Dear UNT faculty and staff,
For nearly a year, you have heard me speak enthusiastically about our caring and creative community that is also persevering and supportive of each other and our students. These wonderful descriptors, as well as nine more that make up our identity or brand dimensions, come directly from the study completed in 2019 by Carnegie Dartlet - the outside firm we hired to help us refresh how we tell our UNT story.
During this process, we hired Jim Berscheidt to be our new vice president of marketing and communications to complete the work with Carnegie Dartlet and begin implementation across campus. While you may have noticed new banners along our streets and at the University Union, I am excited to share other updates to our branding with you.
- The official brand mark (graphic) of the university that will be used on materials (e.g. signs, stationery, etc.) going forward is the Diving Eagle with UNT attached. I ask for your assistance with the transition but recognize it will take time so as not to become an immediate, added expense.
- We dropped “EST. 1890” from our university marks, although we still will refer to UNT's long history in other ways.
- Refreshed division, college, and school lockups have been created. The most current brand lockups are available on the brand identity guidelines website, as well as other resources such as branded templates.
- A significant web project has started that will include the purchase of a service to scan all university websites with the goal of turning off outdated content and correcting accessibility issues. In addition, we will soon finalize plans for launching an upgraded Content Management System.
- Our external advertising is evolving to reflect our branding updates, and, this spring, you will see the UNT message in every terminal at DFW and Love Field airports, on transit in the Dallas area, and on a four-story parking garage banner at Love Field.
- Jim and his brand strategy team received additional training from Carnegie Dartlet recently and have started rolling out workshops across campus to provide information on how individual units can help implement the new storytelling.
This month, University Relations, Communications and Marketing (URCM) became University Brand Strategy and Communications (UBSC). This isn't just a new name for the sake of change, this name better reflects the work of the division and the strategic efforts happening to move our brand story forward to achieve greater national prominence.
To ensure brand consistency, Jim also launched a Brand Implementation Committee, which includes representatives from all academic units and many administrative areas, in the fall to discuss the campuswide brand refresh and provide opportunities to collaborate on how to best tell our brand story.
UNT's momentum continues to grow, and I'm proud of the change happening on our campus and the buzz we are generating. Our university has a great story to tell, and our focus on new ways to do so is critical to raising our visibility and enhancing our reputation in Texas and beyond. We are just getting started.
Thank you all for your hard work in bringing our brand to life by caring for our students and nurturing their creativity every day.
UNT Proud,
Neal Smatresk
President
@UNTPrez