THESIS STATEMENT
Universities often struggle with pushing cohesive content on social media, due to either a poorly made branding guideline or misuse of a branding guideline. Through this project I am asking, can you gain more fan engagement through creating a cohesive image with the content being pushed by a brand?
Printed branding guideline
BACKGROUND
I chose this project because I am pursuing a career in sports design and truly enjoy seeing cohesive content that is shared by athletic teams. The first stage of this project involved selecting a university that I felt needed rebranding. When deciding, I was mainly looking at content on social media. Trying to keep things somewhat local, I stumbled across Northwood University. After discovering that Northwood currently only has a couple logos and one typeface designated for their athletics branding, I knew Northwood was a great candidate.
Current Identity
AUDIENCE
With this project I am attempting to reach those that produce graphics at Northwood University. Often at smallers schools, there are a number of people producing graphics. From G.A.s to student workers to coaches that know how to make “cool stuff" in Word, universities can struggle when the people making things aren’t all on the same page.
Current social media posts
GOALS
I want the people creating visual elements to understand that they are part of a brand. Recognizing that with one identity in mind as a team, you create a cohesive image that reaches a greater audience, gains more supports, and in return bring in more money for your teams.
VISUAL SOURCES
When designing for Northwood athletics, the logo needed to match the university and the personality they have. Through exercises like mind mappings and image surveys, I was able to really dive into who Northwood University is. Athletics at Northwood pride themselves on Making A Difference, using the acronym Go M.A.D. throughout their programs. With the university being a strong business college, and priding themselves on “developing the future leaders” Northwood University Athletics has a sense of prestige while keeping a strong and confident feel throughout their teams.
Imagery of campus and athletics.
THE LOGO
In the beginning stages of my logo design I experimented with many different logo styles, profiles, and images. I referenced many different images of wolves and had to break down the elements of a wolf. I also looked at other logos to gain inspiration and ideas for elements and styles.
Initial sketches shown above
Reference images shown above
Logo inspiration shown above
FIRST DIRECTION
I reached a point where I needed choose a direction and begin refining. I really liked how aggressive the marks shown below were and I liked the intensity. I really worked these logos for a couple weeks but kept coming back to the same issues. When presenting my refinements to classmates and others, I was told the mark looked like a number of different animals. In fear of not being able to resolve this logo as much as I wanted, I decided to change directions.
NEW DIRECTION
I was attracted to this logo style and character as I felt it matched up with Northwoods sense of pride and fight. Through many refinements, this time I was able to reach a point that I felt was resolved enough to begin applying it to the university.
The Guideline Book
The branding guideline I created is a simple 8.5”x11” booklet that can easily be printed and stapled together if it has to be so that every single person creating visuals can have one sitting on their desk. Everyone should be held accountable to follow the rules and guidelines established in this book.
First I started off like many branding books, discussing what the university is about, and what the purpose of the book is. Many of the pages follow the same layout, showing the full color version on one side and acceptable color variations on the other. I have provided Northwood with a primary, secondary, tertiary, and a wordmark.
With the colors, I wanted a bright blue that would grab viewers attention. Paired with that to give some contrast I provided a darker blue. Then to wrap things up and to make it more versatile, I gave them a white, and dark grey. The hierarchy page shown is inform users that emphasis needs to be made on that on the light blue.
For a display type, I have Morganite Bold, a condensed typeface that works well in many applications and demands attention. Paired with is is Poppins Bold and Poppins Regular. I selected Poppins because it compliments Morganite well, but can stand on its own. Poppins regular can also work well as a body text when needed.
Wrapping things up in the back I have included some restrictions. Some really basic things that unfortunately have been done in the past and need to be addresses.
APPLICATION
This Guideline can be used in literally any application relating to Northwood Athletics. From jerseys, to social media campaigns, to team posters, and even facility design.
UNIFORMS
Here I wanted to show the wordmark in application on some uniforms along with the tertiary mark on the soccer jersey. In the future I would love to learn about the art of uniform design and take this project further.
FACILITY DESIGN
When thinking about designing the facilites at Northwood, I wanted there to be a common element across the board. With the football field and basketball court, the dark blue is used around the outside. This element is carried over into a social media campaign I have started creating.
SOCIAL CAMPAIGN
Tieing what a fan sees online, to what the experience at a game, the border is continued through to graphics that would be pushed on social medias. Again, with an emphasis on the light blue, if someone were to be scrolling though a social media like Twitter, that bright blue would grab their attention.
APPAREL
When establishing this guideline, it needed to be able to work on physical items as well, here are some hats showing logo variations, and some general fan gear and clothing.
CONCLUSION
Through this project I have gained a great amount of knowledge about logo design and branding. I have learned that logo design in hard, especially for animals. That being said though, I learned that you have to find what makes the character you chose different from the rest. With animals, there are many similarities, and I had to find out what made a wolf, a wolf. If I had more time, I would have loved to have show the guideline in more applications, but am overall happy with how it turned out. The tone of the logo matches Northwood well and the color scheme will help grab viewers attention. If implemented, I believe this guideline would help Northwood University create a cohesive brand, and they would in turn experience more engagement, and support from members of the community.
SOURCES
Online sources
4 Keys to Sports Branding. (2018, November 28). Retrieved from https://sportsmanagement.adelphi.edu/blog/4-keys-to-sports-branding
ArmaganVideos. (2015, March 06). Illustrator Tutorial: Team Logo Creation (E-Sports/Sports). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ghhdCeF74
Cox, J. (n.d.). Seattle Metros - NHL Franchise Branding and Design. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/gallery/62615423/Seattle-Metros-NHL-Franchise-Branding-and-Design
Creighton University Athletics BlueJay Logo Usage Guidelines. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gocreighton.com/documents/2015/10/21//Creighton_Guide_Logos_Website.pdf?id=7499
Brand Guide: Athletics Visual Identity Guidelines. (2018, June 07). Retrieved from https://www.marietta.edu/branding-athletics
Fussell, G. (2016, August 31). How to Design a New Brand Identity for Your Business. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-design-a-new-brand-identity-for-your-business--cms-27036
Paterson, W. (2017, November 23). How To Present A Professional Sports Logo Design. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWtKMTuEd18
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Utah State Athletics Branding Guideline. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.usu.edu/licensing/pdf/athletics_vip.pdf
Tuts, D. (2016, August 23). Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: Design E Sports/Sports Logo for Your
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Team - Fox Logo. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_udtbDid3zc
University of Nebraska Athletics Branding Guideline. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://licensing.unl.edu/downloads/201709-unl-athletics-brand-guide.pdf
Physical Sources
Aaker, D. A. (2002). Building strong brands. New York: Free.
Bridgewater, S. (2014). Football brands. Place of publication not identified: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lee, J. W., & Alessandri, S. W. (2018). Brand identity in sport. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Pite, S. (2003). The digital designer: 101 graphic design projects for print, the Web, multimedia & motion graphics. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.
Vaid, H. (2003). Branding. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill.
