Branding the Vikings

I noticed last week that the Princeton High School Facebook page has gone through a bit of rebranding, switching the profile pic from being a Viking to being a PCSD logo and changing the name of the page from PHS to PCSD. The banner pic also changed, though I'll admit I have no idea what it was before it became the image of the new school.

There was also a story posted on the page linking to an Enquirer story announcing that the Board of Ed had decided - after Shawn McMullen's presentation - that the Viking's horns should be white. That isn't, admittedly, Earth-shaking decision making - especially in light of a year when 25% of the high school's certified staff left the building over the summer. It is, however, something that I'm somewhat happy about.

See, I've been noticing the lack of coherent branding in the district for a few years now. Below the jump you'll see some pictures that I had a couple of my student aides take in 2007 and 2009 showing how many different ways the Princeton Viking was being represented around the building, a building that now is going to be plowed under within the next year.

I'm curious to see font choices, manual, colors, and letters that Shawn has chosen...

Shawn McMullen, media and tech specialist for Princeton City Schools, gathered the district’s logos and narrowed the fonts and colors, and designed letterhead to reflect a consistent use of design to identify the school district.

The district’s logos include a flying letter P, a youth version of a Little Vike, and a single horn. Each has a purpose, and McMullen outlined the use for each in a manual that he is compiling.

Thanks to Kevin and Grace (student aides from a few years back) for the pics below...

It's tough to match the colors when you're working in the medium of white and red only.

But the set of red-and-white-only designs aren't internally consistent, anyway.

The red and white works even less well here because it's all outlines instead of solid, white color blocks...and he's tilted.

Black and red doesn't work very well, especially since, I think, the horns are kind of a grey...tilted back, too.

Check out the yellow section behind the yellow braid. They grey headband seems to be streaking down into the red.

Here that same section is red.

That section behind the braid is suddenly flesh-colored, and the horns (previously white) are now grey...tilted back some.

Again, flesh-colored area behind the braid, grey horns...and he seems to be tiled back a bit.

No flesh coloring on the face at all. The area behind the braid is a partially filled in red, at least. There's also a small, usually-red area behind the horns and above the usually-grey headband that's missing, too.

Light flesh coloring on the face...but suddenly tilted. Why tilt him?

Blonde in the back? Red band on the helmet (instead of grey)? Grey horns? Did nobody even pay attention?

This guy's kinda creepy.

I don't even know what to say about this...red braid, grey face, black headband, red mustache and eyebrows. Seriously?

Somebody had better have gotten a discount on this, 'cause it's not even close to the others in color.

The sun fading here makes things tough to compare. I dig the three-dimensionality. The horns are grey, though, and the general design isn't the same as the others.

Kevin's photos are above...Grace's are below...

Flesh-colored area behind the braid, grey horns, weird eye area...you would think somebody would've thought more about the design that was going on the gym floor.

Black horns? No red behind the hair at all?

How cute is that?

Area behind the hair is yellow. Horns are grey. Tilted backwards.

That seems like a lot of backwards tilt. No yellow, no flesh coloring at all.

Here's where that one came from. The sign doesn't, I think, exist anymore.

All red and white here, but the negative version of those red and white ones up high.

How cute is this one? It's not remotely like the others, but whatever...

Nice try, art folks...

These are some other Princeton branding images through the years that I've been at PHS...

This Little Vike seems to be gone now, though I've never heard that officially. It was sort of plagiarized, though, so that's probably a good thing.

This logo still exists a few places in the old school, but I'm willing to bet that it disappears entirely in the new school.

The 'flying P' is mentioned in the Enquirer article linked above, and it says there is still a place for it. I don't know where yet.

Grey horns, tilt...low res.

White horns, higher res, no tilt.

Apparently we needed to do some operatic things.

...and some cartoony things, too.

Lots more colorful than the printed one up above.

I've not seen that dark crimson color to our helmets ever.

I don't know what the heck these are supposed to be - kids heads resting on arms, I guess.

The flying P is cut off, and the font to the right isn't one we use anymore. I'm curious to see what Shawn has chosen for fonts.

The font there is called LHF Brewer's Bold. It's tough to find on the web, but I have the file if anybody ever needs it.