Catherine Healy
News Editor
- Rebranding exercise criticised on social media
- Students vent grievances on TN Facebook page
There has been a mixed reaction to the new blue and white Trinity crest given preliminary approval by Board two weeks ago. If formally approved, the revamped logo will be unveiled when College launches its new brand image in September as part of a strategic plan for 2014-2019.
However, discontent has been mounting online after Trinity News shared an image of the proposed logo on its Facebook page.
In a comment liked by 21 people, one disgruntled student commented: “‘We must do something, this is something, so we must do this’ – what rubbish. Trinity is a centuries old institution. In people’s minds it is steeped in tradition, and its branding should reflect this. This jumped up iOS7 monstrosity does not suit at all…I don’t see why the crest needs to be changed.” The point was reiterated by another commentator: “The problem with this is that the whole point of the traditional/historical look is that it never wears out its use. You update the logo now to fit with ‘modern times’ and in ten years it’ll be outdated and ugly and need to be changed all over again.”
Other students questioned the significance of an open book replacing the bible featured in the old crest. “Removing the bible from the crest of a university to make it less value laden by removing references to Christianity is a laughable when said university is called Trinity (as in ‘the holy trinity’) anyway,” one student remarked. Another student complained: “It looks awful. This ‘rebranding’ exercise is utterly pointless and stupid, but no doubt someone’s being paid a bundle for it and can put it down on their CV for the next job. I’m an atheist and even I’m offended by vandalising a 400 year old symbol of the college.”
A new petition has now surfaced online calling on the Provost and Board “to refrain from altering the College name and coat of arms.”
Brian Lucey, a professor in the School of Business, has been among the most outspoken opponents of the proposed rebranding.
“[Chancellor] John Scattergood presented to the Fellows a long, detailed, arcane and fascinating presentation on the various arms, crests and armorials of the college and the university,” he wrote in a blog post. “We are now to move from this longstanding, widely used and ancient looking crest to one that frankly looks like it was created in MS Paint. There’s a bizarre argument from the brand consultants that we need to move from yellow and blue as it represents “value” (as if that was bad) brands such as Ryanair and Ikea. If TCD were as successful in its field as they are in theirs then I would be a happy camper.”
The blog post continues: “We have spent the equivalent of 20 PhD fees or the cost of two postdocs on a casual rebranding. The evidence from internal surveys is that the academic staff (those much vaunted frontline workers) were in the majority (50-80% depending on the question) happy with the visual identity of the college. One wonders why that was ignored?”
In a statement to Trinity News, Bernard Mallee, Director of Communications and Marketing, said: “As part of ongoing consultation, the new logotype will be shared with the College community over the coming weeks.”
