New modified Illinois "Circle I" logo

[illini1]

From the pictures of the alumni game it appears the logo has been slightly modified. The I now appears to be skinnier than it previously was. I've also never seen the I be outlined in white before.

[pcgd]

Looks like their primary with a circle around it. Almost like another company trying to get around the Nike exclusive except... It's Nike!

Of couse that's all the Nike is anyway except one color version...

Illinois needs an overhaul... The equity they have in the underlined "Illinois" is there but it doesnt change the fact it was a New York Giants ripoff to begin with...

[whitedawg22]

Illinois desperately needs a brand overhaul. One illustrative example: their "Circle I" logo, used as the primary for the basketball team, uses a wide serif font, while the New York Giants ripoff "ILLINOIS" used as the primary for the football team uses a skinnier, sans serif font. What a complete mess.

[illini1]

Illinois desperately needs a brand overhaul. One illustrative example: their "Circle I" logo, used as the primary for the basketball team, uses a wide serif font, while the New York Giants ripoff "ILLINOIS" used as the primary for the football team uses a skinnier, sans serif font. What a complete mess.

I agree. Hopefully since the new chancellor Illinois hired is on the Nike Board of Directors and they're getting a new A.D. they'll have a new identity for the whole athletic program soon.

[andrewharrington]

Illinois desperately needs a brand overhaul. One illustrative example: their "Circle I" logo, used as the primary for the basketball team, uses a wide serif font, while the New York Giants ripoff "ILLINOIS" used as the primary for the football team uses a skinnier, sans serif font. What a complete mess.

This is not the reason it's a mess. This is a thing we like to call 'contrast,' and it's a perfectly legit design principle. The reason Illinois' identity is a mess is because their strongest mark as far as equity goes (now that the chief is out) is bad. The block Illinois is just not very compelling in any way. It's a standard block type, and it's not even a good one. They need to start building around the circle I.

[illini1]

I always wished they create a new logo based off of the University of Illinois Alumni Associations logo. It's different than any other logo in college sports. Someone has already done a football helmet concept using the logo.

[IceCap]

That's very good, actually.

[deliver2david]

I always wished they create a new logo based off of the University of Illinois Alumni Associations logo. It's different than any other logo in college sports. Someone has already done a football helmet concept using the logo.

It's not that different than any other logo in college sports. It's basically a rounded version of Indiana's logo.

[illini1]

I always wished they create a new logo based off of the University of Illinois Alumni Associations logo. It's different than any other logo in college sports. Someone has already done a football helmet concept using the logo.

It's not that different than any other logo in college sports. It's basically a rounded version of Indiana's logo.

The difference is that in the Indiana logo the I is prominant because they're IU. In the Illinois logo the U is prominant because they're the U of I. The U is higher than the I in the logo.

[STL FANATIC]

Some notes...

That's not a new logo, it's as Pat said, a poorly done fake of the Nike logo. That's the primary (sort of... I'll get to that) enclosed in a circle. Likely done by someone in the Basketball offices without consulting the graphics department OR Nike. The Nike gear, I"m pretty sure is just standard Nike gear that was then sent to a printer. The designs weren't produced by Nike.

As far as that actually being the primary. Well only sort of. The I-Illinois logo uses a thinner skinnier I rather than the thicker block I that used to be used. It's a bit odd to have two different anyways, but somewhere along the line the thick I was lost and even when the I was being used by itself, that skinnier I would appear. Well, at the very least, that is beginning to be rectified as we've found the old I and are implementing it as much as possible.

Now, as far as the overhaul. Yes, that's ideal. We'll see what can be done. I don't have the power to make it so, but I can present ideas. At the very least we're going to try to clean up the mess that was left for us. I have bigger goals, though, and I'm hopeful we can do something that's pretty compelling.

This isn't a solicitation for designs, but I'd love to hear suggestions.

[whitedawg22]

Illinois desperately needs a brand overhaul. One illustrative example: their "Circle I" logo, used as the primary for the basketball team, uses a wide serif font, while the New York Giants ripoff "ILLINOIS" used as the primary for the football team uses a skinnier, sans serif font. What a complete mess.

This is not the reason it's a mess. This is a thing we like to call 'contrast,' and it's a perfectly legit design principle. The reason Illinois' identity is a mess is because their strongest mark as far as equity goes (now that the chief is out) is bad. The block Illinois is just not very compelling in any way. It's a standard block type, and it's not even a good one. They need to start building around the circle I.

I would disagree. It's not "contrast," because the marks never appear next to each other. I believe that the Circle I never appears on the football uniform, and the ILLINOIS never appears on the basketball uniform. Thus, the viewer never gets to see the logos contrast with each other. Plus, the "Illinois" on the front of the basketball uniform is a completely different font than the script on the football helmet (and both fonts are different than the Circle I font) - why not at least use one consistent script? The football and basketball team just look like they're from completely different schools that happen to share a color scheme.

