SPECIAL EDITION: BigShoop's CHALLENGE!

[tBBP]

This here presents my first foray into the college ranks, and actually is my response to a challenge issued to me by one BigShoop via request:

Not sure where you live, but you're obviously a fellow Buccaneer fan. I live in Tampa and there is a team in Tampa that REALLY needs your help: the USF Bulls.

If you get some free time and want a real challenge, I'd love to see what you could come up with for them.

I'd be very willing to help you out in any way possible. I have ZERO skill with paint programs, so my ideas can never be put to paper. I've posted MANY times on Bulls message boards about this very topic, and usually get a "who cares, as long as we win" response. Which, as you probably know, infuriates people like us.

PRE-WARNING: this concept will cover a lot of material. It's a lot or reading (for those of you who actually take the time to READ these intros--the rest of you may wanna pay real good attention this time), so stay with me here!

Well, being that I've been following USF's football program ever since one of our local guys started shining there (by local I mean Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, FL, the school that produced former USF RB Brian Fisher). Not that USF has terrible uniforms now, but they COULD be better. That was before BigShoop pointed me to his school's message board at bullspen.com, in which he started a thread discussing this very matter. For Among the more egregious elements that were pointed out to me was USF's helmet, which, as Shoop says, is "yellowish, not gold". He also directed my attention to something that I didn't even notice at first: the helmet logo. My friends, that "bull U" is NOT green; it is in fact BLACK. Black with a black outline. (Don't know if we have Nike to thank for that or the school, but either way it is an OUTLANDISH gaffe.) But we'll get to the rest of the uni issues in a bit.

But first I want to discuss the school's branding package. Let's start from the top: USF has quickly grown from humble roots in 1956 and is steamrolling on the path to national prominence. The same can be said of its football program. Just recently it joined into the Big East. The branding package in place isn't a bad one; in my opinion, however, it can be executed a not better. One can tell a lot about the direction the school's wanting to go by studying it's "bull U" logo. From looking at it, to me it portrays a message of "bold, strong, fast, aggressive". And when one thinks of a bull, that assertion, save for the speed, isn't too far off. Well, with that idea in mind, after conversing with Shoop and (albeit via third-party) several of his comrades around the university, and taking in their suggestions, I set out to put out my own little improvements on their package.

We'll start with the logos. We've already discussed the "bull U". There's another logo in use by the school--a shield logo. Decent enough as it may be, I found some things to just be out of place with it--namely the gold trim on the bull in the original version, not to mention the "USF" wordmark that just kinda seems slapped in there, along with that bit of black in the top of the logo. In addition to that, while said wordmark is okay, I am just not too hot about the choice of font the school uses. (Here's the other wordmark.) It looks like a cheap version of Serpentine to me. And while it may look "streamlined", fast to some, to me it just doesn't fit that idea I conjured up when thinking "USF Bulls" (the one I described earlier). In my opinionation, a bolder, more "blocky" font would look much better. And speaking of that "bulls" wordmark, doesn't it seem like the "U" is just towering over everything else? Well, I did, and I tried as best as I could to fix that with my rendition whicle still beign able to make out that bold "U" in the wordmark. Also, as best I know, the school doesn't utilize a tertiary mark of any kind, so I pretty much fashioned one out of my new wordmark. So, after drafting my vision of what USF's logo package should be, I conferred with Shoop, got his blessing, and I now shoe the rest of you a side-by-side comparo of USF's original package, as compared/contrasted with my "re-touches" of them all. Here they are:

One thing true fans may notice is that the "bull U" in the helmet is facing opposite of the way it is currently. That's only because to me, I also see a "bull's face" in that bull U logo and as such, I thought it to be best to have the "head" facing forward. Well...that idea ain't sit too well with the student populus. Following is an excerpt from the C&C I received on this set:

I talked to 2 other people, and we came up with the following:

- LOVE the new black outlines and new font choice. I was suprised. I didnt think Id like it as much as I do. Great job.

- Tertiary, very nice. Grows on ya more and more the more you look at it. That would look sweet on a hat or something.

