Big Ten Rebranding: What Do You Think?
Posted by Caroline Smith on December 13, 2010 04:30 PM
The Big Ten Conference, America's oldest and largest division 1 college athletics association, today revealed a new logo to be used for all sports beginning with the 2011-12 academic year.
As with many new logos these days, immediate reaction by fans and observers was mixed, garnering reactions such as #designfail on Twitter, "could have done better" (an ESPN blogger) and and "looks like it took 25 seconds to make" by sports TV network NESN.
The new logo, replacing the "i" in "Big" with a 1, was deemed necessary following the addition of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln as the conference’s 12th member school, making the previous design's hidden "11" numerically incorrect. There's already a Big 12 conference, so a name change was out of the question.
In addition to the new logo, the conference also unveiled names for its two football divisions and a list of names for 18 trophies to honor coaches, teams and student-athletes starting with the 2011 football season.
The new Big Ten logo was created by Michael Bierut and Michael Gericke of the international design firm Pentagram, whose recent sports related projects include graphic programs for the New York Jets, the US bid for the FIFA World Cup 2022, the Arizona Cardinals, and Princeton University.
“The new Big Ten logo was developed to symbolize the conference’s future, as well as its rich heritage, strong tradition of competition, academic leadership, and passionate alumni,” said Gericke. “Its contemporary collegiate lettering includes an embedded numeral ‘10’ in the word ‘BIG,’ which allows fans to see ‘BIG’ and ‘10’ in a single word.”
One of the highlighted features, according to the press release, is the flexibility of multiple versions which can be used horizontally, vertically and within new media.
“The new Big Ten logo provides a contemporary identifying mark unifying 12 outstanding institutions,” said Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany. “It conveys some elements from the past while simultaneously introducing new features. We think the new logo is fun and has something for everyone.”
The conference also announced that its football divisions, starting with the 2011 season, will be “Legends” (Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern) and “Leaders” (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin).
Delaney was rather vague on the categorizing criteria. What do you think of the rebranding? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
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