By Nicarlyle Hanchard The Jambar
Though the block “Y” is not a novelty on Youngstown State University’s campus, the AT&T Tower is the most recent structure to bear the “Y” logo.
Almost three decades ago, YSU changed its logo to the singular block “Y.” John Hyden, associate vice president of facilities, said the logo was changed to match the one the university is currently using.
“The logo that had been up there was the negative ‘S’ logo — so you had the ‘Y,’ negative ‘S,’ ‘U’ — that formed the logo we had since the, I’m going to say, the early [1990s],” Hyden said. “We changed from a plain old vertical Y-S-U, to that negative ‘S’ logo that we used until recently we’ve started to — we’ve actually formalized the block ‘Y.’”
For branding, Tim Harrington, vice president of strategic communications and chief of staff to the university president, said the change in logo was made to strengthen YSU’s brand recognition.
“If you recall, probably four or five years ago, we changed to ‘Know Y.’ We wanted to come out and have a new branding and marketing philosophy … the block ‘Y’ has been around for quite a while but it became more prominent, it really showed what YSU was about — very bold, very strong,” Harrington said.
YSU is among numerous regional and national universities that have adopted a single block letter to represent their schools. Harrington said aside from being bold and easy to recognize, the block “Y” makes marketing merchandise easier.
Hyden said he is excited about the change and said the university will continue efforts to further YSU’s brand.
“We’re excited about it, I think it looks good,” Hyden said. “We’re going to be continuing with additional features around campus, probably some banners, and you’ll notice some other stuff to make sure that when you’re on campus, [when] visitors [are] on campus, you’re gonna know that you’re on YSU’s campus.”
Sharing similar sentiments, Harrington said he wants the block “Y” to strongly represent YSU, and the change in the telecommunications sign is part of that process.
“I want to make sure that this campus, that everywhere you turn, you’re able to see the ‘Y.’ You’re able to know that you’re at Youngstown State,” Harrington said. “We want to be able to look up Wick Ave from downtown … and say ‘I’m going into Youngstown State territory.’”
