Design a new mascot for ole miss and win $5,000

[Sterling84]

Well two days to get yoru stuff in.  I will show my design either late Thursday or friday. Good luck to everyone

Where does the time go?

I' finished tonight.  I dont know how I feel about it.  Much better than my original...but Lord.......who knows.  I'm almost at a "whats the point" stage.

Greg, sorry I never got back in touch with you on yours...I've been pretty busy.  

I think the start was so solid though...can't wait to see what she turned out like.

OH, and I TOTALLY broke the color rules on this one...I laugh at rules.  Too tired to upload....maybe tomorrow.  Gotta send the junk out.

[pagan696]

just back from the post office (talk about last minute).  found this to read over as well...  http://www.thedmonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/08/28/3f4da355e2019?template=pda

look for my logo post later next week.

[rtrich11]

After reading that article, I am surprised that by that point they had only 60 entries. I realize more will come, but it's probably not the pouring of ideas that they wanted. It may be because others get the feeling that they don't know what they want.

I sent in two designs, but one of them is unfortunately on their NO pile. The article says they are nixing all animal ideas. I did a raging horse- you know, rebellious, etc.  I was trying to think out of the box, and avoid race, and any reference to time period. P.C., but cool and aggressive.

That's a shame that they won't even look at those. There will be plenty of "crayon-drawn" ideas, so they might as well look at all the stuff that's half way decent, which may only be half of the entries.

[Sterling84]

Know how I know this is going to end badly??

Read the article in the above post.

These people are idiots. Politicians through and through. The athletic director, WHO HASN"T EVEN SEEN ANY OF THE 60 SUBMISSIONS MIND YOU, has already made up his mind to eliminate all the animal ones.

.................ok.......................so?

You want a human logo/mascot then. I'm just asking cause you make a point to emphasize that this is a MASCOT you are looking for. Even though lots of teams, southern teams even, have animal mascots...you want a human and all animals will be discarded.

Yet, you don't want confederate imagery...you want the new image of rebellion and independence? Is that all??!!!

Have these people ever stepped outside their office walls and seen the world? The country? the county? Lots of teams have used animals to visually represent more ambigious qualities. That's what a mascot FREAKIN' IS NUMB NUTS! We use nicknames cause it's too long to call my team the Green Bay "We will defeat you every times" and because the Detroit Ferocious Guys Who Rule the Kingdom sounds stupid. A logo is something that stands for much more than it is. For Pete's sake don't squash half of them because you don't understand that! Mr. Director...could you go ahead and draw me...ummm Heat then please? Or Magic, or Wild? How about Pompous or Ignorance? What do those look like exactly? An animal can certainly depict Rebellion. I , for one, haven't found out how exactly...but I know it can be done.

Look at the Alaska Aces new look. A Polar Bear. Why? Cause it's Alaska...and a deck of cards would look stupid and Jim Carrey wouldn't give his likeness rights away.

I'm not bitching because I think mine should win...it probably shouldnt and certainly won't.

I am just furious that all the retorhect coming of of the Sippi is of parameters and criteria and eliminating entries. Hey rednecks, you have set forth an impossible task upon the public of Tolkien-esque proportions. The least you can do is put down your drink and take ten minutes to look at all of them.

This isn't a story problem where you get to lay out all the facts and challenge the kiddies to find the answer you already know to be correct. Just admit that you have no idea what to do and you'll eagerly look at everything submitted.

F#*#&n jerks!

ANyways, two years ago or so, the city of Milwaukee had a "redesign the city's flag" contest. Lots of entries were submitted and of course, lots of people broke the unwritten criteria...some even had photos on them. But the city board buried the idea when nothing looked good enough to them and no one has heard a peep about it since. no winner, no prize money, no new flag for Brew CIty.

Mark my words, this is going to end in a painfully drawn out and similar fashion until some point 3 yeas from now they just suddenly become the Ole Miss Mystery or something.

Well just remember Mr. Athletic Director..before you go getting excited about crumpling people's work into the trash cause they added 2 colors...

I'm not the one embarrassed by what's currently on my hat....ok pal?

Thanks for your consideration...here's my logo.

http://www.north18.com/images/olemiss_3.gif

[rtrich11]

Amen, Sterling. Other point about animals or other items taking the place of humans is UAB. The Blazer looked too white, or something, so they use a dragon. Hey, why not. Ended up looking pretty cool to me. Out of the box and creative. It's just one state to the right. Obviously the guy never noticed.

Your submission is really cool. I love the perspective. I also have something remotely in that vein, with a character with a white mustache. We should be prepared to get the boot because it's not "youthful" enough. If it was younger looking, the character would be ethnically challenged.

This is why one has to consider more approaches to the problem! The answer will present itself if one opens his mind. I have a feeling that at least one of the finalists will open a can of P.C. worms. Should be interesting.

[rtrich11]

Quotes from the article:

? The athletic department was only looking for a new mascot image, ...

? "I want something that really represents the new Ole Miss, a more up-to-date version of the values and pride of the University of Mississippi and our quest for increased diversity,"

If they update the current image it will not show diversity. If they use a human showing skin, it may not show diversity. If they use person wearing a current look, it could be dated in a few years. Will they end up with something like the Golden State Warriors blue man?

Here's the quote which may prove true:

? ...if no design is acceptable, then the deadline for the contest will be extended.

