For fans of Siena College in Loudonville, New York, cheering on the Saints means seeing new logos. It’s part of an effort the private Franciscan college is taking to refresh its image.
For the Siena community, Bernie the Saint Bernard is as much of a representation of the college as the friars who live on campus. The logo emblazons green and gold t-shirts worn by the student body on campus and when they pack the stands at MVP Arena.
Now, the college is looking to give itself a more modern look. For that, it hired Creative Communications Associates, a graphics design company based in Troy, to redesign both Bernie and the college’s “S” watermark.
David Moore, CCA’s Creative Director, says it was a collaborative effort.
“We had a number of meetings with them really outlining what were their strategic needs, and outlining the exact bounds of the process. And then from there, it was an iterative process, really coming to them with ideas and different options and different concepts and working with them to refine those ideas and concepts until we got to a final mark," Moore said.
Moore says the company, which has also worked with Sage, Clarkson, Dean and LeMoyne, is especially proud of its relationship with Siena.
The “old” Bernies had represented Siena since 2001.
The former logo was a St. Bernard in white and brown leaping right from behind a SIENA wordmark outlined in green and gold, whereas the new one is a green and gold St. Bernard head atop an all-gold SIENA wordmark. The old logo is more lifelike, whereas the updated version is stylized.
Moore says he understands the complaints surrounding the new logo.
“We run into this all the time, because people rightfully grow attached to the mark that they're familiar with, to the mark that they know," Moore said.
The transition will take time.
“When you start to see the teams winning wearing that mark, when you start to purchase your own pieces of paraphernalia bearing that mark, and you start wearing it with pride to show your affiliation with that team or with that institution, now you start to build that emotional attachment to the new mark," Moore said.
“Personally, I love the logo," said Sarah Hamilton, a junior Sports Communications major at Siena. "I think the Siena font is really great. And the St. Bernard face and the logo looks really great. And I love the colors in it. The yellow and green look really great on it. And I think it fits the school very well."
Hamilton says this one seems more with the times. Hamilton says she prefers the face-forward instead of side view.
“To have a St. Bernard face instead of a whole St. Bernard, I think it looks really nice. It looks really, like, modern. I feel like a lot of schools and a lot of colleges, like, they'll put like, just a face of their mascot on their logo instead of having a whole mascot, like, body out," Hamilton said.
Other students don’t seem so pleased. A school fan club known as Siena Barstool, affiliated with Barstool Sports, launched a change.org petition asking the college to revert to the previous logo.
More than 1,300 people signed it in its first week.
Ryan McCarthy, who runs Siena Barstool, says the college didn’t communicate the change well enough.
“They haven't spoken to anyone. I mean, Siena even says to everyone that that we're a family, and it's a close, and is close group and everyone is like, close to each other, yet they didn't even reach out, like hey, we're going to- do you guys like one, two, three, one of these logos? They didn't say anything. They kind of just let it out,” McCarthy said.
Siena College said it did not have anyone available to discuss the new logo. In a statement, Jason Rich, vice president for strategy, communications, and outreach, calls it “part of the ongoing evolution of the Siena brand.”
McCarthy says even if the college had communicated the change, he wouldn’t like it.
“That doesn't even look like a Saint Bernard. I would never wear that around and be like, yeah, no, we're the St. Bernard's, and it looks like a bulldog,” McCarthy said.
This isn’t the first time the college’s identity has changed, having previously played as the Indians.
The update comes on the heels of a redesigned Great Dane at crosstown rival the University at Albany and an announcement by Union College in Schenectady that it has dropped the Dutchmen moniker in favor of the Garnet Chargers.
You can see the new Siena logo in the image box at the top of this article.
