After 25 years the Upper Grand District School Board is getting a new logo.
The new logo was unveiled at the May 9 board meeting.
The previous logo came after amalgamation of the Dufferin and Wellington County Boards of Education moulded together to form the UGDSB in 1998.
The logo as we know it represents the Grand River. It has two students raising their arms in the foreground of the image with a river and forest behind them.
The new logo is the letter ‘u’ for UGDSB, with panels of different colours surrounding it.
“We really took this idea using the phonetic idea you are at the centre which was the play on the letter ‘u’ in Upper Grand,” said John Furneaux, principal strategist at Level5 Strategy, a communications strategist firm who led the logo design.
Whenever Brooke Hartley, UGDSB student trustee and other students would look at the logo she and other students said “That’s the one that is gonna fully represent Upper Grand District School Board and us.”
It shows the UGDSB is diverse and can accept change, Hartley said.
Unanimously the motion of the visual identity report was approved for action.
The new visual identity logo resonated with students, said Peter Sovran, UGDSB director of education, in an interview with GuelphToday.
“I really think that’s part of the power of this new visual identity is that while it will stand out as unique to UGDSB it also has the ability to change just like we all do,” Sovran said.
“Definitely the changing makeup, the changing demographics of our students, the changing priorities of our citizens as a whole. I think that this is something they can look forward to,” said Ralf Mesenbrink, chair of UGDSB, in an interview with GuelphToday.
Launching a new logo in multiple places across the UGDSB will be doled out into phases.
“We will be taking a careful, thoughtful, methodical approach to this,” said Sovran.
The UGDSB is conscious of the environmental impact with the current materials with the old logo have when they are replaced, said Sovran.
The cost for the logo roll out is not known at this time. There will be a plan to do a full inventory of everywhere the old logo currently is.
“It’s been 25 years and it's not something you undertake every couple of years. We’re really pleased with the logo because we think it’s going to stand … the test of time for awhile now,” said Sovran.
