Brand logos are a fundamental part of the corporate visual identity, and their reception has been vigorously researched. The focus has been on the visual traits of the logo and their effect on the reception process, whereas little attention has been paid to how the logo becomes part of the brand. This article narrows this research gap in investigating how a new logo is evaluated, how the perception evolves, and what underlying dimensions emerge from the reception process. We adopted a longitudinal free-association approach and followed the qualitative and quantitative changes in logo associations among first-year students at Aalto University as it was going through a merger accompanied with a radical visual-identity redesign. We show how the new logo faced initial resistance before it became a source of positive brand associations, and how it became anchored in the university´s corporate identity. We argue that logo evaluations span three dimensions: they may be congruent or incongruent with the disposition of the individual toward the change: they may be congruent or incongruent with the visual preferences of the individual; and they may be based on the visuals of the logo or on its identity-expressing capabilities.

中文翻译：

---

从品牌标识到品牌联想和企业标识：大学合并中的视觉和基于标识的标识联想

品牌标志是企业视觉识别的基本组成部分，它们的接受度已经得到了大力研究。重点是标志的视觉特征及其对接收过程的影响，而很少关注标志如何成为品牌的一部分。本文缩小了研究如何评估新标志、感知如何演变以及接收过程中出现的潜在维度方面的研究差距。我们采用纵向自由关联方法，并跟踪阿尔托大学一年级学生在进行合并和激进的视觉识别重新设计时徽标关联的质和量变化。我们展示了新标志在成为积极品牌联想的来源之前如何面临最初的阻力，以及它如何植根于大学的企业形象。我们认为徽标评估跨越三个维度：它们可能与个人对变化的倾向一致或不一致：它们可能与个人的视觉偏好一致或不一致；它们可能基于徽标的视觉效果或其身份表达能力。