Bluefield State College
The mission of Bluefield State College is to provide students with accessible opportunities for higher education. The team at Bluefield State is committed to being the region’s leading institution of higher education, and embracing the diversity that shapes our world. Through this mission, students from all walks of life can achieve their personal and professional goals on a campus that feels like home.
Bluefield State came to Joba with a goal of growing their visibility while attracting students who are interested in affordable and accessible educational opportunities. The end goal was to help populate the campus with a more diverse student body, create a climate that excites and retains these students while developing opportunities for more campus involvement including the addition of sports teams.
Brand
Our team understands the law of attraction, so our first step in helping Bluefield State College reach their goals was to develop a powerful brand guide. A brand guide can be described as a detailed handbook into what your brand looks like – this shows the different logo variations, custom colors, fonts and more at a granular level so you know when and where to use them moving forward.
For Bluefield State, we wanted to create a look and feel that attracted the ideal student to apply – while embodying the trust that students look for when choosing their educational home. Our team wanted to develop a logo and school mascot that was seen as fierce, exciting, and fun to root for, especially as Bluefield State looked to increase their sporting options.
Design
To get started, we began solidifying new brand colors through an intuitive discovery process. We then used these colors to refresh their logo and develop a compelling mascot. In order to draw more attention to the school, it was important for us to provide options that would bring a more lively nature to their campus.
Upon completion of the updated college logo, our next task was to put a face to the name, and we did that with the development of their new mascot, “Big Blue”. We felt the Big Blue Dog was an ideal choice in relaying Bluefield State’s message due to their fierce and protective nature, but as we all know, dogs provide a loving, nurturing side to their personality too.
Following the development of their new branding, it was time to put everything into action. Our next step was to reflect these changes across all print and digital media, allowing their new presence to start working for them. In tandem with branding and web updates, we launched a compelling digital ads campaign, allowing for an exciting and successful kickstart into the new brand.
Recognition
2022 United Design Alliance - Signs, Systems, and Letterform Marks (SSL) Gold Award
2022 Indigo Awards Silver Award in Branding
2022 American Advertising Federations Gold ADDY in Integrated Brand Identity
2021 University and College Design Association’s Design Awards Award of Excellence
2021 Art Director’s Club of Tulsa’s Graphex Competition Honorable Mention in Identity
