Self evaluation

The problem we identified was that Leeds College of Art and Design logo does not represent the identity of the institution. Our primary research consisted of, quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, and interview with the principle, and two surveys. Firstly we conducted a pilot survey of 50 students and staff, 84% said in their opinion the logo doesn't represent the college accurately. We later extended that this survey tho the whole of the Blenheim walk college and the vernon street building, we gathered evidence of 100 people, the results showed that 82% felt it didn't and only 18% thought it did. We went on to gather our quantitative and qualitative evidence. The qualitative (open) questionnaire asked "what is your first opinion on the LCAD logo" comments such as, traditional, roman mosaic, old and dated were given, non of which are positive comments towards the logo. On a whole the general comments given on the representation of the college logo were that, i didn't work due to colour, old fashioned, dated and it didn't represent all aspects of design. The quantitative (closed) questionnaire enabled us to collect statistics and give evidence through pie charts and graphs. When students and staff were asked 76% thought the present logo was out of date. We asked weather the present logo was: 40% thought it was dated, 36% thought it was traditional, 8% lifeless, 8% distinctive, and 8% unclear. When i spoke to people, feedback i was given showed that people thought the mosaic logo, fitted in with the Vernon street building and found it matched the style of the building and interior, whereas they didn't feel that it matched the new modern Blenheim walk building. Infact the logo is barley seen on the Blenheim walk building its just a print of the mosaic logo. The second survey we conducted, we asked people to rate in order of their preference their favorite to least 7 different art college logos including our own. Students rated our college in 5th place. In 1st place was The university of Brighton and last place was The university of west England. Although we were not least favorite we were closer to the bottom of the league than the top. Our final piece of primary research was answers to questions we sent to the principle. This information was very informative, hear he gave us history, and opinions for and against changing the logo, not just based on his opinions, but also the gouvenors and the colleges best interests. He also supplied us with information regarding the change of name for the college.

Our secondary research started with looking at history of the logo and the college, we found a book in the college called "Past into Present" by Rebecca Lowe. The principle also provided us with a special copy of the college book all about the College mosaic, how it was founded, architecture and history into the college. The Principle also

 informed us of a few other small pieces of interest as to how the mosaic logo was designed. Surprisingly the logo was deigned by a graphic design teacher over a weekend in 1992. The principle wanted to establish a link between our histor

y whilst trying to rebuild the college academically. The principle feels that the logo was appropriate to the time it was produced, but is possible not fitting now. We also researched into other institutions that have changed their logo and their success and weakness found along the way. The principle also provided us with a few more recent example in his feedback to us.

I found the feedback from the principle most interesting, he extended the answers he gave us, which we were able to use for extra research when backing us our problem, he also welcomed the idea of a student designing a new logo for the colleg

e, which was also our solution to the problem. I also found useful the quantitative research as you could show easier through graphical imagery our results, creating a larger impact. However it was quite hard to write questions which were not leading. Next time if i were to do this in future, i think more time needed to be spend in making sure the questions were written appropriately as this was a weakness to our questionnaire. To overcome this problem, i will make sure it is checked by someone other than myself. It was hard to find Secondary quantitative research, i think however this is depended on the topic we were researching into. Next time, to find out this data if appropriate we could look at weather anyone h

as done this before and see what results they got from their research. This would have been really useful to have and interesting to compare the different years from one another. The method which proved most difficult would be qualitative primary research, it was hard to make sure people were giving an honest opinion rather than what they felt they should say, to stay loyal to the college. If things were to be done differently next time, firstly i would research into previous groups and years researching the same problem as us, secondly i would like to spend longer as a group putting the results together to present them, third

ly i would research out of college ground, get people who don't know the college's opinion's, fourth i would try and make our solution into a real competition, so we could actually try and have new ideas for a new logo and finally i would present all  the information and more to the principle to present to the gouvenors to change the logo of the college to make a difference.