Early last month, the USF school of architecture and community design launched a competition to replenish the Web site’s image. However, the competition did not attract many contestants and was canceled before a winner was announced Thursday afternoon.

The idea for the competition came from the school’s Web site committee’s interest to revive its online appearance.

As indicated on the official entry form, the contest was open to anyone interested in designing a more creative emblem for the school.

The architectural program, which was established in 1986, did not have a logo when it was first established, said Stephen D. Schreiber, director for the school.

“This was a student-driven contest and, as such, students were not aware of the faculty efforts to also find new art work,” Schreiber said. “Students were able to organize and create innovative projects for the school in the past.”

In the near future, Schreiber said he hopes to incorporate the efforts from the faculty and students along with the university to come to an arrangement that would benefit everyone when and if creating a new logo.

As indicated by Tim Barnett, network administrator for the school, “The logo that the school has as of right now happened by default.”

The competition was a challenge to generate new ideas rather than to replace the old logo, Barnett said. And, due to USF graphic guidelines, Barnett said a new design logo would have to be approved by the university first.

On the other side, Karen Clarke, associate vice president for the public affairs office, said she is eager to meet with Schreiber and faculty members to find something that would be beneficial to everyone in regard to a new logo for the school.

“When a certain college is enhanced, the university is enhanced,” Clarke said.

Nevertheless, when regarding what type of guidelines the school of architecture would have to follow when opting for a new emblem, Clarke said it was premature to speculate.

“At this point, I don’t know enough about the specific needs of the school of architecture to say whether they need some additional graphics and visual support to reach their communication goals or not,” Clarke said.

Though the contest was predominantly posted on the school of architecture’s official Web site and on the USF list-serv, the lone two entries received were not from students of the school of architecture.

Barnett said he hopes the architecture department, along with the university officials, can come to an understanding so individual schools can have more freedom when it comes to showing their creative sides.

In accordance with USF logo guidelines, the Web site image or the USF logo representing every school has to promote a positive reflection to other universities, the media, prospective students, their families and the public.

Schreiber said he doesn’t know if a similar project would be organized privately because graphic designers were called or if another public contest would be held.

“I want to coordinate the students and faculty, along with Clarke’s office, to create a parallel effort,” Schreiber said.