This was probably not the viral reaction Cal Poly Pomona leaders were expecting when they debuted the campus’s new logo, seal and motto earlier this week.

Students are not only sounding off on social media, an online movement is urging the university to revert to the previous incarnations. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Change.org petition — started Monday night following the reveal –had garnered more than 1,500 signatures.

Students, like computer science major Matthew Harris, say the new logo misses the mark and makes it appear like a pharmaceutical company or for-profit college.

Harris had logged onto the school’s website Monday afternoon and noticed the logo had been changed, but it wasn’t until later he received an email from Cal Poly announcing the new look, he said.

His reaction: shock and disbelief his university would implement, in his mind, such a bad design.

“I feel it’s incredibly unprofessional and conveys a big corporation versus a university with a history,” he said by phone Wednesday morning.

Why the CLA outline had to go

The new logo drops the silhouette of the iconic CLA “pointy” building, formally known as the Class, Laboratory and Administration building, in favor of an octagon shape, predominantly blue with green and gold accents on the right side, resembling an arrow.

The Bronco logo will still by used by Athletics, said Tim Lynch, Cal Poly Pomona’s associate vice president for strategic communication and marketing.

The seal features an Arabian horse in the foreground and behind it horse stables, a nod to the university’s past; palm trees, a symbol of Southern California; and, as the backdrop, the San Gabriel Mountains.

For the past few years, the university has not actively used the logo in its marketing because the CLA building will be vacated this year and torn down because it sits on an earthquake fault line, Lynch said.

“The logo is not the brand, the brand is our community, it’s what we embody — the logo doesn’t define us,” he said. “It’s a symbol and a reflection of our future aspirations.”

A motto from Nickelodeon?

Alex Dan, a third-year computer information systems major and also the moderator on Cal Poly Pomona’s subreddit — separate topics of discussion on the Reddit social media platform, said most of the ire is directed toward the logo and new motto: “I’m Ready.”

“As a student when you say, ‘I’m ready,’ people immediately think of SpongeBob, they don’t think of the school or an institution. ‘I’m ready’ is not ideal,” Dan said, referring to the cartoon character and a phrase he often says. “It’s a big joke.”

In her address Monday to faculty and staff, President Soraya M. Coley explained the branding initiative began a year ago and was led by Dan Montplaisir, vice president of University Advancement.

The campuswide effort involved eight committees comprised of consultants, faculty, staff, student and alumni, adding that some had expertise in marketing, branding and design.

Lynch was a part of the yearlong process and assured critics the committees had robust conversations about the 30 to 35 concepts. The end result is a package that is meant to complement each other.

Andrew Kochi, a fifth-year student studying computer information systems with an emphasis in cybersecurity, was among those displeased.

“I wish the students were able to design a logo, and the logo with the highest vote gets chosen,” he wrote in an email. “The administration who designed the logo killed tradition.”

What a pro says

When a university is considering a branding initiative, it has to keep in mind three components: the past, present and future of the institution, said Joseph Pack, a brand strategist for Los Angeles-based firm Siegel+Gale.

The challenge is balancing those three aspects, he said by phone Wednesday.

“In the end, no one logo, no one motto is going to capture everything,” said Pack, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo alum who researched university logo designs for his senior project.

Oftentimes a simple design, he said, is best to effectively reflect a university’s brand and align it with its goals and objectives. The issue is not going too far, he said.

Pack is aware some in the Cal Poly Pomona community consider the changes too modern, but he said research has shown a simple design conveys a more focused and articulated message. For example, the octagon in Cal Poly’s newest logo aims to encompass the eight colleges while the green and gold arrow point to the future – these features are meant to unify the university’s brand.

The rebranding could be Cal Poly’s push to evolve into a more innovative, research-based institution, he said.

“A logo is a way to show that maturity while they’re going through that progress of changes, which takes time,” he said.

Since 2016, Cal Poly has been looking at its Academic Master Plan and what it means to be an inclusive polytechnic university, to provide a vision for its academic identity, values, and future directions

“The motto: ‘Learn by doing’ has not gone away. It will remain an essential part of who we are,” Lynch said.

Contrary to the memes and comments he’s heard, Lynch said Cal Poly did not borrow its new motto from SpongeBob. Instead, it’s meant to show how the university prepares students to take challenges, make a difference and succeed, he said.

Once a logo has been redesigned, Pack said the institution must decide how it plans to migrate to the new design. It’s either done through a big reveal – as Cal Poly did Monday; or one that gradually rolls out the changes over several years to gain public interest.

No student input at large

Harris and his classmate Sarah McNees said they were surprised students weren’t asked for input. In the past, Cal Poly has sent students email questionnaires on a host of topics, said McNees, a junior majoring in computer science. The move has impacted her sense of pride in the Bronco family.

“I really liked to the old design. I do know that change is essential,” she said. “The design should incorporate history back into it since we’re getting rid of the CLA building, and it’s part of our history.”

Gathering student input is more common when renaming a building or deciding the amenities of a future library or residence hall, Pack said.

“The challenge when opening it to a lot of people is that you’ll never find a logo that will get 100 percent of the consensus,” he said.”People have different ideas of what it means to be a Bronco.”

Marco Guzman is a chemical engineering alum who is voicing his support for the changes, noting that other tech schools, such as Virgina Tech, Florida Poly and Colorado School of Mines, have adopted a similar identity.

The new logo not only removes the CLA building from its identity but “embraces a ‘tech startup’ culture to our multidisciplinary identity,” Guzman wrote in an email.

It also complements the new Student Services Building, which he says has a tech-startup vibe.

Meanwhile, Harris ultimately would have preferred the university use the letters CPP. He speaks with some authority because besides being a student, he is also a designer and engineer who has previously provided branding for Youtube users. His father also worked for the Lakers in the marketing division.

“An octagon doesn’t represents us. It’s not to say the last logo was perfect, but I would take it back in a heartbeat,” he said.