College athletics identity changes

[pianoknight]

Unpopular opinion - after a day to process it, I like the new Michigan State uniform colors.

 

Not a fan of how big the STATE wordmark is, but if they reduced that to fit within the chest area, I'd actually like the whole thing.  The neon green and forest green aren't as ugly as I initially thought.

[Earl]

5 hours ago, sc49erfan15 said:

Charleston Southern University (Big South Conference) unveiled a new logo today.

New:

 

Old:

 

The new wordmark is a serious improvement. I don't think the wordmark in the above graphic was "official," and I'm not even sure they actually had one.

 

The pirate logo itself... yuck. Already looks 10+ years old, like it's from a 2006 Madden Create-a-Team. What the heck is up with his ear? Why does the white outline randomly dip below the wordmark?

 

The old "block CSU and swords" logo wasn't great (always reminded me of a logo for a private high school), but it was better than this mess.

I wanted to expand some more on this after reading the article.  The CSU Cutlass logo is still the primary, the new logo serves as a secondary visual & additional face to the program.  Perhaps after some time the new logo will become the primary.  The wordmark in the cutlass logo above is just a web font, below is the correct one.

As for "the white outline randomly dip below the wordmark", it's the rest of the buccaneer logo as seen on the gray shirt below.  But I agree it looks out of place and should be done differently or eliminated.  Interestingly the navy shirt below doesn't show that.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Earl

[FSUViking]

9 hours ago, sc49erfan15 said:

Charleston Southern University (Big South Conference) unveiled a new logo today.

New:

 

Old:

 

The new wordmark is a serious improvement. I don't think the wordmark in the above graphic was "official," and I'm not even sure they actually had one.

 

The pirate logo itself... yuck. Already looks 10+ years old, like it's from a 2006 Madden Create-a-Team. What the heck is up with his ear? Why does the white outline randomly dip below the wordmark?

 

The old "block CSU and swords" logo wasn't great (always reminded me of a logo for a private high school), but it was better than this mess.

 

So "private high school logo" is better than "Madden Create-a-Team?"

[jaha32]

As a fan of college block letter logos, the cross swords CSU logo is a few tweaks away from looking outstanding. I hope they continue to use that. The new logo looks dated already as others have said, and you can’t read the school’s name because it’s so small. The article says they are proud to update yet stay “consistent” with their branding. Nothing is reminiscent of their prior brand. This reminds me of when UNO Privateers updated their logo only to realize it was a dated mistake and two years later finally getting it right by updating again, this time with Bosack.

[_DietDrPepper_]

12 hours ago, FSUViking said:

 

So "private high school logo" is better than "Madden Create-a-Team?"

Yes it is

[Krz]

12 hours ago, FSUViking said:

 

So "private high school logo" is better than "Madden Create-a-Team?"

Definetly

[sc49erfan15]

19 hours ago, Earl said:

 

The logo on the grey t-shirt, without the wordmark, is much better. I think I actually prefer the monochrome version of the logo... but then you're getting close to what new conference rival Hampton did with their logo - and they're the Pirates and have similar colors.

 

As others pointed out, the "Charleston Southern University" text is unreadable at low resolution and/or distance. So much in logo design is trending toward the exact opposite direction (high visibility at small size, "flat design," yada yada) that makes this look 10+ years old already.

 

And it's not just that it looks 10+ years old, it looks average for 10+ years old. Charleston Southern operates on the fringes of D1, in a low-major conference, with less than 4,000 students, a small athletic budget, and small facilities (basketball gym seats 881, 2nd smallest in D1). Even in the Charleston area, CSU is overshadowed by CofC and the Citadel (not to even mention USC, Clemson, and other major teams). I'm not bashing Charleston Southern - I value them as a founding member of the Big South (my "home" conference) and have been to the campus many times, that small gym can get absolutely rocking and is a great place to watch a game.

 

I'm glad they're keeping the CSU/sword logo, hopefully as the primary, because at least you can make an educated guess as to whom the logo belongs. The fact that there are so many CSUs (off the top of my head: Colorado State, Cleveland State, Chicago State, various iterations of Cal State _______) doesn't help, but at least the swords and colors make it more identifiable. The new one is a generic-looking buccaneer, an unidentifiable jumble of text, and BUCCANEERS. It could belong to anybody. When you're playing N^th fiddle to larger programs in your state/region, I think it would be beneficial to have the school's name much larger. Having a long name such as "CHARLESTON SOUTHERN" is a hindrance in this situation when compared to other conference teams in similar situations (Winthrop, Radford, Longwood, Campbell, etc.), but having it so tiny is certainly not helping things.

[Derek]

1 hour ago, sc49erfan15 said:

 

The logo on the grey t-shirt, without the wordmark, is much better. I think I actually prefer the monochrome version of the logo... but then you're getting close to what new conference rival Hampton did with their logo - and they're the Pirates and have similar colors.

 

As others pointed out, the "Charleston Southern University" text is unreadable at low resolution and/or distance. So much in logo design is trending toward the exact opposite direction (high visibility at small size, "flat design," yada yada) that makes this look 10+ years old already.

 

And it's not just that it looks 10+ years old, it looks average for 10+ years old. Charleston Southern operates on the fringes of D1, in a low-major conference, with less than 4,000 students, a small athletic budget, and small facilities (basketball gym seats 881, 2nd smallest in D1). Even in the Charleston area, CSU is overshadowed by CofC and the Citadel (not to even mention USC, Clemson, and other major teams). I'm not bashing Charleston Southern - I value them as a founding member of the Big South (my "home" conference) and have been to the campus many times, that small gym can get absolutely rocking and is a great place to watch a game.

