose to the top. And the one that rose to the top in the polls ended up taking the prize.
Do you love it? Hate it? Chances are good your opinion is not somewhere in the middle. If you´re feeling the love, perhaps you see what we see—an open book, a crest, the state of Ohio, a nod to our southern bearings, a statement that´s fresh and bold, a versatile symbol that conveys strength. That´s what we see. That´s how we see Southern State.
comments
Tammy W
not really fond of the logo, it's to simple. i think the old logo defined Southern State in a more positive way
May 21, 2012 @ 11:25 AM
Sean Anderson
As a clarification to my previous comment, I want to be clear that I'm not disparaging the branding guidance team at all. When I said "to complete the branding initiative," I meant the low-level graphic design and conceptualization. In review, it appears my wording could easily be misconstrued. :)
May 17, 2012 @ 11:20 AM
FStanley
Reminds me of DeVry University's Logo. Similar shape.
May 15, 2012 @ 10:30 AM
Josh Thoroman
I love the new design. I feel that the committee had a difficult task to complete and that they have been very transparent throughout the entire process.
May 15, 2012 @ 9:25 AM
Josseline Gonzalez
I do not like it at all... the old logo was the one that identified Southern State...and i loved the website now its changing all over again....The old logo was the best!!
May 13, 2012 @ 8:20 PM
D. Steele
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the winner. My first impression was that our new logo was representing the "Transformers" logo. I am curious if our school colors will change to plain gray and white? I am not particularly fond of the new logo.
May 12, 2012 @ 1:05 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Hi D. We're glad you asked about color. Our logo will be presented in a slate gray or as a reverse (white), but we have a color palette, that will include a red and blue since we are the Patriots, that will compliment it. We'll be presenting the complete new color palette soon so stay tuned!
L.L.
It look's like something that would be on a dress code, patch work shirt or something. Like we should all be in the same uniform. No color or anything.
I hope this is only till the end of the year!!!
May 12, 2012 @ 12:10 AM
george martin
looks like weve joined the service if this was the best im disappointed.
May 11, 2012 @ 9:30 PM
Sean Anderson
Designing a logo for an institution like SSCC is a monumental task. While I do appreciate the design elements of the winning logo, I would hire a professional design team (also a monumental task) to complete the branding initiative. In use, it also struck me as a military insignia.
May 11, 2012 @ 2:50 PM
A. Grim
I do not love it. It reminds me of the military, not college. I know there was a lot of hard work involved in this and I do appreciate it all. I just don't feel that this logo fits southern state, in my opinion...sorry:(
May 11, 2012 @ 2:20 PM
Susan Peter
It's fair. I do find it hard to believe that it was the best of 3,755 entries.
May 11, 2012 @ 2:10 PM
logo competition!
February 21, 2012
Design Southern State's next logo for a chance to earn $2,012! We are launching our logo competition at 99designs which will open on Monday, February 27 and will run for one week. All submissions must be submitted by 12:00 noon on Monday, March 5. Below you can find details of what we're looking for in our new logo to help you prepare your design entries!
Design Brief
All you really need to know
We’re a community college and we need a new logo. We’re open to your ideas.
Extra stuff we'd like you to know
STYLE—Looking for a new logo that’s fresh and unique, yet timeless. We’ll use the graphic mark of the logo in connection with department names and campus locations, so it’ll need to be versatile.
COLOR—We’re considering a five-color palette for marketing material and website (to symbolically represent five campuses). Don’t get hung up on colors, though. Pick your own combos. We just want our logo to also look good as a solid color on white, and as an all-white reverse on a dark background. Basic stuff.
FONT—Our current font is a dated script with delicate components. Yeah, we don’t want that. We will want the name/source of the winning design’s font, however, so we can integrate it.
Probably way more than you want to know
Southern State Community College’s logo development is the starting piece for a rebranding campaign supporting an aggressive vision to become a first-choice college. Our entire visual identity will undergo a complete makeover—marketing pieces, business collateral, facility signage and website.
We just completed a comprehensive research phase that revealed we’re most widely recognized for being affordable, accessible and friendly. Many choose us because they want to stay close to home, but we also learned that students say they have meaningful and engaging experiences here.
We currently have four campuses in our five-county service region, but just announced plans to replace one of our existing facilities and build another campus soon. This positions us near an urban area with higher population density, and places us in a new competitive market.
Our team crafted a detailed guiding statement that leads to our new brand promise. Here goes:
“With four campus locations in our community and a tuition rate among the lowest of all colleges in Ohio and beyond, we know that students choose us because we are here and we’re affordable. But, there’s more to Southern State than this. We also know that students have meaningful and engaging experiences that separate our college from the competition.