[whchoclte]

FIrst let em say great work Sterling.  Always imaginative.

I went in the same direction, flag and all, but tried to go for a meaner look with sword ablazin.  I wanted the look of a general because he is the leader, independence all that jazz.

I kept their colors but just added Gray which can become silver.

Comments are welcome.  Wordmark will follow just no tiem to submit and yes teh secondary logos are a bit weak, but once again timeconstriants.

http://hometown.aol.com/gregorymalek/rebelcontest.html

[buster04]

damn great work!! I'd lay off the bars and stars in this PC world we live in.. I like the red flag one, but the "M" is kinda hard to make out, a suggestion: try doing the stars n stripes, but instead of stars put the "M" there?  OR make a grey flag?

Awesome!!!

[buster04]

OK. this is my first ever sketch posting, I dont have a scanner nor know how to use Illustrator yet, even though I have it.. so please pardon the mess of a pic I am sending. I was thinking something along these lines, My Idea 1 and My Idea 2

please be kind.. And FEEL FREE TO IMPROVE IT...

[rtrich11]

Alright, since the deadline is just a couple days away, I'll post my two ideas. The first one was hammered out very quickly. The one on the right, as you know, will be trashed. I did wordmarks, but perhaps later I'll put them up.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rtrich11/rebels_richards.gif

[Sterling84]

TRich, I really like both your concepts.

Unfortunately both will likely be discarded for animalness and too many colors cause that reject of an athletic director has his head up his........

Anyway, anyone hear any news on this yet?  I know today is the deadline so we aren't likely to hear anything big for a couple weeks.  Just curious if there is gossip from any of our southern listeners.

Also, I did something REALLY stupid.  I wasn't sure my logo would reach Mississippi on time, so I looked at that article in the Daily Mississippian posted above, and emailed all the board members.  Hey, its their fault for giving first and last names the way I see it.

So, as if I needed more odds against me, that probably sealed it.  But for what it's worth, I encouraged them to break the color and animal automatic dismissals for mine and EVERYONE's designs.  It's just ridiculous.  I also sort of dared them to actually be rebels and choose something along the lines of what we've all suggested.  Judging by the five or six I've seen of ours..........they are going to get a whole lot of what they don't want.

I expect this..........as I've said earlier.........to be interesting.

[animator]

Thanks whchoclte for turning me on to this board.  Up until yesterday, I was completely oblivious to what anyone else was doing for entries.  I too entered and have my designs on my site.:

http://www.aaronandpatty.com/

Also of interest, I've been keeping a log of the contest progress and controversy.

Good luck to everyone who entered, from what I've seen on this thread, they'll have some great designs to choose from.

[Sterling84]

Animator -

Fellow Brew City Brutha....

I dig many of your designs, and even the one's that won't really work make me smile........i.e. The Bass.

I think, more than the rest of us here, (me especially) you've cleared your mind enough to get past the soldier and try a couple of other things....most noteably the guy with his back turned.  I've never seen that in a logo before and that is a terrific, simple, solution to the challenge.

I have no confidence whatsoever that OleMIss will see it that way but I wish you all kinds of luck.

[rtrich11]

Aaron, did you send in all your entries at once, or a few at a time? I like a lot of these, but the 14th entry may have the best chance. He is not an animal, shows no outward race, and he's "rebel-like". They may have you add more red into the figure, though. Geez, with 15 added to the pile I'm sure the Miss. folks seem more satisfied with turnout.

Is there any way for us to sneak a peek at the vetoed Phoenix Design entries? More of the individual entries?

Brownslax- Sketching is good. The tough part is taking the step of fleshing out the details and deciding where you want red, blue, etc. Try that out.

[animator]

Thanks for the kind comments.  Those were the ones I entered (I submitted them as I finished them) and only got one reply postcard.  I had more but got tired of the conflicting information ("We don't want Colonel Reb...but we're not getting rid of Colonel Reb"), so I stopped entering.

I too would like to see the scrapped Phoenix design, but haven't been able to find it.

[Cuss16]

i really like the cowboy one by animater.  

[animator]

Thanks Cuss16.

This page has an online poll as to whether or not you think the University of Mississippi Colonel Rebel mascot should be replaced?

Current results:

Yes: 16%

No: 84%

(I voted yes, of-course)  

[bluesland]

animator-my design for Ole Miss was a biker-bike and all,i used-white,didn't realize it would be considered a color, making me have 4 colors in the design. I tried to come up with a train design [suggested by some UM alums] but I couldn't come up with a totally original design. I think UM will like your second design[horse and stars]  don't understand the report that the top three designs were a horse, a bear, and a james dean type-this ran in the local paper on thursday, the meeting wasn't until sat. plus UM had a home game that day. bluesland

[whchoclte]

White is not a color and if UM is considering it a color they are wrong.  

You can use Red, Blue, Silver and White and it only classifys as three colors.

[hockeygator]

From someone who does lots of printing on different materials, I can tell you that white is always considered a color, unless you are printing on a white surface.  It just so happens that most printers don't consider white a color becasue they usually print on white paper.  But if you take that same logo, and try to print on colored paper, or any other colored item, all of a sudden white is counted as a color.  I don't know if UM wants to limit the designs to three colors for cost reasons or not, but its a good enough reason when you think about the amount of items they are going to have to change the logo on.