New Logo Launch Draws Hundreds, Inspires Its Marketer

Mathew Biadun | News-Editor

Nearly a thousand students flocked into the Student Center last month, eager to celebrate Eastern's new logo, or at least, the perks that came alongside it. Students waited in a line stretching to the door for a free long-sleeve shirt bearing the new logo. Approximately 900 of the 1200 shirts Eastern ordered were handed out that day, with the rest put to storage for future events.

Students technically had to download the new, digital version of Eastern's student passport, which provides discounts to local businesses, to get a shirt. However, it seems this policy was lightly enforced, as only 396 students had downloaded it by February 2nd. In the future, students will the app will be able to receive notifications about new businesses and offers included.

Students were also able to obtain complimentary notebooks, stickers, and pens, all emblazoned with the new logo.

The push for a new logo, as told to the Lantern by Ryan Quigley, Director of University Communications and Marketing, originated in the Athletics Department. It came alongside other university investments in athletics, including a new women's flag football team, and new synthetic turfs for the softball and baseball fields. Those fields were previously natural grass, and the new $2.7M investment installed turf, as well as improvements to the bases, fencing, dugouts, and more. Turfs such as those tend to last 8-12 years, with most major universities replacing them after ten.

Implementing the new logo was a cross-departmental effort. A committee including Ryan Quigley, Michelle Delaney (Vice President of Student Affairs), Lori Runksmeier (Director of Athletics), and several coaches spearheaded the effort. Drafts of the logo were eventually presented to the Social Media Committee, which contains student representation. It was also a student, Skyler Rapacioli '28, who led the marketing for the logo's reveal event on January 29th.

Rapacioli (they/he) became interested in graphic design during high school. First pursuing that role at Manchester Community College, he transferred to Eastern last semester, majoring in art with a concentration in Digital Art & Media, and a minor in communications. Looking around for job opportunities, he was advised to reach out to Ryan Quigley, and did exactly that. They met for a meeting, where Rapacioli shared his portfolio. No position was seemingly open then, however.

Then, a few weeks later, the Communications Department called, offering a job.

Rapacioli accepted, and became a Student Assistant Graphics Designer. His first assignment was a small project working on thank you cards; but it was one that he considered significant. "It's important to say, hey, here's my style," Rapacioli told the Lantern in an interview. Clearly, the department liked that style, because his next assignment was much bigger; he was to design the graphics for the Athletics Logo's marketing campaign.

The start was sketches, as it always is. "I almost always do thumbnail sketches before working on a project," he explained. Rapacioli designed six mock-ups, expecting some to be dropped and others refined. To his surprise, all six of them were accepted, with three coming out before the event and three after. His tools were primarily Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, which he'd been using since High School. Each software had different purposes, with Photoshop best at photo editing, and Illustrator great for typography or vector images, which are images that stay the same quality no matter which size they are. That feature was important, as the logos were used on physical media of various sizes, alongside social media.

Seeing the work, he recalls, was immensely rewarding, but also came with a hint of imposter syndrome.

"When I got that first email, and saw the art, I was like, hey! That's me!" Rapacioli remembers. "I've never really had a whole lot of confidence in my designs...I never really expected to get this job. But it's giving me really good insight into the career of graphic design. It really just solidified that graphic design is the job I really want to do...I know my work is good and people like it. Hopefully, this experience turns out to be helpful and quite fun."

Rapacioli had had some reservations about working in graphic design before. A previous professor of his had been serious about the daunting future of AI and what it could mean for their careers. But today, Rapacioli is more optimistic. "Most of the time, I'm pretty confident that AI won't take my job. AI only helps clients with what they want, and sometimes, the client just doesn't know what they want. That's where we come in."

"I personally don't mess with AI. There's a lot of environmental issues, and AI issues." Sometimes, not using AI can be difficult. Adobe Illustrator now has many AI tools and features baked in, and for a time, Photoshop had an option automatically enabled to let AI learn from the user's designs. Still, Rapacioli does what he can to keep his designs his own, without using artificial intelligence.

The old Athletics logo was adopted in 2009. A major perk of the new logo is that it will soon be trademarked, allowing Eastern to profit from its merchandise. A correction to a previous mistake by the Lantern is that Skyler Rapacioli did not design the logo itself, but rather, handled its marketing. He was unsure who did design it, but thought it was a student.