Allegheny College
Art Director
Acting as the brand architect, the core brand was developed over the course of a year.
Art Director
Acting as the brand architect, the core brand was developed over the course of a year.
It began with countless hours of research. Receiving input from the campus community, coaches, and alumni to gauge what resonated with them along with what tied them to the brand and college. Great attention was also paid to the physiology and movements of alligators. As the new brand evolved, initial concepts were explored and refined to the final elements in cooperation with the athletics department.
Representing the new brand are the gator mascot and Action A primary marks. In addition, there are thirteen individual team marks in gold and navy. The new brand builds on the established color palette of the college with navy and gold, but introduces a bolder green as an accent color. This added new excitement to the brand and created more options for uniform accents and combinations as well.
The previous gator mascot had been in use for around 15 years and it was felt it needed to be modern, more aggressive, and no longer "cartoonish." The inspiration was a gator turning to lunge at prey while breaking the surface of the water.
Previously the Action A was a traditional college block A. The athletics department felt it needed more character to definitively separate the new mark from the countless other schools utilizing block letters and to show "gators" in some way. The inspiration was the end of a gator's tail before it completely slips into the water.
Leading up to the brand launch there were teaser posters placed around campus and social media posts. The brand launch was held on campus at the campus center and was covered by regional newspapers and television stations.
After the core brand had been established it was expanded a couple years later to include one color mascot logos utilizing the gator green as well.
