College athletics identity changes

[gosioux76]

1 hour ago, -Akronite- said:

Not nearly as down on this new logo as others.

 

The current script was mediocre and felt like a placeholder. The era of using the stylized Z was pointless to me. Going back to a monogram A makes sense, especially for unifying with the academic logo. It's not as if there is a well of great design in the school's past to draw from, so they made something simple which is... fine. I think a little more effort could've made the subtle Z work, which may have improved its reception.

 

You need the kangaroo around for the branding and I think they should've included an updated Zippy in this unveiling. If the school/program has any interest in expanding its reach (which I don't think this is meant to), they would need to triple down on the kangaroo since it's the only interesting part of the brand.

 

And while I wasn't in love with the previous zoomy font, it really makes more sense for the wordmark to be italicized or show some form of motion. But I guess when you were zipping you gotta zap before you can zip again. 

 

Anyway, FEAR THE ROO.

 

I'll even go so far as to say I like the new logo.  If the goal was to shift toward simple, dignified and stately, then it's on the mark. Looks nice on a helmet, too.

 

 

[tBBP]

Curious, since I know exactly jack about their history... just how did (the U. of?) Akron come into using a kangaroo as their athletic mascot, anyway?

[Joe]

1 hour ago, VDizzle12 said:

 

I absolutely hated the logo at first, but it's definitely growing on me. Seeing the basketball court, football field,  helmets and other applications helped. I was afraid that at first the "primary" logo would always have Akron below. That seemed amateurish and cluttered. The "A" by itself is much cleaner. It's a simple lettermark, but I can see subtle references to past logos. The serifs from the motion and oval A logos, the angled lines and Z from the 2000s logos. Maybe it's a stretch and I'm just talking myself into it. But it could have been a lot worse. I'm actually going to miss the previous custom font. I'm glad they had Bosack come up with a new font for brand consistency. It's just that nothing about it seems custom to me. Like they just downloaded a free sci-fi font from Dafont. 

 

Guess the people in charge wanted a clean logo and nothing "gimmicky." I get it to some extent. If done poorly a kangaroo could feel like something out of minor league baseball. The Zips need some sort of secondary logo though. Hopefully one of the older kangaroo logos can stick around in a lesser role. Like how Alabama uses the elephant. 

 

Fear the Roo. 

 

 

You're post is 100% accurate... All of it.

 

The previous Akron word marks and subsequent font were really awkward in their execution. I feel comfortable saying that because I did them. In fact, that was the first custom key-able font we ever did and what I didn't know then really shows.

 

This is a simple, clean, Division I collegiate logo that's built for the long-haul. It's jarring, for sure, considering that Akron is going from almost double digit logos (9 in the system) to one. A mid-major like Akron only has so many opportunities for media impressions. As such, it's very difficult to build any kind of brand equity with 9 logos.

 

I'm glad you're warming up to it, VDizzle. I love it.

 

[VDizzle12]

13 minutes ago, Joe said:

You're post is 100% accurate... All of it.

 

The previous Akron word marks and subsequent font were really awkward in their execution. I feel comfortable saying that because I did them. In fact, that was the first custom key-able font we ever did and what I didn't know then really shows.

 

This is a simple, clean, Division I collegiate logo that's built for the long-haul. It's jarring, for sure, considering that Akron is going from almost double digit logos (9 in the system) to one. A mid-major like Akron only has so many opportunities for media impressions. As such, it's very difficult to build any kind of brand equity with 9 logos.

 

I'm glad you're warming up to it, VDizzle. I love it.

 

 

Thanks for the response.  Knowing you worked on the new logos really helped warm me up to them, you're the best in the business. I'm glad they brought you back for the brand evolution. 

 

I did some design work while at UA and always enjoyed the huge library of logos I could pick from and the custom font. I always felt it was all top notch. But as designers I understand what it's like to look at old work and see how far we have come. Since I saw the branding every day, it was tough to see something new.

 

Hopefully the new logo is around for a long time!

[MJWalker45]

14 minutes ago, tBBP said:

Curious, since I know exactly jack about their history... just how did (the U. of?) Akron come into using a kangaroo as their athletic mascot, anyway?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_(mascot)#:~:text=The school's nickname%2C "Zips",the choices at the time.

Zips, is short for zippers, because a major sponsor of the school ran a zipper factory. Just like Kent was originally the Foxes because the president ran a fox farm. The students picked the kangaroo to represent the school. 

This is a way better logo than the new A, but I don't think it was ever used on a helmet. 

 

[VDizzle12]

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_(mascot)#:~:text=The school's nickname%2C "Zips",the choices at the time.

Zips, is short for zippers, because a major sponsor of the school ran a zipper factory. Just like Kent was originally the Foxes because the president ran a fox farm. The students picked the kangaroo to represent the school. 

This is a way better logo than the new A, but I don't think it was ever used on a helmet. 

 

 

I believe it was only used on the helmets for one season, 2002.

[walkerws]

I think the next year they got rid of the circle. 

