King’s London rebrand DROPPED: Exclusive interview with the Principal

Principal Ed Byrne talks to Roar from his office in Waterloo this afternoon. Johnny Tam / Roar News

THE King’s London rebrand is no more. The Principal announced this afternoon that King’s London and all associated rebranding is officially dead.

There are no plans to continue with any sort of rebrand, the website will not be redesigned, and the 22-year-old logo will be looked at but “not anytime soon”, Principal Ed Byrne told Roar this afternoon.

He said: “The decision is to keep that name [King’s College London] in every way, both as our official name and how we talk about ourselves. So, no more King’s London.”

“At some stage we’ll look at refreshing and modernising the logo but not for quite some time. I just want things to settle down and get on with the more important things.”

Asked whether this signals a new era of consultation Ed said that whilst there couldn’t be discussion on every issue, some things need broad support. The name of an institution is an example of something “a community has to own.”

It is unlikely the College will ever be able to put a final figure on the cost of the rebrand, which is anywhere between £87,000-£300,000, as spending was tangled up with the general marketing budget.

Ed said there had been “unanimous support” from the highest governing board – College Council – to bin the rebrand when he phoned them all individually. Roar revealed the disagreements between members over the rebrand last week.

In an email to students he wrote: “It has been decided that plans to use the promotional name of ‘King’s London’ will not go ahead.”

He stressed that the College’s “number one” priority at present was student satisfaction – for which King’s came 111th out of 123 last year.

Plans to rip out the word ‘College’ and rebrand to King’s London with a new minimalist logo were met with fierce criticism from students, staff and alumni last December.

After pressure grew on the Principal to act, he spoke exclusively to Roar, revealing his personal thoughts on the rebrand, and reopened consultations.

Although the plans propose changing the brand name to King’s London, the legal name of the university would always have remained King’s College London.