“We’ve been reconsidering how we present our college to potential students and we are interested in keeping the message real. No hype, no empty promises, no suggestion by attending Southern State all fairy tales come true. Rather, we want a message that captures the essence of what we know we can deliver and build from there.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about students’ ability to connect to people, resources, and opportunities that otherwise might not be possible. Beyond this, it’s the college’s vision to grow into a first-choice institution that connects people to a more desirable and prosperous future.
“The touch-points for these connections are not a one-way path or a single strategy. Rather, by design, the college integrates connections throughout the system. By choosing Southern State, students are connected to nationally recognized, highly qualified, and approachable faculty on a more personal basis through small class sizes. Outside the classroom, they have many connection points with service-minded staff who consider helping students their life-work rather than just a job. The connections don’t stop there. The college aggressively introduces partnership programs to connect students to resources, jobs and advanced education beyond Southern State. The college’s commitment to technology affords students a direct connection to a world far beyond southern Ohio. And, above all else, the Southern State people—students, faculty, staff, board members and alumni—connect through shared experiences, common challenges, and an intuitive sensibility toward helping one another achieve more. All of this and we are close to home and affordable.
“As a result, we offer this promise: Beyond being here and being affordable, Southern State makes connections that change lives.”
How to Enter
Go to our competition entry on 99designs. You must create an account (completely free) in order to submit your designs. To create an account, follow these steps:
- 1) Go to 99designs.com/signup
- 2) Enter your email address, create a password, select "I'm a designer", and click "Sign up"
- 3) Follow the prompts (you'll receive a confirmation email to verify your account)
Please visit the Entering Design Contests Help section on 99designs for more info.
Design Requirements
- 1) Files must be saved as a vector image and be submitted in both .eps and .jpg formats (to create a vector image, you must use a program such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Inkscape, or another vector drawing program).
- 2) All vectors must be editable and scalable, contain no raster elements, be clean with no breaks or gaps in the shapes, and have all fonts outlined.
- 3) The design must contain no stock or clip art (every graphic must be original artwork).
comments
Sean Anderson
I've worked with graphic designers on several occasions for my software branding. The good ones are impossible to book, VERY expensive, and do absolutely amazing work. Most just pull previous work and tweak--as mentioned in a previous post--which is very frustrating and disappointing.
May 11, 2012 @ 2:55 PM
David
"3) The design must contain no stock or clip art (every graphic must be original artwork)."
Yet you're using 99designs and crowdsourcing? Good luck with that. What you'll get is something dug out of a designers back catalogue and tweaked to suit in 30 minutes.
March 6, 2012 @ 6:45 PM
Tony Liu
Hi.. I'm Tony from Indonesia. lived in small citty in Java. I'll do the best for you making a logo design.
March 4, 2012 @ 1:00 PM
Abi
The quality in 99designs is that of - stock images, lot of borrowing, lacking in understanding the fundamentals of vectors and unable to face technicalities in a vector app wherein not all things are bug-free, what do you do then? You find a workaround.
February 29, 2012 @ 1:50 AM
Abi
This is interesting, I WAS a 99designs designer at one time when I was in the learning phase. When I knew i was good enough I got out of it and started to do things my way. Now, looking at clients like yourself, makes me wonder if volume weighs more than quality. Does it?
February 29, 2012 @ 1:45 AM
Andrew Miller
More specifically, visit no-spec.com/info-for-businesses/the-clients-guide.
February 21, 2012 @ 2:50 PM
Andrew Miller
Please visit www.no-spec.com to understand why crowdsourcing is a poor solution to design pricing issues. There are studios out there that are more appropriately positioned to help you.
February 21, 2012 @ 2:35 PM
excerpt from november 2011 president's report
November 30, 2011
Reinvisioning the Southern State Identity: Big Savings in Phase I/II
In October, the Communications team announced that they would be launching a major project involving the rethinking of the Southern State image. The first large task force meeting was held Oct. 28 and yielded some unique and courageous perspectives on how the college should present itself in 2012 and beyond. Unanimously, the group, representing faculty, staff, administration, students, and community members, agreed that it is time for an image overhaul and committed to working on building the best brand promise and identity possible.
The first phase of the project is underway and includes a number of specific surveys aimed at assisting the college in identifying strengths. Evidence suggests that it is the discovery/defining (research) phases which determine the success of the overall project. Our own research into executing this particular part of the project suggests that colleges often spend tens of thousands of dollars on such surveys. We are particularly proud of our ingenuity in using existing resources to avoid such steep financial commitments yet execute a top-notch discovery/design phase of the overall project. Using our own in-house talent and established contractual relationship with Hanover Research, the estimated savings for us based on comparison from other institutions hiring consulting firms is $60,000-$70,000.
comments
Bill Condo
99 Designs? I guess you're not taking the process seriously then. It is unfortunate that the team wouldn't chose to do things with a professional process.