[Ted Cunningham]

8 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

 

I'll even go so far as to say I like the new logo.  If the goal was to shift toward simple, dignified and stately, then it's on the mark. Looks nice on a helmet, too.

 

 

Eghhhh. Why did they put a stroke on it for the helmets? One of my favorite looks out of the MAC in recent years has been the gold shell on gold mask helmets with navy marks that Akron has been wearing. The stroke somehow overly complicates it or something. (I can't quite put my finger on it; something about it feels overwrought.)

 

While I have no connection to Akron (outside of having friends who are from the area and/or live there now), and thus no strong sentimental feelings about their looks, I liked where their branding was over the past few years. All of it is and has been pretty bland for a while, certainly. But it wasn't terrible either. And this is no different; just kind of a lateral move from one fairly safe look to another.

[TenaciousG]

On 4/29/2022 at 5:32 AM, stumpygremlin said:

This rebrand is fantastic. I've got a couple of TINY nitpicks.

• They should've designed left-facing marks as well. That way you could have the bulldog face forward on both sides of the football helmet. As it stands, I have a sinking feeling that they'll go asymmetrical (probably numbers on the left), and asymmetrical helmets need to die.
• The territorial mark is not centered on the football field. Notice it goes from the 22 on the left to the 28 on the right. They should've centered it on the 25's.

Other than that, they really took the ball and... ran home with it.

Are they even allowed to cover the hashmarks like that? This is a marching band’s worst nightmare lol.

 

As for Akron, one of the blandest rebrands I have ever seen. Is the “Z” in the A even a worthwhile design element if it’s asymmetric like that? Actually there’s two Zs if you go all the way down to the bottom of the A. Really the whole thing is dumb. The 2000s branding never needed to change. Use the Kangaroo if you want us to fear it. 

[panthers_2012]

15 hours ago, TenaciousG said:

Are they even allowed to cover the hashmarks like that? This is a marching band’s worst nightmare lol.

Yes, that's our worst fear. No hash marks, or working with hash marks that don't match up when you get to the field. I had that a couple of years at college and my director wasn't happy with the grounds crew because we had to practice in a parking lot and when we got to the main field, we had to re-learn the drill because we were going off the parking lot hash marks.

 

My issue is the logo. That logo, IMHO, is too big for a football field for it to be the center logo. 

[RevNet]

Utah Tech University, the former Dixie State University, has revealed their brand.

 

 

[TenaciousG]

Why couldn’t Akron just do this if they wanted a better subliminal “Z”? 

 

Excuse my quick photoshop job.

[the_grateful_ted]

21 hours ago, RevNet said:

Utah Tech University, the former Dixie State University, has revealed their brand.

 

 

Great, looks terrible!

[CaliforniaGlowin]

22 hours ago, RevNet said:

Utah Tech University, the former Dixie State University, has revealed their brand.

 

 

They say red and blue are for red rock and blue sky. Wrong shades, y'all. It's the same red and blue everybody else uses.

[slapshot]

On 5/14/2022 at 9:07 PM, TenaciousG said:

Are they even allowed to cover the hashmarks like that? This is a marching band’s worst nightmare lol.

 

As for Akron, one of the blandest rebrands I have ever seen. Is the “Z” in the A even a worthwhile design element if it’s asymmetric like that? Actually there’s two Zs if you go all the way down to the bottom of the A. Really the whole thing is dumb. The 2000s branding never needed to change. Use the Kangaroo if you want us to fear it. 

 

That's likely just a Photoshop rendering. For obvious reasons, the football lines must be visible, even if they're somewhat transparent, otherwise it will be very difficult to spot the ball, mark off penalties,  and measure for first downs.

[Survival79]

7 hours ago, the_grateful_ted said:

Great, looks terrible!

 

I kind of like the turn signal.

 

[Brave-Bird 08]

The weirdest part of the Akron rebrand is that the logo is jagged but the wordmark is curved. 

 

It really makes me feel like that outside of approaching this from an inside-out flow, they just slapped a logo together and then picked a font and called it a day. That's just amateur. 

[MJWalker45]

16 hours ago, Brave-Bird 08 said:

The weirdest part of the Akron rebrand is that the logo is jagged but the wordmark is curved. 

 

It really makes me feel like that outside of approaching this from an inside-out flow, they just slapped a logo together and then picked a font and called it a day. That's just amateur. 

Yup. Just use the same font for the wordmark or a condensed version of it.

[andrewharrington]

23 hours ago, Brave-Bird 08 said:

The weirdest part of the Akron rebrand is that the logo is jagged but the wordmark is curved. 

 

It really makes me feel like that outside of approaching this from an inside-out flow, they just slapped a logo together and then picked a font and called it a day. That's just amateur. 

A is an angular letter. Millions of fonts mix angular As with round Rs and Os.

 

You really think a guy like Bosack just picks a font and calls it a day?

[TalktoChuck]

On 5/16/2022 at 1:16 PM, the_grateful_ted said:

Great, looks terrible!

 

That's just the new academic logo and word mark for the name change. You're still going to see the standalone bison logo for athletics.