You’ll recall that the state of Colorado’s new logo — created by a team of big-name marketing and design professionals — was unveiled a few weeks ago to mixed reviews.

No, let’s be frank. The feedback was brutal. Bland, boring, ugly, unimaginative, amateurish, disappointing, hideous, mediocre, lackluster and weird are just a few of the adjectives ponied up by the public.

“It looks like something my students could have put together in five minutes,” said one of the critics, Metropolitan State University of Denver marketing professor Darrin Duber-Smith.

Turns out that wasn’t an idle statement. Duber-Smith assigned students in his Senior Seminar in Marketing class to come up with their own versions. And while he gave them more than five minutes — actually, the better part of a week — it was a rush job compared with the months-long state effort.

The results are in. Duber-Smith may not be the most impartial judge, but he describes his students’ work as “incredible for having no formal training and only a couple of days to work on it. Point proven, I guess.”

A common theme in the student submissions is use of the red C with the golden middle, the basis of the Colorado state flag. State government officials said they chose not to use that image because a national survey suggested that some people think it stands for Chicago.

Colorado chief marketing officer Aaron Kennedy, who directed the state’s logo-and-brand effort, could not be reached for comment on the student designs.

Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp