Salford University spent £132,000 on a logo which claims it is in Manchester, the M.E.N. can reveal today.
Uni bosses sparked controversy when they unveiled the new branding in August.
It includes the words ‘University of Salford, Manchester’ – which they claimed would make it easier for people unfamiliar with the city to work out where it is.
The M.E.N. has now established that the university paid a London-based consultancy £132,336 to carry out the redesign.
A further £21,000 was spent on a new sign on the outside of the main campus Maxwell Building.
A university spokesman said the logo was good value for money and had been designed after consultation with staff and students.
It will be used on letterheads, prospectuses sent to British and foreign students, and on marketing products used abroad.
The university – which has 20,000 students and 2,500 staff – recently created a new 1,500-capacity campus at MediaCity, next to the BBC’s new northern headquarters. It is also spending £75m overhauling its main site.
A spokesman for the university said: “The University of Salford brand is much more than a logo or design.
“It was the result of extensive research and consultation, including with more than 500 students and staff who were asked about which university values were important to them.
“The brand supports the university’s strategic direction, its ambitious campus development plan, the unique state-of-the-art facility at MediaCity and the transformation of administrative and academic operating models.
“It repositions the university regionally, nationally and internationally.
“In an increasingly competitive market, the new brand is part of the university’s ambitious development plans and repositions the university regionally, nationally and internationally.”
The logo comes after the university announced 200 job cuts and savings of more than £7million in the next financial year.
The institution’s income fell by £2m last year as a result of cutbacks in government funding and high staff cuts.
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What a complete waste of money, in these difficult economic times !
What a waste of money. The University offers a variety of Graphic Design, Architectural design & similar courses; would it not be a good idea to have asked students to come up with a new logo & branding - this would save vast amounts of money & enable students to be involved in a 'real design' project, thus gaining vital work experience. The money saved could then be used to benefit the students & staff. Does the college not have any faith in their own students & courses?
I'm not to fussed about the whole Salford v Manchester thing this always stirrs up. But £130k, for 4 words? Not even a clever design that people can debate. Just four words, one word in a different colour. Someone may have come up with a new font maybe but nothing too far removed from something in a consumer copy of MS Word. My lord, I am in the wrong business.
£132,336 on 'just a logo' - absolute rubbish. This will include redesigning all the university's literature and all the brand guideline material.
Such a wonderful trust in local talent then....!!!
Could none of the students from their very own BA (Hons) Graphic Design course (Course code : W211 BA/GRDE) been asked to get involved. Would have been a great opportunity for them to deal with a 'live' situation and how to deal with clients, deadlines and restrictions etc, etc...!
This sort of thing defies belief sometimes! Pathetic.
£132,000 on a £3.50 Font ? = Waste of Public Money!
It's no wonder we are in a period of austerity, when so much money has been wasted.
Could so easily hasve got a design student to do it for a fraction of that price. Indeed I could have come up with putting a few words on a white background for less than £100
No it`s not
Seriously? 132,000 finest English pounds?
I graduated with design from Salford University.. this just goes to show what contempt they have for their own students. Why not run an inhouse competition to design the new logo?
It'd do wonders for the winner's (and even runners up!) start in the real world.
Its about time Salford started accepting that it is part of Manchester.
God knows why it was granted city status in the first place.
It's no different to any of the other boroughs of Manchester.
next time try employing somebody LOCAL & SAVE YOUR SELF SOME MONEY
Once and for all proving that Universities are out of touch with the real world and even their own students; surely they have a graphic design or art course, students of which would get great experience and a brilliant portfolio piece designing a new logo for their institution, and which would probably be far more than a nice font and an incorrect location. Never mind though, they'll just stick another £k on tuition fees next year to cover it...
If you tell me my comment is saved and I need to log in, don't then not save my comment when I've logged in.
Academics - they're in a different world. How can one city be in another? Salford is a great city - that's a fact. What a shame that its university can't be sure. Brand Guidelines - yeah ... = cut&paste 132K - money to burn they have.
The logo is going to date really quickly - unlike the old one that was around for a long time. If they had given the job to a Student, this would of potentially got him a job, plus some money which would be put back into the Uni. Even if they didn't want a student, why not use a local design agency?
Claiming to be part of "Manchester" when Salford is having a big regeneration itself - with the arrival of Media City and all the big work going on just outside the main campus is ridiculous.
Speaking of waste of money the Conservative government of Thatcher paid scratchi and scratchji over half a million to come up with a name for JobCentres back in 1990, they took the money and came up with Jobcentre, now that is a con.
I'm actually glad they did this, as it makes any decisions as to which university to recommend to friends/family so much easier, apart from the fact that this salford/manchester uni have so much money to waste rather than invest in their students, their course are so poor and pitiful that they cannot even entrust their students to design such a simple and basic logo - I can't call this a 'design' as a design takes some at least some knowledge and skill.
"A further £21,000 was spent on a new sign on the outside of the main campus Maxwell Building"
*thinks it much have been painted and erected by Council workers.."don't forget charge them 5k each for the 2 tins of colours tell them it's a special colour, and charge them 11k for the 2 metal poles and metal sign, use them two poles we got from that old school sign and repaint one of those I love M/C signs"
You can't really blame the University for wanting to play on how close it is to Manchester City Centre, especially given (rightly or wrongly) the negative connotations the name 'Salford' brings to many people from outside of the area. But £130k does seem a little steep for a logo, especially as I would expect all the other elements of rolling out the rebranding, etc. will be on top of that.
I love the fact they have missed off 'Manchester' on the building signage due to the fact it's clearly not in Manchester! But with everything else they have piggy-backed onto Manchester when they have no need to.
Salford is a great university, great graduates so why they feel the need now to try and capitalise on the close location is beyond me. As for everyone saying they could do it for £100, I'm sure you could but that's not the point. It was created by an agency in the South who have no link to the uni, bears no relation to the ambition or stature of the University and is frankly... boring.
It's instantly forgettable which is a shame considering its ambition and of course, cost.
Hey, why not?
After all, half the shop in the Lowry shopping centre (sorry, "mall"), seem to think they're in Manchester with their "I Love Manchester" posters!
Hope the people who commissioned this are leaving with the other 200 redundancies, they deserve it. Ah well just put another 15 kids through at £9,000 a pop and problem solved i guess.
The word logo means graphic mark or emblem to enable & promote instant recognition of an organisation. It is NOT text.
I think that the University should withold payment if it hasn't already paid or ask for their money back if it has and threatening legal proceedings against the consultancy if the money is not forthcoming.
Furthermore I sincerely hope that the idiots who put this out to outside agencies are among the 200 who lose their so called jobs because quite clearly they are incompetent. This an scandalous waste of money and it makes one wonder where else money is thrown away like so much litter. Public purse strings, there aren't any.
A grey crime ridden dangerous City without a centre, without architecture, well has it got a Bohemian or an Art Nouve quarter. How many of it's residents speak a foreign language, where "not to grass" to the police is one of the most important part of the culture.
It is hardly on par with Paris, Prague or anywhere else for that matter and there are some grim Cities in the UK, but I can't think of one worse than this one.
I can understand that the University wants to be associated with the name Manchester.
The person who sanctioned this should be fired. Any 10+ child could have done this and it doesn't take a lot of thought to get this message across. The problem is that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. What other monies are they wasting that we don't see if they spend this amount on that!!!!!!!!!!
call it what you will but i cant see indian international students applying to go to salford uni.