#480 true blue

Yesterday I wrote about attending the presidential inauguration at Illinois College.  Among the many impressive things about the weekend, the one that was most surprising to me was the proliferation of the royal blue color on campus.  Their slogan is "Be True Blue" and let me tell you: they take it seriously.  

I will bet that a full 90% of IC staff had some element of royal blue as part of their ensemble on Saturday.  Cardigans, ties, necklaces, suits, blouses, shirts, dresses -- you name it, and they had it.  Even the vast majority of students wore blue t-shirts to the ceremony so both sets of bleachers were a sea of royal during the event.  I have not seen this much of one color attire since my last St. Louis Cardinals game that is known for its inundation of red.

The Illinois College folks didn't stop with attire.  The microphone cover, liners for the coffee urns, flowers on the table, stairwells, bulletin boards and even the stamp on the inauguration invitation were IC Blue.  It was an overt testimonial to school spirit and buy in.

Not all of us are fortunate enough to have a tag line or mantra that so readily lends itself to a specific color, but most do have some organizational color palette in place.  Think of how you can extend that level of branding beyond the corporate stationery or signage.  Can you take a lesson from Illinois College and really make a statement with your use of a limited color range?  Maybe it won't work for everyday, but if you need to impress outsiders for a special event, I can vouch for the fact that this is one way to do it!

-- beth triplett
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