Kansas State Univ.’s athletic department is “trying to make the ‘K-State’ brand more noticeable than ever,” and officials “are using it exclusively in place of other labels, including ‘Kansas State,’ to bring a more consistent look and feel to the promotion of their program,” according to Kellis Robinett of the K.C. STAR. The six letters separated by a hyphen “are popping up everywhere around athletic facilities these days.” KSU officials “want K-State to resonate” in the same way the Univ. of Connecticut "is identified as UConn, Louisiana State as LSU and Southern California as USC.” The program has used the K-State moniker “for years, but never this extensively.” When KSU President Kirk Schulz announced that the school “had decided to use ‘Kansas State University’ as its brand on its website and all academic documents, the athletic department decided to pick a brand of its own.” Athletic department officials after some discussion decided that “K-State -- printed in Sans font -- and the classic Powercat logo … were the way to go.”KSU Assistant AD/Ticketing & Fan Strategies Scott Garrett said, “You’ll see a lot of Powercats that are stretched or facing the wrong way or have flames coming off the back of them. We had a mishmash of uses with our logos, and we want to get away from that.” The school “created an official style guide to help with transition.” Teams and merchandisers “can find the five official colors K-State uses -- purple, two shades of gray, white and black -- and how to give a K-State equestrian shirt the same feel as a K-State football jersey” (K.C. STAR, 7/20).
