OREM — It looks strange, that "U" in the new UVU logo.
But look closely.
The U has been designed to contain the state's shape inside.
To the tune of "2001: A Space Odyssey," Utah Valley State College unveiled logos on Friday that the school will begin using through the transition to a university on July 1.
The logos feature the school's new name, "Utah Valley University," and initials "UVU" and "UV" in all-capitalized sans-serif fonts and a variety of shades of the school's traditional colors — green and gold.
The illustrators, 8fish, drew a new seal that shows architecture on campus and Mount Timpanogos in the background. Two additional logos were created for athletics — an overlaying "U" and "V" that is called the "paw" and a "UV" enclosed in a motif that's called the "claw."
The school's mascot remains the wolverine, but the wolverine logo has been redrawn to look more three-dimensional.
The design of www.uvu.edu has also been unveiled, but the Web site isn't using the format yet.
"This only happens once to an institution, so we wanted to make it great," said Eric White, senior vice president at Rare Method Interactive, a marketing company with offices in Salt Lake City and Calgary, Alberta, that has also helped brand the Utah Blaze and the St. George Marathon.
UVSC paid Rare Method $32,000 to design the logos and color pallet.
"A logo is not like an ad," White said, explaining that advertisements must grab attention in only seconds. "A logo is like poetry. It works (on people) over time."
And while the Utah-shaped "U" may take some time to adjust to, UVSC marketing vice president Val Hale believes it is essential to the logo.
"When you see that, you will think about UVU," he said.
The design is supposed to look collegial but more contemporary than the monographs at Ivy League schools. Rare Method studied the logos of Utah's other colleges and universities for ideas and discovered that the University of Utah also has two "Us" in its title, which got White and his employees thinking about how to make the two "Us" in UVU look different. That resulted in the Utah-shaped "U."
Rare Method met with a 20-person "image committee" and presented the logos almost weekly for the past six months. The committee — along with UVSC President Bill Sederburg and his executive council of vice presidents — sent White and his associates back to Salt Lake City with requests of tweaks until they were happy with the images.
Logos tend to conjure up feelings of pride and ownership, White said, and "reaching consensus with everyone without watering things down" was one of the toughest parts of the job.
People can purchase apparel with the new logos at UVSC's bookstore. People will also soon see the logos at local retailers but don't except the college to use it on official documents until July 1 — the day the school legally becomes a university.
The day was decided by the Utah Legislature last spring when they voted to christen the 20,000-student college a university. Some $8 million was allocated to help the school make the switch.
"I like the U," said freshman Akasha Francom, referring to the first "U" in the UVU logo.
Other students were concerned less with the school's logo and what's behind it.
"It's become a university," said Angie Menlove, a senior studying business. "I'm very excited about that."
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com