Brandon Becker

2855 East 14th St.

Des, Moines, IA 50316
563-920-7327
Brandon.becker@grandview.edu

President Henning
Office of the President
Grand View University
1200 Grandview Ave.
Des Moines, IA., 50316
Dear President Henning:
I request permission to create a new upgraded logo for Grand View University. Our
university is known for its academic success and for its dominance in athletic competition.
However, I feel the present logo representing Grand View does not represent its success. It is
simple and appealing, but it appears as a cartoon to many, rather than a more dominant
collegiate symbol. This will involve a few months in contact with your marketing department
and an evaluation how much of an impact this will have on apparel sales and as well the
impact it will have for students, staff, and alumni.

Current Logo
Grand View, as I discussed previously, is known for its overall prestige. Currently I am
creating t-shirts for a fundraiser for the Alpha-Chi fraternity. Our t-shirts present a realistic
style logo that may be used in the near future. It consist of a more human form of a Viking
and brings a more powerful emotion of success as it is sending a war cry to all representing
the university. The current logo is appealing; however, it has no emotion or any type of
intimidating appeal Many colleges mark many items such as apparel and uniforms with their
logo. For Grand View though, mainly the apparel, uniforms, and many other objects tend to
use merely a text GV form of a logo rather than the actual Viking. Giving a logo a more
realistic dominant emotion may give better ideas in forms of apparel and decals to increase
sales and as well have a better logo representing the universities accomplishments.

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Issues with the Current Logo

The current Viking logo is simple, and from attempting to sell my project t- shirts, some
students have viewed the current logo as being childish. Here I have labeled four main
topics to think about in comparison to our school and the current logo:
-

Athletic success is not represented well from the logo.

Full time students also feel it is not a collegiate level logo.
This logo is rarely used on apparel.
This logo does not demonstrate strength, courage, or dedication.

These four topics I have mentioned show that a new logo is the right choice. Many athletes
want a more realistic view of their success and as well many full time students agree this
route would represent the community in a positive way. Another issue was viewing a lot of
the apparel sold in the book store. Much of the clothing shows the name rather than a logo
design feature. A few items like fleece jackets have a very small Viking above the Grand
View name. Overall, a new logo may bring a new money source in apparel sales as well.

Objectives
To move forward in presenting a new logo, we will need to come together and do the
following:
-

Discuss with marketing department

Discuss with current apparel providers and see if the logo will bring any dramatic
change with the cost of its screening.
Present the logo to both athletic and academic staff for general feedback on the
idea.
When we have positive feedback from majority of the staff, students, and alumni,
move to make it mandatory.
Move forward with the new logo.
Involve local media and community (newspaper and news articles).

Future Action: After the school year, the university must submit the logo to all decal providers and
uniform sponsor so they can make adjustments before creating new products and material.

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Proposed Solution
Briefly throughout this proposal I have discussed a more dynamic realistic logo in
representing this university. In detail this logo will show for our athletic dominance will
proceed to have with our prestigious coaches and staff. Not only will this be a part of our
athletic dominance, but for our academic success as well. We are known to provide many
future jobs for our current students due to the high standards of our professors representing
our academic departments. Not only do they teach the students, but they require students to
be associated with outside sources like the Iowa Wild for sport management majors, for
example. With all the universitys success why not have a logo that represents this as well?
This is why I propose to you a more fitting logo for this university as shown below: (Scan of
my drawing)

BB
Description of the Logo
As you can see, the logo I have designed is a more realistic view of a Viking. Vikings are
known for their courage, strength, and dedication. A design is key in representing how a
Viking symbolizes someone or a school. Here its facial expression shows him in a war cry
stance, which symbolizes all three aspects of a Viking. This is the reason why I present this
logo to you. This school has become what it is from courage of our community, the strength
of our students, and the dedication of our professors and athletic staff.

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Completion Schedule
Below I have placed a schedule to show the expected time frame, if started around
November. Outcome will be based on majority vote. As well, voting will be mandatory for all
staff and students, but alumni have the option to place votes if they would like.
Actions
Announce the contest/proposal to the
University
Contest designs due
Approval
Staff Support Meeting
Voting
Contact athletic Gear providers for
changes
Contact all apparel providers for
changes
Announce the change to the public

Date completed
Nov. 15th
Dec.20th
Jan. 1st
Jan. 20th
Feb. 20th
March 1st
March 1st
May 1st

Apply all athletic and apparel

changes
Logo change complete
-

July 5th
Aug. 10th

As you can see above this will take around 9 months for completion

Conducted Research
I feel many students will vote for this change due to what I have witnessed already. Roughly
100 students have seen my drawing being used on my t-shirts. Their replies showed high
interest, excitement, and even if they did not show interest in the shirt, they loved the idea of
change. Below shows a summary of 100 students who liked the idea and my t-shirt design, or
did not like the t-shirt design but approved it as a new logo, or were opposed to the idea.

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Feedback from T-shirt Selling

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

- Here shows the 100 students I asked over the course of my fundraiser. The ratio
for students approval:to opposing is 93:7.

Cost
With a new logo comes new apparel and other materials to be sold in the bookstore. However
to save profit I suggest Grand View takes all current clothing and places it on a throwback
clearance or sell it at specific times of the year. This allows the university to make money off
apparel already in inventory, but still input the new apparel in the store. Money loss will not
be an issue with this proposal and will only create new income opportunities.

Reasoning
Strength, Courage, and dedication are what best describes Grand View University. These
three attributes are what influenced me to create this logo and present it to you. You look
around at universities in the state of Iowa and you will see how collegiate level logos
compare to ours. Even the Upper Iowa Peacocks logo represents strength. A logo is a symbol
of a university as a whole, and For Grand View we need a logo to symbolize our community.
With our dominance in all aspects as a university it is time to show what a true meaning of
being a Viking is.

Conclusion
I am excited to move forward with this idea and will be dedicated to the completed product.
Some may say it will be unfair for only one student to design the logo. So for the final logo

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the university will hold a contest and vote on best design. Here is a summary of the students
relating to the chart above but in a like and dislike point of view, with a 93%

Approved Vs Opposed

approved

Opposed

approval with a slim 7% opposed. Not only is this changing

the logo, it is changing the universitys appearance to others, and as well representing our
university family. I hope to be in contact with you soon and resulting in moving forward with
this logo change.

Sincerely,
Brandon Becker