Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1983)
s Community to Clackamas County Symes fine-tunes College's image lie to College events :eived by sense we Public on Of- do said ge does, >ple are College descrip ting the isions in 1 be sent le design College, lake the inity the ollege,” media is the peo- ; events, mes PIO he com- let them ler than Public Information Specialist Anne Tongue public relations/information officer in November 1979, and since that time he said the PIO has become a more centralized organization. With a bachelor’s degree led that in speech and a master’s in “com- rhetorical theory and theater pach” is history, it is no wonder ive than McMurdo equates the job of people the PIO with that of a stage dlege’s manager in a play. Hidden e Day is back in Clairmont Hall, the n which PIO has the power to direct posters the coverage of College events, pt with and in the course of doing so school has become, as McMurdo d city said, “An ombudsman of the ave the public.” When it comes to working he com- in the PIO, McMurdo said his specific co-workers are a big part of people, what he likes about his job. i the “They take pride in their work—they don’t just punch over as in a time clock. The College is a worthwhile institution, and it’s easy to work with something you believe in,” he ‘Tongue said she likes her job mainly because “I can keep my creditability as a jour nalist while at the same time work at PIO. I don’t want to turn into a ‘flack,’ whom peo ple don’t respect,” she said. Tongue’s background in cludes a political science degree which she attained at Portland State University, where she was also editor of the student newspaper, The Vanguard. Tongue also worked for the Oregon Journal for three years before coming to the College in 1981. Tongue describes her work as “the other side of journalism, but it’s important. I feel like I’m doing an impor tant job,” she said. Like many large cor porations, Clackamas Community College has a graphic identity. That is: The style of publications, the logotype identifying symbol and the school’s emblems. The organization responsible for the graphic identity is the College’s Public Information Office and, more specifically, the graphics department of PIO, headed by Bill Symes. Symes is the public in formation supervisor. His job consists of editing and organizing the production of the College’s publica tions: A prodigeous task. “We have made a con certed effort to improve the graphic image of the Col lege. We work on it all the time,” Symes said. “We put a lot of thought into these things, especially the staff artists Ralph Rawson and Kevin Forney (see related article, this page). They put a great deal of thought into their work. I think you can see that in the things they produce.” Symes, Rawson and Forney are the entire graphic design staff, a fact which belies the awesome amount of work produced by PIO. “I don’t think peo ple understand the incredi ble volume of work we do here,” Symes said. He lays a fair amount of the credit on his artists, Forney and Rawson. “I believe they are two of the finest artists doing this kind of thing in any (of Oregon’s) community col leges,” he said. Symes, 36, is a Califor nian and graduated from the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, with a degree in Business Finance. After graduating, he worked in marketing, writing internal publica tions for businesses and working closely with adver tising agencies. Six years ago, he and his wife, Mary Jane, moved to Oregon. Symes sees one of the main concerns in his job as maintaining the College’s “look.” “The graphic iden tity is a consistent look that we try to maintain so the community recognizes the College,” he explained. “When someone in the community gets the sche dule of classes, or a flyer or a catalogue, they should understand it is from the College before they even read the name.” One of the tools used for easy recognition is the logotype. Currently, the College’s logo consists of the “Clackamas Communi ty College,” placed diagonally within a box. that vitate nee, the sider- very from ty in ding. Hand ately tually work es for s in switched his interests to graphic design. “It was an absolute disaster,” Rawson said. “They were working with a slick, Chicago ad vertising style, and I was used to Wesleyan’s col lege-type format.” Eventually, he moved back to Wesleyan, dropped out of school to do some ac ting, re-enrolled and eventual ly received his degree in pain ting in 1980. Rawson moved back to Portland and began free lancing, which he neither enjoyed nor prospered at. “I was very naive about the business aspects of the job,” he said. Also, he had trouble adopting from the “solid, structured work at Illinois Wesleyan” to the less formal, less organized world of freelance work. Eventually, he applied for work at Clackamas Community College. “We might go to the casual, written-out format because it is a more infor mal word-mark,” Symes said. Although he prefers the new logo, he pointed out that the President’s Council has the final veto power in the matter, due to the sensitivity of the matter (the logo would appear on all legal documents em- minating from the College). Despite that, Symes is not worried about PIO’s decisions being over-ridden. “At this school, the publici ty department is pretty much left alone to do what we think is right,” he said. Nelson cements unit together \raphic identity9 for school Portland. In February 1980, he moved on to the College, working part-time on a job sharing basis as a graphic ar tist. After four months, the job changed to full time. “Things were really dis jointed back then,” Forney said. “The graphics depart ment and PIO 'were in dif ferent buildings and hardly worked together at all. Then, Kevin McMurdo (public rela tions/information officer) merged the two units. We were skeptical about it at the time, but it has really payed off.” Rawson’s education was accomplished in Illinois. He was born in Oregon but at tended high school in Chicago. From there, he mov ed on to Illinois Wesleyan University and majored in painting. Next, he attended the University of Illinois and However, PIO is ex perimenting with a new logo, one which may become the official emblem of the school. It consists of just the word “Clack amas,” written out in a cur- si ve style. “Ironically, my resume and job application seemed tailor-made to the job,” Rawson said. He begem work in October of 1981. Both Forney and Rawson enjoy their work and the Col lege. “It’s nice to be respect by the other people in the business,” Forney said. “When it comes to graphic identification, we’re at the forefront, I think.” Both artists give credit for their highly-rated to the Col lege’s Printing Technician, Dena Worthington. “In the past, we always said ‘Well, we can’t do that stuff, it’s too hard to print’ until Dena took the job. She’s terrific,” Forney said. Rawson agreed, saying, “She’s always willing to ex periment. We will think of something that might or might not look good and she’ll be as Ralph Rawson excited to try it as we are.” Staff Secretary Kathy Nelson, above, is described by PIO personnel as “terrific,” “a whirlwind,” and “the one who keeps everything together around here.” Nelson has been with PIO since 1976. Unlike some secretaries, Nelson says she gets “Tremen dous respect” from her co workers. “There’s a lot of respect for individuals and in dividual abilities here.” Among her other duties, Nelson handles the College’s mailing lists, which include more than 25,000 labels. “In any one week, anywhere from 500 to 3,000 labels are issued,” she said. “We’re hoping to centralize that much more by using the com puters.” Beyond her efficiency and energy, Nelson also provides another service for the PIO. “Every week, Kathy brings in a pound of fresh-ground cof fee,” Graphic Artist Ralph Rawson said. “There are some days when that’s the only thing keeping the roof from falling down in PIO. I
