LaGRANGE — West Georgia Technical College made it official at a series of brand reveal events over the past couple of weeks — it has a new look.

West Georgia Tech replaced its old multi-colored logo with a new image following nine months of research and development.

The new West Georgia Tech logo reflects the same black and gold color scheme as West Georgia Tech’s athletics logo.

“We are extremely proud of our new logo and brand, and I personally believe it reflects the strong and bold values of our College,” said West Georgia Tech President Steve G. Daniel. “We unveiled it to rave reviews from our internal staff, students and community leaders. I could not be more excited about the finished product.”

Daniel said that after he accepted the position as president of WGTC, one of his first priorities was to improve the visual logo and brand of the College.

“That is something we set out to do when I first got here,” Daniel said. “I think it is very important to have a clear, concise and compelling brand — and going forward there is no question that because of the hard work of so many people throughout this process, we can now say that we have achieved it.”

According to Daniel, the new WGTC brand will make it easier for students, faculty and staff, employers, business and community partners, and other stakeholders to emphasize five key areas: recognition of WGTC in the community; building pride and unity; the creation of additional support and excitement; increasing enrollment; and helping West Georgia Tech stay focused on its mission and vision as an institution.

West Georgia Tech’s rebranding initiative was spearheaded by Kim Learnard, West Georgia Tech’s executive director of institutional advancement — who, like Daniel, came on board a little more than a year ago.

Learnard and the WGTC steering committee selected Partners Marketing Group out of Atlanta to help with the logo and brand development.

The entire process took nine months, starting in January and culminating in September when the final design was selected.

In the months between, Learnard and her team worked to include in the development phase as many stakeholders of the college as possible.

“In April we distributed surveys to our students, faculty and staff, and community partners — and the response that we got from all of the groups was tremendous,” Learnard said. “In fact, we had 347 of our internal faculty and staff members return surveys out of about 380 total employees of the college. That tells you that our employees took great pride in this effort.”

Focus group discussions were held in May on each of the five West Georgia Tech campuses. The focus groups included students, faculty and staff, and business and community partners.

In June, Partners Marketing Group took the results of the surveys and focus group discussions and presented the steering committee with six designs for consideration.

“We eliminated four of the designs and zeroed in on two distinctly different designs within five minutes. And we had a consensus within the room that our new logo would come down to one of those two,” Learnard said.

A month later, variations of those two designs were presented to the committee and the group selected the design of choice.

Then variations of color, size, font and style on the final, preferred design were created and discussed. The steering committee then eliminated all but two of those variations.

Daniel made the final selection.

“Our brand as a college does not start and end with a new logo,” Daniel said. “This is just the beginning. Our brand goes well beyond what you see on billboards or on our stationery or in newspaper ads. It’s how we contribute to our local communities by changing the lives of the people who live here. It’s providing quality, affordable educational and workforce development opportunities throughout the area that we serve. Now we have, in my opinion, a visual image that supports our brand.”

West Georgia Tech conducted an official rollout of the new logo over a three-week period, beginning Oct. 8 with West Georgia Tech faculty and staff.

The school revealed the new logo to students the following week with giveaways on each campus.

The official rollout concluded with a total of five brand reveal events held, one on each main campus, at which members of the local community and West Georgia Tech partners were invited to view the logo for the first time.

“Kim Learnard and her team put in a lot of hard work over the last few weeks to get us ready for the changeover,” Daniel said. “I want to express my thanks to everyone who played a part in this entire process, from filling out the surveys to putting our new logo magnets on their cars.”

It’s a new day at West Georgia Technical College. WGTC’s new brand reflects new partnerships, new programs, start-of-the-art facilities, and faculty and staff that are second to none.

And a new look to go along with it.