[deliver2david]

I would disagree. It's not "contrast," because the marks never appear next to each other. I believe that the Circle I never appears on the football uniform, and the ILLINOIS never appears on the basketball uniform. Thus, the viewer never gets to see the logos contrast with each other. Plus, the "Illinois" on the front of the basketball uniform is a completely different font than the script on the football helmet (and both fonts are different than the Circle I font) - why not at least use one consistent script? The football and basketball team just look like they're from completely different schools that happen to share a color scheme.

The circle I is on the football uniforms.

[deliver2david]

The difference is that in the Indiana logo the I is prominant because they're IU. In the Illinois logo the U is prominant because they're the U of I. The U is higher than the I in the logo.

I'm not disagreeing with you there, but Indiana owns the interlocking "I" and "U" in college sports.

[TheOldRoman]

whitedawg-

The circle-I does appear on each set of football pants, but other than that you are correct. Illinois has their work cut out for them because the identity is all over the place and there isn't a single good logo (well, there was a great one, but let's not go there again). The football helemts aren't good, but I can't imagine how anything outside of the Chief logo (which they never wore on the helmets) would look good. Script doesn't really look good on helmets and the letter "I" fills out a helmet terribly. Maybe they can come up with a logo which is more square or rounded, as to better fit a football helmet. Oh, and the circle-I is as bad a logo as I can imagine.

[TheOldRoman]

Let me add that whatever Illinois does, they need to go with somewhat traditional football uniforms. They needn't be as simple as the throwbacks they wore in 2008, but I don't want any garish pro combat crap with truncated wrap-around leg stripes and the basketball font. Illinois has always worn an orange helmet as far as I know. They need to keep and orange helmet (and no other helmets) and they should also wear orange pants. In my mind, the perfect set (and one of the best in NCAA history) is the late '90s set, provided they come up with a decent helmet logo). However, I doubt that one will be seen again. Also, the basketball team can wear orange (though I prefer how they did it before 2005, where it was only allowed for "big" games). However, the football teams should always wear navy. The orange on the helmets and pants is more than enough.

[whitedawg22]

whitedawg-

The circle-I does appear on each set of football pants, but other than that you are correct. Illinois has their work cut out for them because the identity is all over the place and there isn't a single good logo (well, there was a great one, but let's not go there again). The football helemts aren't good, but I can't imagine how anything outside of the Chief logo (which they never wore on the helmets) would look good. Script doesn't really look good on helmets and the letter "I" fills out a helmet terribly. Maybe they can come up with a logo which is more square or rounded, as to better fit a football helmet. Oh, and the circle-I is as bad a logo as I can imagine.

Gotcha. Looks like it appears on the collar of the jersey, too, as deliver2david pointed out. I agree with your sentiment that Illinois no longer has a good logo, but many college programs get away with using nothing more complex than the Circle-I logo. If Illinois simply used that everywhere, it could develop into a pretty strong brand, since a standalone "I" isn't really used by any prominent teams (Iowa State and Idaho probably come closest).

Regardless of what they do, they should definitely change their helmets. They're quite dated and generic, and white text on an orange background looks like crap.

[illini1]

Some notes...

That's not a new logo, it's as Pat said, a poorly done fake of the Nike logo. That's the primary (sort of... I'll get to that) enclosed in a circle. Likely done by someone in the Basketball offices without consulting the graphics department OR Nike. The Nike gear, I"m pretty sure is just standard Nike gear that was then sent to a printer. The designs weren't produced by Nike.

As far as that actually being the primary. Well only sort of. The I-Illinois logo uses a thinner skinnier I rather than the thicker block I that used to be used. It's a bit odd to have two different anyways, but somewhere along the line the thick I was lost and even when the I was being used by itself, that skinnier I would appear. Well, at the very least, that is beginning to be rectified as we've found the old I and are implementing it as much as possible.

Now, as far as the overhaul. Yes, that's ideal. We'll see what can be done. I don't have the power to make it so, but I can present ideas. At the very least we're going to try to clean up the mess that was left for us. I have bigger goals, though, and I'm hopeful we can do something that's pretty compelling.

This isn't a solicitation for designs, but I'd love to hear suggestions.

STL FANATIC, I knew you had some type of affiliation with the U of I, but I didn't realize you worked for the Athletic Department. Very cool!

There's no chance of Nike doing a complete overhaul of the Athletic Department's identity like they did with Michigan State?