 

I'm glad they're keeping the CSU/sword logo, hopefully as the primary, because at least you can make an educated guess as to whom the logo belongs. The fact that there are so many CSUs (off the top of my head: Colorado State, Cleveland State, Chicago State, various iterations of Cal State _______) doesn't help, but at least the swords and colors make it more identifiable. The new one is a generic-looking buccaneer, an unidentifiable jumble of text, and BUCCANEERS. It could belong to anybody. When you're playing N^th fiddle to larger programs in your state/region, I think it would be beneficial to have the school's name much larger. Having a long name such as "CHARLESTON SOUTHERN" is a hindrance in this situation when compared to other conference teams in similar situations (Winthrop, Radford, Longwood, Campbell, etc.), but having it so tiny is certainly not helping things.

 

You’re right on. This is what happens 99.9% of the time when a rebranding is done “in house”.

[Green27]

21 hours ago, FSUViking said:

 

So "private high school logo" is better than "Madden Create-a-Team?"

[WavePunter]

8 hours ago, sc49erfan15 said:

 

The logo on the grey t-shirt, without the wordmark, is much better. I think I actually prefer the monochrome version of the logo... but then you're getting close to what new conference rival Hampton did with their logo - and they're the Pirates and have similar colors.

 

As others pointed out, the "Charleston Southern University" text is unreadable at low resolution and/or distance. So much in logo design is trending toward the exact opposite direction (high visibility at small size, "flat design," yada yada) that makes this look 10+ years old already.

 

And it's not just that it looks 10+ years old, it looks average for 10+ years old. Charleston Southern operates on the fringes of D1, in a low-major conference, with less than 4,000 students, a small athletic budget, and small facilities (basketball gym seats 881, 2nd smallest in D1). Even in the Charleston area, CSU is overshadowed by CofC and the Citadel (not to even mention USC, Clemson, and other major teams). I'm not bashing Charleston Southern - I value them as a founding member of the Big South (my "home" conference) and have been to the campus many times, that small gym can get absolutely rocking and is a great place to watch a game.

 

I'm glad they're keeping the CSU/sword logo, hopefully as the primary, because at least you can make an educated guess as to whom the logo belongs. The fact that there are so many CSUs (off the top of my head: Colorado State, Cleveland State, Chicago State, various iterations of Cal State _______) doesn't help, but at least the swords and colors make it more identifiable. The new one is a generic-looking buccaneer, an unidentifiable jumble of text, and BUCCANEERS. It could belong to anybody. When you're playing N^th fiddle to larger programs in your state/region, I think it would be beneficial to have the school's name much larger. Having a long name such as "CHARLESTON SOUTHERN" is a hindrance in this situation when compared to other conference teams in similar situations (Winthrop, Radford, Longwood, Campbell, etc.), but having it so tiny is certainly not helping things.

They coulda gone with

"CHUCK SOUTH"

[stumpygremlin]

https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/evolution-of-bucky-how-charleston-southern-and-disney-designed-its/article_ad7a982a-606a-11e9-bbc1-8bd40a1f8377.html

 

Apparently some Disney animators helped work on the new Charleston Southern logo.

[Survival79]

On 4/15/2019 at 11:21 AM, sc49erfan15 said:

Charleston Southern University (Big South Conference) unveiled a new logo today.

 

 

Why is he wearing sunglasses?

 

[Discrim]

He's Bono's cosplayer brother, that's why.

[Pizzaman7294]

On 4/18/2019 at 9:48 AM, Survival79 said:

 

Why is he wearing sunglasses?

 

 

Definitely will never unsee that. Coolest pirate in college athletics. 

[Earl]

Not D1 but in D3's USA South Athletic Conference, Greensboro College Pride of Greensboro, NC rebranded last week.  I'm a fan of how the placement of the lions, Leo & Leona, were changed to be presented as equals.  Lure Design of Orlando, FL assisted with the design.  There is a new Lions over GC logo too.  If you're not familiar with Greensboro College, it's a liberal arts college with 1000-1300 students sandwiched between UNC Greensboro & North Carolina A&T.  Article

Old

New
     

[Discrim]

Nice update, given that in the old version, the lioness looks like an afterthought.

[leggman01]

this is a huge upgrade for GC - i'm not a huge fan of the lioness' mouth...would have found a way to connect that more, but overall the new logo is a nice improvement for them - they don't seem to be embracing the new typeface on their website, though, which is a shame

[leopard88]

On 4/18/2019 at 10:48 AM, Survival79 said:

 

Why is he wearing sunglasses?

 

 

On 4/18/2019 at 6:34 PM, Discrimihater said:

He's Bono's cosplayer brother, that's why.

 

I'm pretty sure it's Corey Hart.

 

 

[stumpygremlin]

Count me in the minority, but I think the Greensboro new logo is a downgrade. It looks too "of its time" and it looks like a ripoff of a Rickabaugh logo.

[_DietDrPepper_]

2 hours ago, stumpygremlin said:

Count me in the minority, but I think the Greensboro new logo is a downgrade. It looks too "of its time" and it looks like a ripoff of a Rickabaugh logo.

The majority says it’s a downgrade