CENTRAL WYOMING COLLEGE ROLLS OUT A NEW LOGO AND BRANDING

Exciting new changes are happening for Central Wyoming College. Director of Marketing, Lori Ridgway announced the approval of CWC’s new logo today.

“We did a great deal of research and found that many academic institutions are simplifying their logos,” Ridgway said, “Not only that but they are also transitioning into marketing teams who are focused on helping brand their colleges.”

Ridgway was part of the transition from the public information office to the marketing department, part of which was due to new leadership at the college. The public information office served as an information hub for the college.

“With the creation of the new marketing department our priority in the upcoming year was to develop a consistent and effective brand strategy to communicate more effectively with potential and current students, alumni, and the community,” Ridgway said.

This transition into helping brand and unify the college started the marketing department on a path to not only update the look and feel of the college but also to examine methods of communication with students and the community. Ridgway started with surveys to community members on and off campus to help identify how people acknowledged CWC.

“We were trying to hone in on what people think of when they think of CWC,” Ridgway said.

Ridgway stated that most of the responses were about relationships, people liked CWC’s friendly atmosphere and wanted to help students succeed. CWC formed a marketing committee of campus members with a wide spectrum of departments to help move forward with the next stages in branding; updating a logo. The current logo was established in 1999 and released in 2000. The committee hired an alumnus with a professional career in marketing and design, Tyler Zenk. After analyzing feedback from the surveys, the committee wanted a logo that represented the relationship between the campus community and its students and to show student growth. Zenk produced several logo variations which were narrowed down to two.

“We wanted to show attributes that set us apart from other community colleges in the state,” Ridgway said.

Surveys went out again with the current and proposed logo to the CWC community for feedback and the results came back with clear margins in support of the new logo, stated Ridgway.

“I thought it was cool that the college was updating the logo,” said freshman Robin Klein, “It looks better than the old logo which looks cluttered, this one is fresh and new.”

With the research that Ridgway and the marketing team conducted they found that the trend was a clean, simple look.

“It looks more modern and welcoming,” Ridgway said.
“Students call this college Central Wyoming or just CW, the new logo fits what students say,” said sophomore Kiara Skinner.

“I believe I speak for the entire CWC community when I announce my excitement for our new logo and brand. Rusty and our current logo have served us well for nearly 15 years,” said President Dr. Valdez, “The new look and messaging will be emblematic of our renewed enthusiasm, outlook and outreach efforts at CWC.”