After years of work, Community Colleges of Spokane has rebranded with a new name, logo, and mascot.

Spokane Colleges, as it’s now called, encompasses Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College, which will retain their individual names.

“Both colleges maintain the community college name in there, and we did that very intentionally,” says Kevin Brockbank, chancellor of Spokane Colleges. “I know that sometimes people will associate community colleges with something other than or less than, but we take an enormous amount of pride in the fact that we are a higher-ed institution that serves this community.”

The new logo is intended to represent both community colleges, while also paying homage to the Inland Northwest.

Two triangles—one blue and one green—come together creating what looks like a navigation arrow.

The green triangle, representing SCC, points upward and is meant to symbolize the ponderosa pine, the official tree of Spokane. The blue triangle, representing SFCC, points downward and symbolizes the Spokane Falls.

“We were really due for a refresh and modernization of our logo,” Brockbank says. “It had been around a long time and just wasn’t a great representation of the value and the quality we provide to the community.”

Spokane Colleges also has different variations of the logo for each school, rather than using the same logo and altering the name below, as had been done in the past.

The mascot of the two colleges has also changed to Sasquatch from Bigfoot, and mascot and athletic logos have been updated.

Brockbank says he expects the rebrand will have a positive ripple effect.

“My desired outcomes of this are, number one, that we do everything we can to reach prospective students in our region,” he says.

He also says he hopes the new name and logo will inspire employees to take more pride in the place they work.

“I think the new logo and branding and colors allow us to do that at a much higher level than we were able to before,” Brockbank says. “We don’t want to be passive about sharing our accomplishments and celebrations.”

The rebrand project didn’t happen overnight, Brockbank explains.

“It was something that was underway when I was chosen for this position, and so it started under the leadership of Dr. Christine Johnson,” he says of his predecessor, who retired in December 2022. “It’s actually a board project. The trustees are the ones who own this and actually kind of sponsored as part of our current strategic plan.”

Much of the rebrand project was research-based, Brockbank explains. Spokane Colleges surveyed 1,300 people, from business leaders and community members, to current, former, and prospective students.

The goal of the survey was to find out how people viewed Spokane Colleges, what its strengths are, and what it provides to the community.

“What I love about this brand, and the reason we did it, is we needed a revalidation of what we provide to this community, what we provide to our students, and a representation of the great job that our employees do,” he says. 

Brockbank says Spokane Colleges' vision is to cultivate a highly skilled workforce, with students reaching their full potential and reinvesting into the community.

“We sometimes get overlooked in between the K-12 section and some of our other higher education partners, but if you really look at what we provide to this community, we’re the entity that builds the workforce backbone of this area,” he says.

Spokane Colleges will continue rolling out the new brand throughout an 18-month awareness campaign.

“We’re not using our brand to try to change ourselves into something we want to be,” Brockbank says. “This is who we are.”