WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

Started by wheatonc, March 03, 2005, 06:18:19 PM

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RogK

North Park also has a new logo :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/
Is that a Nordic sword?
Will the basketball floor be repainted?
Any other questions?

lmitzel

Quote from: RogK on May 02, 2017, 01:02:30 PM
North Park also has a new logo :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/
Is that a Nordic sword?
Will the basketball floor be repainted?
Any other questions?

That's pretty cool. I kind of liked the Viking boat from before, but this is neat. I like the four start thing on the top of the shield; gotta get those Chicago ties in!
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Gregory Sager

Quote from: RogK on May 02, 2017, 01:02:30 PM
North Park also has a new logo :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/
Is that a Nordic sword?
Will the basketball floor be repainted?
Any other questions?

Don't get me started, Rog. Every time that I see that new logo, I have to say the serenity prayer.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)

Quote from: Gregory Sager on May 02, 2017, 06:54:08 PM
Quote from: RogK on May 02, 2017, 01:02:30 PM
North Park also has a new logo :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/
Is that a Nordic sword?
Will the basketball floor be repainted?
Any other questions?

Don't get me started, Rog. Every time that I see that new logo, I have to say the serenity prayer.

It does kind of induce gagging, doesn't it.  I can't even describe why.  Objectively it seems innocuous, but there's something visceral about it's unappealingness.
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gordonmann

Reminds me of the Tennessee Titans' secondary logo.


Pat Coleman

Man, the secondary has its own logo? Those marketing departments have nothing better to do?
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Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Gregory Sager

"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

#5812
Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on May 03, 2017, 07:32:28 AM
Quote from: Gregory Sager on May 02, 2017, 06:54:08 PM
Quote from: RogK on May 02, 2017, 01:02:30 PM
North Park also has a new logo :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/
Is that a Nordic sword?
Will the basketball floor be repainted?
Any other questions?

Don't get me started, Rog. Every time that I see that new logo, I have to say the serenity prayer.

It does kind of induce gagging, doesn't it.  I can't even describe why.  Objectively it seems innocuous, but there's something visceral about it's unappealingness.

It was designed to be a companion piece to NPU's new institutional logo. The gold pommel of the sword is supposed to be a crossover to the gold tip at the bottom of the school's new logo.

Let's put aside for a moment the fact that the designers used the wrong shade of blue. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to design something that's important and which functions as a stand-alone as though it was an adjunct to some other design that's being created at the same time. I salute the idea that a school and its athletics should have some sort of visual linkage -- for instance, Augustana's school and athletics logos are a great fit for each other -- but it seems to me that the North Park athletics department got short shrift in terms of the creative aspect of this two-logos-for-the-price-of-one approach.

My biggest objection is the fact that they're doing away with the longship logo. Think for a moment about how many schools, from middle schools on up, have "Vikings" for their nickname. Just within the D3 ranks you have North Park, Augustana, Lawrence, Berry, Salem State, and Bethany Lutheran, plus you have two other Scandinavian-American schools that have related nicknames, the Luther Norse and the St. Olaf Oles. Almost always, the logo and/or mascot involves some guy in animal skins holding a sword and wearing a horned helmet. (The hornet helmet is an historical inaccuracy, but that's a tale for another day. Augustana, to its great credit, dispensed with the horns when it redesigned its athletics logo a few years ago.) It's as predictable as sunrise, and it's pedestrian and boring. It makes "Vikings" seem just as dull and unimaginative as "Bulldogs", "Wildcats", "Tigers", "Eagles", and all of the other overused animal nicknames and mascots. Half the time, teams called the Vikings simply rip off the mustached-blond-guy-in-profile-with-horned-helmet logo of the Minnesota Vikings.

