The University of South Florida has a hockey team — it's true. They're actually quite good. This coming season they're celebrating their impressive 20th anniversary. They want to introduce a unique, new look that will make them stand out. Naturally, they came to Icethetics.
Designers, this is your opportunity to help rebrand a real team — the USF Ice Bulls. The Ice Bulls play in the American Collegiate Hockey League's Division III and are a small, non-profit organization and as such cannot afford to pay a big marketing firm for a new identity. It also means no monetary compensation for Icethetics designers. However, that doesn't mean there won't be swag for the winner. Read on.
The Project Guidelines: Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to create a new visual identity for the USF Ice Bulls. You may NOT use elements from the official university logos, seen below. Your logos must be original and stick to the team color palette — green, gold, white and black.The new logo will appear on the team web site, T-shirts, hats and other items.
Creative Direction: The organization is looking for a distinctive, professional-grade logo to represent the team on and off the ice. The design will be part of a larger marketing effort to help the team stand out apart from the university. I posted the university's official athletics logos for inspiration, but they may not be part of your final designs.
The team would like a distinguished look, recognizable as a hockey team. This means no goofy characters or eccentric artwork. To aid in establishing the new identity, they are not opposed to using the team name as well as hockey paraphernalia such as sticks or pucks in the design.
Minimum Requirements: Submit an original primary logo using the predefined color palette, below. If text is included in the logo, Serpentine font must be used. (Similar Babylon 5 font available for free online.) The team name isn't a requirement but would be useful in terms of establishing the new identity.
You may also submit secondary marks but these are not required.
Color Palette: You may use black, white, green (PMS 343 or RGB 0,87,60) and gold (PMS 4515 or RGB 203,182,118). Black is the only optional color, the rest are required.
The Reward: Unlike our other competitions, these logos will not go up for a vote initially. Finalists will be displayed on the blog but the winner will be chosen by the Ice Bulls organization.
The designer of the winning logo will be given an official team jersey as well as a T-shirt featuring the logo. Scroll down for full prize list! Other items may be announced at a later date.Since the season is beginning soon, the new logo will not be featured on the uniforms this year, but could be in the future.
As if that weren't enough, think about how great a college hockey team identity would look in your portfolio!
Bonus: You might increase your odds at winning if you create a 20th Anniversary logo to match your primary mark. Same rules as above. Just saying.
Submissions/Legal: By submitting your artwork to icethetics@gmail.com, you are freely relinquishing rights of the design to the University of South Florida Ice Bulls hockey club for the purposes of marketing the team. The Ice Bulls organization will choose the winning logo and reserves to right to make alterations as needed. The creator of the winning logo will be compensated as previously stated.
So have fun with this project, guys. There isn't really a set timeline for this project but I would like to take some designs to the team within the next couple of weeks. As always, questions can be directed to me by email or in the comments.
Update on Friday · Aug 14 · 2009 | 8:23 AM PDT by
Chris
The USF Ice Bulls are now giving you an even better reason to help recreate their visual identity — a cash prize! I just got word from the team that they're going to offer $100 to the winning designer. As if that weren't enough, they're now confirming that the winning logo will be the crest on the home jersey THIS season!
So many great submissions have already come in, but the Ice Bulls are hoping to ramp up the efforts by sweetening the pot a little. So let's say your design wins, allow me to recap your reward:
- Official Ice Bulls home jersey featuring your primary logo as the crest
- Your 20th anniversary logo as a patch on the jerseys all season
- Ice Bulls hockey t-shirt featuring your logo
- $100 in cash
- Visibility of your work by more than 30,000 USF students and staff via a variety of on-campus marketing materials as well as the team's official web site
- ACHA Division III team visual identity in your portfolio
So if that doesn't make you want in, I don't know what will. Once the Ice Bulls have made a decision, I'll start posting the designs I've received on the Concepts page — liven that up a little bit.
By the way, if you've already submitted artwork you're still eligible for all of the aforementioned prizes. Good luck to all!
Update on Tuesday · Aug 18 · 2009 | 3:25 PM PDT by
Chris
The Ice Bulls have made a final decision on their new logo and the winning design will be unveiled on their web site tomorrow. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens.
Logo by Gary Cekus / winnerCompleting his trifecta, the winner of the third Icethetics logo design contest is Gary Cekus!
Logo by Ryan Muraro / runner-upIn addition, the Wild will award a runner-up prize to Ryan Muraro, whose logo designs may also be featured on a specialty jersey next season.