- Great job on perfecting my sacred shield. haha

- Now to the helmet....the colors, you got it right. Amazing how simple that was, right? (amazing how the university cant do it....but ANYWAYS...) The U on the helmet is backwards AND upside down. Does that make sense?

verbatum what my friend said: "when the logo has words, or is meant to represent something, it has to be on the helmet as you would see it if you were looking at a shirt or whatever"

This means that the horns will be pointing forward, which would match the shield bull AND it its sorta like the horns are "comin to getcha".....how corny did that sound?!

So you see...I'm trying to keep as much student input into this as possible--after all, this whole package represents THEM as much as it does the university's athletics program.

Okay, now on to the uniforms...

We've already discussed the issue with the helmet. (By the way, there's a nice photo gallery here for pictorial reference.) Now, as I said before, what they have now isn't bad, but in my opinionation, ceratin tweaks can make it better, because, to hear Shoop tell it, people will recognize a good team even more if they LOOK good on the field. Hence my mission...so, the first thing I did was work on the numbers. I like the numbers they use now, but I wanted to go more, "unique", so in my first draft, I matched the numbers to the font I used for the wordmark. The other thing I did was include gold pants as the primary for both home away; white pants for the secondary home an away. I didn't change the basic overall look of the uniforms in my first draft, but I did add that cleaned up shield patch the sleeves, and created a (in retrospect) rather predictable third/alt with gold top and green pants. This first draft was just to gauge Shoop's and other students' interest in my vision for the team. Here's a look at it:

This is a piece of the C&C that resulted from this, directly form Shoop, after conferring with his fellow students:

- the main thing we all agree on is that gold pants should be an alternate. USF fans love their green pants and their white pants. And the road pants should be green(primary) and white(alt). the gold pants makes USF look very UAB/UCF-ish, so you have to be careful of that.

- another thing with the pants: striping, of some sort. we werent unanimous, but 2 out of 3 agreed that there should be some sort of striping on the pants to kind of "tie things together". (keeping the U on the pants in some form would be great, if possible as well) There's gotta be a happy medium there somewhere...

- BUlls wordmark on the homes should be gold, not white.

- font choice, i like. would be interested to see the "italicized" look you spoke of, because that ties in with the "italicized" logo and wordmarks...

- 3rd alts are very "blah" looking. maybe white pants would make them jump off the page a little more.....not sure though.

Now, the whole time I was doing those, I was envisioning matching all elements of the package together (read:ITALICIZED NUMBERS), and I pitched that idea back to Shoop, and there was reasonable interest in the idea, so I went forward with it. I also took the student suggestions and fixed that helmet logo so that it would "read like it'd be seen on a t-shirt" (which actually is one of the smarter things I've heard in a while). In addition, even I wanted to include some kind of striping with this set, but didn't want to go too traditional with it, being that USF is still relatively new to the conscience of the college football world. In my opinion, when one looks at USF's Bulls uniforms, based on what I infer from the logo and the wordmark, one should get an impression--a sense, if you will--of "motion, quickness, boldness, brute strength"...with a little "flash" mixed in, of course. That was/is the goal, while at the same time trying not to stray too far from the current sets--or at least the things the students like about them now. The main thing I did that should set that idea off was going full-out italicized (including nameplate--which also utilizes the same modified fontface). So I instead took some inspiration from the U. of Maryland and the Denver Broncos (GULP!) and included that type of side-striping--gold outlined in black. (The striping on the white pants also hasd green trim, as does the side striping on the white jerseys, so that they can match up when worn together while not deviating too far when worn with the green counterpart to either component.) One other thing of note: the collars on these two jerseys. While gold would have been the obvious choice by many on the green tops, I went with white for two reasons: 1)it would help better balance it out with the white pants, and 2)I didn't want the stripe horns bleeding into a collar of the same color; I wanted to "break up the monotony" a little bit.

Okay, now to the pants. Even though I myself would have loved the gold pants, I just couldn't work it out in this set, and plus, the students and athletes love their green and white pants, so I eliminated the gold pants altogether. Speaking of those pants, I also added the new USF mark to the front hip of the pants--that seemed to be a hit with the "focus group". Also, on the third outfit, I included white pants with the gold jersey, which both contain green striping. Also, on that third outfit, via student suggestion, I swapped out the shield logo on the sleeves for that new tertiary mark I created. (Plus, the shield actually did look kinda lost on a gold background, so there you go.)

So, after completing the second draft, I again sent that to Shoop and let him and his comrades confer and they sent back some more C&C, and then I went and made two more revisions before presenting the final product.

And here now, for all the rest of you to see (and to conclude this LONG-A$$ presentation), is my concept for the re-done, bolder, brasher, University of South Florida football BULLS!!!

C&C...BRING IT ON! (and now I'M going to go get me a drink of water and some air!!!)

[buckeyes]

i like the second set bettter

[sideshowbob]

second set is incredible, the first set is also very good though. I think that the bull "U" logo should also face towards the front, awesome job, they should definelty use these.

[TrueYankee26]

I absolutely love the 2nd set

[omnibus]

1 set was the best

[BigShoop]

[TBGKon]

as another resident CCSLC USF fan, I really think you did a great job with the whole project. I agree that the gold pants are a tad too much, USF does a great job with their white and green pants, so changing that tradition would be a bad idea in my book. I like the 2nd set better than the first, but I do think either set would be awesome if used. Again, awesome job and hope to see more good work from you.

[LiteShoop]

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Awsome, simply awsome. Everything just seems to have a flow to it.

"SF" on the gold jersey is a REALLY nice touch.

... and the helmet and the piping matches! hallelujah!

[steiny_ramone]

You, good sir have done it again! Brilliant!

One small note: The image of the helmet in the segment with all of the logos, wordmarks etc has a green facemask, but the helmets on top of the uniforms have black facemasks. Just thought I 'd let you know.

[whitedawg22]

I really like this set. Although I'm a Boston-based Michigan transplant, I've always thought that USF had solid uniform potential but needed help. The second set is killer, except that the collarbone stripes look just like the Nike college basketball template that Florida, Duke, Arizona, et al are now wearing. Remove those and have the Bronco-type side stripes end under the armpits, and I'd say you have a winner.

[twi]

I like the second set, very nice.

How many USFers we have here? There's three just posting in this thread.

[maz]

One thing I like about you, you definately put ALOT of thought in your concepts. And you take C&C very seriously {in a good way}. On top of all that, you make some overall kick ass concepts. Keep up the fantastic work.

[tBBP]

One thing I like about you, you definately put ALOT of thought in your concepts. And you take C&C very seriously {in a good way}. On top of all that, you make some overall kick ass concepts. Keep up the fantastic work.

Why thank you, sir.

Right quick, most already know, but the reason for the long intros is exactly because of what was presented in this concept--give the viewer a glimpse into my head, my thought process, and others' thoughts too (for those who have offered suggestions, anyway), and then go through the steps and explain how and why I do or don't do what I do with the concepts, just to try to help the viewer get a mental picture in his/her own mind before actually seeing my rendition. It's a good way to see if the goal I set out to achieve was actually achieved, as well as a fun way for people to conjure up an image in their mind and then see how close they come to matching what I post...and sometime vice versa. The other thing is, I'm USED to doing it, since I am in a design school, and critique sessions are commonplace. If I can perfect it in school, and hone it here, imagine what I can do in the workforce when (if?) I should get there.

That'll be all for now. Thanks for viewing and offering your C&C (for those who have).

[BigShoop]

I like the second set, very nice.

How many USFers we have here? There's three just posting in this thread.

Ha, that's probably all of us...but we're a passionate 3, damnit.

[TBGKon]

I like the second set, very nice.

How many USFers we have here? There's three just posting in this thread.

Ha, that's probably all of us...but we're a passionate 3, damnit.

Damn right brother, BULL PRIDE!!!!

[BigShoop]

bump.

Turn to ESPN and see what we're working with..............................

(note: do we NOT have the worst - wrongly colored - helmets, pretty much in the history of football?)

[TBGKon]

bump.

Turn to ESPN and see what we're working with..............................

(note: do we NOT have the worst - wrongly colored - helmets, pretty much in the history of football?)

The helmets are an original shade of gold, its those black helmet decals that look like $#@&

[sacker12]

Man, that second set looks good.

Also, those solid black decals do look like crap.

[AstroBull]

I like the second set, very nice.

How many USFers we have here? There's three just posting in this thread.

Ha, that's probably all of us...but we're a passionate 3, damnit.

Make that 4. Thanks to BigShoop for posting the link over. The 2nd set looks great.