UNC Asheville Athletics goes back to the drawing board and replaces its old branding with new brand marks, refreshed logos, and an all-new bulldog icon.
“It’s a little more stapley, a little more elegant than the old one, a little less cartoony. It’s definitely simpler,” said Jamie Legg, graphic design artist and owner of JL Designs, “We were looking to create a bold, simplified, iconic set of brand marks for the UNC Asheville Athletics department. Something that they could be proud of, something that stood the test of time, and something that really allowed for standardization across all sports.”
Legg said he worked with the UNC Asheville Athletics department over a 10-month period to create the new designs. Their other goals included reducing small detail and the amount of colors to achieve easier printing and be more recognizable. He said that this is important for embroidery, websites, and online scoreboards.
“See how small those logos are? We wanted something that was recognizable at that size, that fit nicely into a square, that had bold, big lines and didn’t have a lot of fine detail. That was simplified down to three colors instead of the five that it was, and could be replicated at scale, both large and small,” Legg said.
Legg has also designed athletic logos and brand identities for Averett University and Emory & Henry University. He said his experience working as Dean of Admissions for Methodist University helped him get his foot in the door designing logos for schools, but also helped him understand the needs of schools.
“A lot of thought was put into how can we create this logo that reflects not only our university athletic department, but the region? And how can we tie it all in together since we are the only Division I program here in Asheville? How can we create something that shows that we are connected with the community and shows that we want to be a proud representation of the community?” said Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing and Communication Kassi Butcher.
Butcher and Legg said the design process of the new logos involved the creation of a committee, which included Athletic Director Janet Cone, Assistant Athletic Director for Digital and Creative Branding Dani Nicosia, coaches, administrators, the marketing department, alumni and a current student athlete.
“We kind of came up with the idea that those, swooshes in the ‘A’, represent the Swannanoa and French Broad rivers,” said Legg.
“We wanted to create something that was moving along with the era of where we were at with athletics,” Butcher said. “That’s why we have created ‘A’ that has the whoosh with it that has the rivers representing the region. This logo rebrand was to help create a more unified and strong look for the athletic department, as well as connecting the university with the region and the area.”
New to the Athletics Department’s branding are standalone ‘A’ and ‘AVL’ brand marks. Butcher said the ‘AVL’ mark will now be used in place of the old ‘UNCA’ mark to provide a clearer identity of Asheville.
“‘AVL’ is something we’ve been wanting to use even more so that people are able to better identify us as Asheville, and that ‘A’ as a bit of a question mark,” the Asheville native said.
The Athletics department is also working on renovations to Kimmel Arena, which include a new basketball court floor with the updated branding.
“I hope that once we’re able to finalize all of it and it’s all up and fresh and everything, people are going to be excited to come out and support our basketball, teams, because this is going to be a really cool year with all the redesigns and all the upgrades that we’re getting to do,” Butcher said.
Many students and community members commenting on UNC Asheville’s Instagram post announcing the rebrand have been critical, saying it bears too close a resemblance to Garner Webb’s logo and is a poor use of money.
“I know that change can be tough for some people, and I know that, everyone’s not going to be happy, but end of the day, I think that the goal is that we hope that people understand that we want this to represent everyone and that we want it to be a positive impact,” Butcher said.
Beyond the online discussion, students on campus have things to say.
“I think it’s ugly. And I think it’s a copy of Garner Webb,” said UNC Asheville dance student Carly Winters. “I think our last one was really colorful and I think that the new logo is kind of going with the right-wing turn that our school is going into.”
Winters also said the new logo looks different from Rocky, the school’s mascot.
“Everything’s getting simpler and I don’t rock with that,” she said. “I like our current mascot. Our current mascot costume looks nothing like the new logo. It’s quite stupid.”
Another student, Bekah Cole from Waxhaw, NC gives her opinion.
“It’s different, but it’s a new vibe. I think it’s a little softer, but not in a bad way,” she said. “I miss being fierce. I don’t know that the style of it makes more sense to me, I guess. It feels like it flows better through the whole design,” Cole said.
Logo designer Jamie Legg said that he and the committee did a lot of research on college and university bulldogs, doing everything that they could to avoid anything that would infringe upon any other school’s intellectual property.
“I think it actually looks more fierce, even though it doesn’t have a mouth full of teeth coming at you, because I think it is less cartoonish,” he said.
Legg said he is also familiar with the criticism that the logo looks similar to Garner Webb’s.
I don’t think they look anything alike beyond both of them being bulldogs,” he said. “If you put the two of them side by side, other than both of them clearly being bulldogs, there’s not a lot of similarity there.”
“You want a brand that is yours, and that’s going to stand out. As a committee and me as a designer, I looked at every college and university that I could find, community colleges, high schools, every bulldog image and logo that I could find, to make sure that it was different,” Legg said.
In the future, Legg said he hopes to continue designing logos for schools and work with more Division I universities.
