Ryan Snarr
Creative Lead
March Logo Tournament Madness
There is nothing like a national basketball tournament to usher in some spring weather. I’ve been at Targa for less than a year so I had yet to witness any March Madness bracketology with the team. Turns out a number of folks here weren’t familiar with the NCAA basketball tournament, much less a tournament bracket. There is no time like the present to learn. Given the college basketball interest here, it’s safe to say we didn’t watch many of the games; however, this was the perfect opportunity to familiarize the group with the 64 teams in this year’s contest. Rather than guess a winner based on their season ranking, we selected a champion based on the best school logo from a design standpoint.
We used a round bracket to display our results since this allowed us to better see strength trends at-a-glance in winning design. Obviously the winners in this contest would be selected in a very subjective manner, but we did encourage the team to consider the following metrics:
- Logo timelessness
- Logo toughness
- Use of color
- Logo creativity
- Effective logo design
Justin’s bracket (Best logo)
Vanna’s bracket (Best logo)
Ryan’s bracket (Worst logo)
Evan’s bracket (Worst Logo)
Our collective familiarity with Gonzaga or TCU’s Horned Frogs is very low, but our experience with design puts us in a unique position to judge these school logos. We made brackets to determine this year’s best logo designs in the tournament. As we reviewed everyone’s final four, there were a pair of most frequently included logos (though not always selected as the overall winner).
1. Florida Gators – This logo has been around since 1995, and the football team pushed the mark into the brightest of spotlights by winning the national championship the following year. Colors were changed in 2013 to be much more saturated to what we see presently. It features a memorable, fierce character (who’s not afraid of alligators?), that embodies the tough and competitive attitude of a college mascot; breaking the boundary of the oval that frames the head. With jagged teeth and angry eyes, this version of Albert the alligator ditches previous iterations of the character that appeared full body with a school sweater and matching cap.
The logo incorporates 3 bold colors (plus white) that are unique and well define the identity of the school. The one oddity seen here is the curiously thin white stroke that appears around the gator head. While it clearly helps define the shape of the character, it does seem a little clumsy and a production hurdle in replicating the mark in different mediums.
2. Creighton Bluejays – This current design of the Creighton Bluejays logo was unveiled in 2013. It was celebrated by many to be the most impressive logo update of the year. The Toronto Bluejays franchise felt differently. They asked the University to change their logo because it was too similar to their already existing logo. It appears Creighton successfully held their ground.
The logo strikes a nice balance of historical and futuristic looks and is framed nicely within the stylized ‘C’ behind it. Composed of 3 different shades of blue and two different shades of gray, the logo shows up in a way that adds depth and energy. I’m not entirely sure when birds started to become sports mascots, but this little bird shows up well with a look of determination to get that first worm.
Several other teams tied for the third favorite position which just goes to show that we have a diverse group of opinions around here. Those of us sharing our worst logo brackets tended to agree the following schools could improve their logo: South Carolina, TCU, Vermont and Yale.
3. The big news on the court from this year’s contest is the back-to-back champion UConn. Their logo, a sturdy, stand-alone head of a determined husky, has a lot going for it. It is bold, recognizable, symmetrical, and depicts strength versus anger or malice. The details scale up or down exceptionally well and it appears to be very accommodating for reproduction in all sorts of mediums from digital to debossing.
‘Jonathan the Husky’ (named after Jonathan Trumbull, the last colonial and first state Governor of Connecticut) has gone through several iterations over the years and has been in a pretty good place for the last 10 years. The 1959-1960 version is somewhat a mystery and has been the topic of humorous online memes. The emotion and creature is somewhat ambiguous in this early mark. The standard and use of mascot and school logos back then was obviously very different.
One school that isn’t playing in the tournament caught our attention amidst our logo discussion: The UC Santa Clara Banana Slugs. Despite having a curiously slimy, weak, yet fastidious mascot, this school touts having strengths in areas of innovation, social justice, sustainability and an enrollment of over 19,000 students. While the quirky mascot is positively unique, the school’s recent brand update puts this logo on par with many others across the country. Way to go Slugs!
All in all, it was a good time discussing these design aspects of a sports tournament that have to do with the work we do each day. This kind of design may not win basketball games (none of our favorite logos advanced far into the tournament), but it all plays a part in painting the overall picture of the madness that is March!
Jason’s Take
What are the chances that my wife Heather and I would end up with the exact same Final 4 logo picks! I confess, filling in this bracket was no easier than an actual March Madness bracket. I’m sure I was my own worst enemy, deliberating all the nuances that get baked into a single team logo. Somehow I felt like I guessed a winning bracket when I matched my final for up to Heather’s. It might seem like destiny, but we’re both quite unique from each other in design styles and creative backgrounds. Let’s just say our match-up was a very fun surprise!
