Southeast Missouri State University is in the final stages of rebranding the university through a new logo, new designs for promotional materials and an overall marketing message.

The university hired the branding firm Ologie last spring to create these materials and work with the university's communication and marketing department to implement the changes.

"To dive into this very deeply, we needed to work with a firm that has experience in branding and truly get into the essence of what a brand is for an organization," said Jeff Harmon, executive director of University Communications and Marketing.

"We did an RFP [request for proposals] and there were several firms that had done a lot of good work in higher education. Ologie turned out to be our choice. They have done a ton of well-known brands across the country from large student populations to small."

Ologie is a branding, marketing and digital agency based in Columbus, Ohio. They have worked with Purdue University, University of Arizona and the University of California, as well as Finish Line, Nationwide and the Food Network.

"They come in and talk to a lot of different folks, do a lot of focus groups, do a lot of qualitative research to really try to get down to understanding clearly what is special about an institution and what is the brand, what can we hang our hat on or what should we be promoting," Harmon said. "They are also design experts, so they are also working on finalizing options for an institution logo."

Progress on the rebranding project, which cost Southeast $193,000, was shown to the Board of Regents on Dec. 19.

The presentation included six possible logo designs, key points about the university to use in marketing and modern template designs for posters, campus banners and handouts for prospective students.

"We're excited about how things have progressed and we are in line to hopefully wrap up the project late February or early March," Harmon said.

"We are at the point now where we have narrowed down the logo set to just a few, and we have seen the messaging strategy that Ologie has done and it's really fantastic. Pretty much everyone who has been on campus, and has seen it, has been very pleased with it so far."

According to the presentation shown, the brand strategy focuses on the personal experience on campus, the cutting-edge academic programs and the growth during the last decade.

All six designs of the new logo used the full Southeast Missouri State University name with a rendering of the Academic Hall dome, with most being in red or black.

In addition, they used the establishing year of the institution, 1873.

Some of the reasons mentioned in the plan for changing the university logo were that the current design did not translate well to other applications and smaller sizes, due to its boxed design, and that it could appear dated when compared to other regional universities.

"This will be very beneficial for us to all be on the same page -- whether it's faculty, staff, students, alumni or community members -- to be able to articulate what makes Southeast special," Harmon said. "When we begin to do that, it becomes really powerful and can do wonderful things for the brand."

Harmon added that the project will hopefully help the university continue to grow enrollment and better communicate what makes Southeast unique.

"We're just very excited to take the bold look and the elements of the brand and put it out there in front of people," Harmon said. "We think it will go a long way in getting folks to be excited about this institution, even more so than before."