January 8, 2012 @ 6:50 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Hi Bill, we can appreciate being questioned about our process, because it is a little unorthodox. So here’s the story behind it. The team began by scrutinizing the accepted rebranding processes of other institutions and we discovered that such projects typically cost $200,000 to $300,000. That got our wheels turning. How could our team take on a professional-level rebranding without the accompanying price tag? With three phases to navigate (research, design and implementation), we found some cool things already working in our favor. Most notably, Southern State has an existing contract with a strategic research firm. And yes, they told us they’d be very happy to conduct the research phase at no additional cost to the college. Their research will be used to define key points in the second phase--design. Those key points will ask: do we want our new logo to be classic or modern? Simple or complex? Do we want to look at new colors, new wording, a new mascot? What do we want our new logo to communicate? And that brings us to your concern with the crowdsourcing website, 99designs.com.
For those who may be unfamiliar, “crowdsourcing” is a way to tap into the collective talent/intelligence/resources of the public at large, usually via the web. The crowdsourcing website 99designs.com provides a hub, connecting businesses to graphic designers in the form of a competition for a monetary prize. For Southern State, it means we need a logo and designers all over the world (and in our own backyard) can craft ideas for us. We plan to offer a higher than standard prize, and a quick scan on the site showed that competitions in the higher brackets garner upwards of one to two thousand design ideas. Perhaps the best part is that the site offers a guarantee--if we’re not happy, we don’t pay--though we are confident we’ll find a winning design.
On the surface, our unorthodox process may not seem professional, but don’t let that fool you. Our team is passionate about the tenets of Southern State’s mission--affordable, accessible and high quality. And we approach every project with that in mind. Most definitely this project. It’s a biggie.
Julia Basham
We have a number of creative students in a multitude of design related areas at SSCC. How about establishing a few parameters and asking the students to participate in the logo design process? As one teaching a business graphics class that requires logo development as a learning objective, I am often quite amazed at the resources and creativity we have within our own classrooms.
November 30, 2011 @ 3:20 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Julia, from the beginning we wanted to make this an inclusive project.
Our idea is to host a design competition on the crowd-sourcing website 99designs.com. All will be welcome to submit ideas as soon as we outline what the parameters are. Check out the 99designs site; it's very cool!
sscc current branding
October 26, 2011
comments
Josh Thoroman, Head Soccer Coach
I am all about the Patriotic theme, Southern Ohio, and the USA. But how about maroon, silver, and navy blue as variations of the red, white, and blue?
December 17, 2011 @ 7:05 PM
Josh Thoroman, Head Soccer Coach
As an alumni of SSCC, a former soccer player ('95-'96), and 10 year Head Coach of the soccer team (I was asst. coach '99-'01), I must say that this is a very big deal to me. It will be tough if we cast aside the Patriots and our red, white, and blue colors.
December 17, 2011 @ 7:00 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Josh, your contributions to Southern State are very much a part of what makes it so great, and we’re honored to have your input on this project. Keep checking in and speaking out … we’re listening!
Sean Anderson
I suggest taking a look at the styles used by the numerous state universities and how they have developed their logos. Perception is everything in this "business," and I have seen a lot of these done right. Are the colors up for debate? Oregon State University's is a powerful example of simple.
November 30, 2011 @ 2:20 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Sean, we’re happy to say that the colors are up for debate. For that matter, everything’s up for debate. We’re keeping our minds wide open. Thanks!
Amy Werring
A student suggested you post a request for mascot suggestions on Facebook.
November 30, 2011 @ 2:05 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
Great idea, Amy! The question is up now. Check it out at facebook.com/southernstate.
Angel Souther
I think we need a whole new look for the mascot and for our logo as a college. Something more modern and reflects the capabilities and talents of our communication department. They are amazing!
November 30, 2011 @ 2:00 PM
SSCC Brand Development Team
How very kind, Angel. We think you’re pretty amazing too!
Sherry MacDowell
There is a logo for SGA that would be affected should there be major changes. I don't know if that needs to be considered at this point or not.
November 28, 2011 @ 1:40 PM
Sherry MacDowell
I like the Patriot theme, but the mascot's head is a little scary. Perhaps a person dressed like a Patriot?
November 28, 2011 @ 1:35 PM
sscc logo history timeline
October 25, 2011
comments
Angel Souther
What about leaving off the swish under the words SSCC (it makes it difficult to fit into other programs logo such as PTK, or the Police Academy without looking odd) and just doing something creative with the lettering, or inside the lettering itself?
November 30, 2011 @ 2:10 PM
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