[Billy B]

I'm torn when it comes to our visual identity. An overhaul would be ideal, but I've never been able to think of anything that's better than the circle-I. It's really hard when you can't use any imagery based on your nickname. It's even worse when the letter you're working with is "I". At least for football, a long vertical shape translates worst to a helmet. That's why I think they've stuck with ILLINOIS for so long, it just looks better than an I. I think something that might look a little better is an updated version of the 70-80s script that was arched around the helmet. As far as the uniforms go, I'm not even really sure where I stand there. I definitely don't want them to be as simple as the 50s throwbacks and I don't want them to all combination happy which is all the craze right now either. But I actually like the uniforms they wear now. I think it looks good and they've also been the only team to wear this template as far as I know. The 90s uniforms might be the best they've had, but they seem pretty dated to me (not that the current ones won't in 10 years either).

For basketball, I have a much better concept of what I'd like the team to look like. The number font looks pretty good on a basketball jersey. That's one thing that I wouldn't like to see cross over to football because I don't think that would look good at all on a football jersey, especially someone as big as a lineman. I wish Illinois would settle into one style of uniform and just have that cross over each time Nike has a new template. But since they're not Duke/UNC and they're one of Nike's top basketball teams, that's just not going to happen. My ideal set would be the 2005 uniforms with a few tweaks to it. The biggest being the removal of black from the blue uniforms.

So I guess my main feeling about our identity is that it's not great, but I really have no idea how to make it better. Now I have to go pack because I need to be in Champaign tomorrow morning and haven't started yet.

[STL FANATIC]

Some notes...

That's not a new logo, it's as Pat said, a poorly done fake of the Nike logo. That's the primary (sort of... I'll get to that) enclosed in a circle. Likely done by someone in the Basketball offices without consulting the graphics department OR Nike. The Nike gear, I"m pretty sure is just standard Nike gear that was then sent to a printer. The designs weren't produced by Nike.

As far as that actually being the primary. Well only sort of. The I-Illinois logo uses a thinner skinnier I rather than the thicker block I that used to be used. It's a bit odd to have two different anyways, but somewhere along the line the thick I was lost and even when the I was being used by itself, that skinnier I would appear. Well, at the very least, that is beginning to be rectified as we've found the old I and are implementing it as much as possible.

Now, as far as the overhaul. Yes, that's ideal. We'll see what can be done. I don't have the power to make it so, but I can present ideas. At the very least we're going to try to clean up the mess that was left for us. I have bigger goals, though, and I'm hopeful we can do something that's pretty compelling.

This isn't a solicitation for designs, but I'd love to hear suggestions.

STL FANATIC, I knew you had some type of affiliation with the U of I, but I didn't realize you worked for the Athletic Department. Very cool!

There's no chance of Nike doing a complete overhaul of the Athletic Department's identity like they did with Michigan State?

Never say never, but I don't think that's on anybody's radar right now. Under the previous regime, it certainly wasn't going to happen. I'm not sure if it was a lack of understanding as to what constitutes a good brand or a lack of caring about one--I'd suggest it was probably a combination of a little of each--but it wasn't the easiest environment to make changes to this type of thing with. And I don't mean to speak bad of the previous regime--I rather liked RG--but there were some differences in priorities.

Under a new AD, anything could happen. Nike could get involved. Selfishly, I'd like to present something on my end, and then work with Nike on implementing it best. In any case, there's options, and the hope is that the new AD will see an importance to this sort of thing and be willing to trust us to help guide that process. Unless the new AD comes in with a heavy hand and does exactly what he wants, I can guarantee things will improve at least a bit. If he does have a heavy hand, I might not be happy, but if he does it right, things might still turn out well.

But since the AD is a complete unknown, so is this process right now.

All I know for sure is that in our office, it's a priority to rectify the current situation. It's just not clear how that's going to happen yet.

[andrewharrington]

Illinois desperately needs a brand overhaul. One illustrative example: their "Circle I" logo, used as the primary for the basketball team, uses a wide serif font, while the New York Giants ripoff "ILLINOIS" used as the primary for the football team uses a skinnier, sans serif font. What a complete mess.

This is not the reason it's a mess. This is a thing we like to call 'contrast,' and it's a perfectly legit design principle. The reason Illinois' identity is a mess is because their strongest mark as far as equity goes (now that the chief is out) is bad. The block Illinois is just not very compelling in any way. It's a standard block type, and it's not even a good one. They need to start building around the circle I.

I would disagree. It's not "contrast," because the marks never appear next to each other. I believe that the Circle I never appears on the football uniform, and the ILLINOIS never appears on the basketball uniform. Thus, the viewer never gets to see the logos contrast with each other. Plus, the "Illinois" on the front of the basketball uniform is a completely different font than the script on the football helmet (and both fonts are different than the Circle I font) - why not at least use one consistent script? The football and basketball team just look like they're from completely different schools that happen to share a color scheme.

1. The Circle I does appear on the football uniforms.

2. The basketball lettering is the same lettering that's used in the ILLINOIS logo, it's just set on the arch instead of italicised and underlined.