But the longship logo? It was a stroke of genius (no pun intended). Name another team called the Vikings that uses the longship as its logo. A longship is just as immediately recognizable as a guy in a horned helmet; it's one of the most readily identifiable vessels in the world. Everybody who sees one immediately thinks "Vikings". But nobody other than North Park used it as their Vikings logo. It made NPU distinctive. It made NPU look cool. And it made NPU seem like a creative place where being different from the crowd was a good thing. Plus, it lent itself to a terrific athletics department motto: "Row the ship". NPU coaches have been using #rowtheship on all of their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and it's become a phrase that more and more people associate with North Park. It's a great motto -- work hard and work together as a unit, and we'll go places. The logo and the motto also fit nicely with the fact that North Park has rowing as one of its varsity sports.

But now some short-sighted administrator in marketing has dispensed with the longship and foisted this new grafted-onto-the-school's-new-design monstrosity of a logo upon the athletics department. Supposedly the motto and hashtag will stay, but what sense does "row the ship" make when the logo is no longer a ship?

Change just for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing. In my opinion, NPU really shot itself in the foot with this athletics logo change. But, then again, nobody asked me for my opinion. I'm just the broadcaster. ;)
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

joehakes

My favorite memory of the North Park logo was when the Athletic Department letterhead had a Viking (with horned helmet, Greg) standing with his sword at his side.  The logo was in the upper left hand corner of the page.  Mike Coglianese was the quarterback on the football team at the time and was working the "security" desk in the lower bowels of the gym.  He had been assigned to write (NPU Hall of Fame) Coach Bill Anderson's signature at the bottom of a recruiting letter.  I walked by and asked him if he noticed anything odd with the letter.  He said that he didn't.  I pointed to the fact that Mr. Viking was standing on his head in the lower right hand corner which suggested that the letterhead had been put in the copier upside down.  He asked if I thought that mattered.  Given the state of the football program at the time, that was not an easy question to answer.  He had signed somewhere between 300-400 letters at that point.  They did not get sent out.

Gregory Sager

That is a great story, Joe!

That old standing-Viking logo remains Dennis Prikkel's favorite. I once described it as looking like it had been created by someone who had taken one of those "Learn To Draw" correspondence courses that used to be advertised in TV Guide and Reader's Digest. I think that the fact that I didn't like that logo made Dennis like it even more. ;)
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

AndOne

Greg,

You mean you weren't included on the committee to come up with a new logo? With you being an alum and do heavily involved/invested in the athletic program, I would have thought it would be a slam dunk. Perhaps you need to add another 0 on the amount line on your annual contribution form. 😏

Seriously, as an opposing fan when I see the longboat logo, I immediately think of the Vikings. I mean what other choice is there? It can't be anything else. It's distinctive. Plus, it just a very cool looking logo, especially as compared to a non-descript sword.

Whoever came up with the new logo should just fall on their sword and get back in the boat!

Gregory Sager

I don't think that there was a committee involved. I think that the logo re-branding idea came out of the top echelon of the administration (the president's cabinet), and the responsibility for its implementation belonged to the marketing department, which undoubtedly farmed it out to a design firm.

But it's nice to hear that even opposing fans considered North Park's longship logo to be cool and distinctive.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

AndOne

Unless the other conference schools that have them order new ones, perhaps the longship logo will live on in the form of the banners that hang in some of the conference gyms. NCC just ordered a new set of conference logo banners a couple years ago. In fact, they may have ordered two sets with the second hanging in the Res/Rec Center. Will be interesting to see if other teams spend the money to get new NPU sword banners or just decide they can live with the now departed longship insignia.

badgerwarhawk

I agree with you Greg.  The long ship logo rocks.  It's so unique that it's instantaneously identifiable. 
"Just think twice is my only advice."

Gregory Sager

Three more additions for NPU:


Alexis Davis  5'6  Oswego, IL (East)
Sophia Lehocky  5'9  Vernon Hills, IL (Vernon Hills)
Makenna Powell  5'9  Harvard, IL (Harvard) / McHenry CC

Makenna Powell is a rising junior. Sophia Lehocky's older sister Alina played for Illinois Wesleyan.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell