Cy logo

[alarson]

Thats exactly what i was thinking of. I like that one.

[HFCS]

This is what you are talking about. It is fantastic...it draws from a logo we have had for nearly 20 years, and matures it into a professional mark by eliminating the horrible font and navy blue color scheme.

What the AD/marketing department has done, cloak and dagger, with this new iteration (if you can even call it that) is just sickening. I have a hard time believing that we paid money for it to be done, and that someone was paid to produce that. It looks like a horrible version of Bucky the Badger, and the oval atrocities look like Mizzou's logo.

Words can not even describe how upset I am over this. You can't just go changing a mark every 3-4 years. Do we really want to represent our mascot in the most un-unique way possible? In my opinion this has set us back, immediately upon release, a good 10 years.

I've done some brand updates and brand identity management in my career, and I have to say you make great points. Don't know if you have a background in it but you are spot in with this case in my opinion.

The secondary mascot mark you posted was an "update" rather than a new mark, but it achieves so much in keeping what was good and getting rid of dated elements. It retains so much identity while still working well with our new primary mark. When the I-State logo was unveiled the first thing I said was "people are still going to want lots of images of Cy for countless reasons". I figured the mark above was the simple but effective solution for that. Guess not.

As a graphic illustrator myself, I think the new tough looking walking Cy is pretty good on its own if we're ignoring any positive reference to past history. The other mascot head marks are cliche, not because they look like Louisville, just because of the swooping oval enclosures... I sense they are meant to give a feeling of a tornado/cyclone but they look 90% like a 90s design cliche and 10% like a hurricane.

[Jarrods79]

Remember this thing that came out as a secondary mark? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Ohio State came out with something like that (reference below)...it seemed like a cartooning trend that was geared/derived with the purpose to market to children. In that sense it could stand on its own as a supplement. I'm ok with that, but you don't see these schools making that one of the primary marks.



The "new" logo could serve the same, but it can never (and should never) replace the last updated mark.

Looks like:

and...

Looks like:

and...

now we look like fools for paying money for someone to design such a heavy handed and clunky iteration.

[JHudd]

This is what you are talking about. It is fantastic...it draws from a logo we have had for nearly 20 years, and matures it into a professional mark by eliminating the horrible font and navy blue color scheme.

What the AD/marketing department has done, cloak and dagger, with this new iteration (if you can even call it that) is just sickening. I have a hard time believing that we paid money for it to be done, and that someone was paid to produce that. It looks like a horrible version of Bucky the Badger, and the oval atrocities look like Mizzou's logo.

Words can not even describe how upset I am over this. You can't just go changing a mark every 3-4 years. Do we really want to represent our mascot in the most un-unique way possible? In my opinion this has set us back, immediately upon release, a good 10 years.

Isn't the new logo with just the head, the head from this logo with a circle thing around it? Almost a way to make the head be more of the focus and show up larger depending what they put it on? I think I would dislike this more if I didn't see everyone so up in arms with the last change from the blue and the old bird in a blender. I like simple marks and I agree that the logo above is a good example of one but I am not going to get upset based upon the new ones. With as many teams as there are in the country there is bound to be some aspect of any logo, color, or song that can be related to some other team in some way....unless you were the first to do something back in the early or mid 20th century.

[Jarrods79]

I've done some brand updates and brand identity management in my career, and I have to say you make great points. Don't know if you have a background in it but you are spot in with this case in my opinion.

The secondary mascot mark you posted was an "update" rather than a new mark, but it achieves so much in keeping what was good and getting rid of dated elements. It retains so much identity while still working well with our new primary mark. When the I-State logo was unveiled the first thing I said was "people are still going to want lots of images of Cy for countless reasons". I figured the mark above was the simple but effective solution for that. Guess not.

As a graphic illustrator myself, I think the new tough looking walking Cy is pretty good on its own if we're ignoring any positive reference to past history. The other mascot head marks are cliche, not because they look like Louisville, just because of the swooping oval enclosures... I sense they are meant to give a feeling of a tornado/cyclone but they look 90% like a 90s design cliche and 10% like a hurricane.

Yep, agree with everything you have added. My background is in architecture...a design field nonetheless.

The beauty of what we did to update our marks 4 years ago was in the separation of the "I-State" and "Cy". This gave many more options to keep our mark history and to brand in any way we needed to. For instance, if they really wanted an oval logo, they could have altered our existing logo a bit (like I've seen it done before).

[Palmer]

I an see some beef with the new 'walking Cy' vs the the latest cardinal/gold whirly.


I am still relieved we got rid of the blue/white whirly on the helmets as the primary mark.

Someone should have never been paid for those designs.

[cyclones500]

That "new Cy" is hideous.

The goal seemed to be to mix the Blender Cy graphic with the Walking Cy.

Didn't work.

Do this:
1. Keep I-State, now that it's here. Let it grow. Some people like it (I like it, although it isn't perfect) —most people who hate will come around eventually once it isn't "new" anymore.
2. As for mascot branding, to link "now" with "tradition," replace the Old "I" on the classic Walking Cy with the I-State (but probably make it gold).
3. Continue the shirts with "IOWA" and "STATE" (top and bottom) and maybe use the Cy-nado logo, without any lettering or navy blue, sparingly.
4. Don't do anything else at all for at least five years. That includes (1) mascot changes; (2) helmet logos; (3) changes in hues of the school colors (4) overall helmet concept; (5) other.

A lot of schools adjust logos, uniforms and merchandise, but Iowa State takes it to ridiculous extremes. It's bad enough that there's a makeover ever five years, but there's also an insistence at trying to hang on to aspects of previous eras, too.

[KneeGusto]

The logo and mascot topics gather a lot of differing opinions.

The typical reactions of a marketing firm to too many opinions is to do an afternoon's work in which they simply mimic someone else and shove it down your throat as a "best alternative". They collect their half million $ and go on to the next sucker.

Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on designs the majority of donors do not like and have to be forced to purchase, why don't we tap our own resources - the students, faculty and alumnus to come up with better ideas?

But instead of establishing our own traditions, we will continue to be the I(llinois?)-State Louisville Cardinal Cyclones.

We had our own distinct helmet design once. We had decades of the Walking Cy. We've thrown them away to look like Louisville and Southern Miss. If we want to be a BCS school, and behave like a BCS school, maybe we should ignore the BS from marketing people and start behaving like we can establish our own traditions.





Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming.

[cyclones500]

The logo and mascot topics gather a lot of differing opinions.

The typical reactions of a marketing firm to too many opinions is to do an afternoon's work in which they simply mimic someone else and shove it down your throat as a "best alternative". They collect their half million $ and go on to the next sucker.

Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on designs the majority of donors do not like and have to be forced to purchase, why don't we tap our own resources - the students, faculty and alumnus to come up with better ideas?

But instead of establishing our own traditions, we will continue to be the I(llinois?)-State Louisville Cardinal Cyclones.

We had our own distinct helmet design once. We had decades of the Walking Cy. We've thrown them away to look like Louisville and Southern Miss. If we want to be a BCS school, and behave like a BCS school, maybe we should ignore the BS from marketing people and start behaving like we can establish our own traditions.





Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming.

Your idea is so crazy, it just might work.

[cyrocksmypants]

I'm just kind of mad because I was going to get a tattoo of the new punching whirly bird. Probably still will, but it's a bit discouraging that it's not one of our marks anymore.

I just really hate that they've essentially eliminated ANYTHING that refers to a Cyclone. It almost makes me wonder if JP is trying to even get rid of that name.

Oh well. Let's go I-State Mean-Looking Redbirds!

[cycloneML]

I'm just kind of mad because I was going to get a tattoo of the new punching whirly bird. Probably still will, but it's a bit discouraging that it's not one of our marks anymore.

I just really hate that they've essentially eliminated ANYTHING that refers to a Cyclone. It almost makes me wonder if JP is trying to even get rid of that name.

Oh well. Let's go I-State Mean-Looking Redbirds!

jp hates cy and has tried to do him in for years. sooner or later, we will have some goofy big I walking around at games.

[everyyard]

Red Storm, Crimson Tide, Hurricanes, Cyclones, etc...You don't need to necessarily have a literal image of your namesake as your logo. Thank God tazmanian Cy is done as I have been done explaining it to people for years, I just tell them I agree it is a stupid cartoon and shouldn't exist. The only people that understand what it is supposed to represent our Iowa State fans already. If they want to discuss why a cardinal, I say why a thunderbird, elephant, crane, etc. But man, explaining why he was whirling was frustrating. And the I-STATE logo isn't going anywhere. It is here to stay. I am okay with the new Cy logo but think it should be rarely used and just use I-STATE. Anytime they want to go back to the old tornado without the Iowa State above it I am fine with but it won't happen. And anyone that thinks there have been a lot of Cy logos should count Herkys, and now they rarely use herky just the tiger hawk. I can think of 4 just off the top of my head. That compares pretty favorably to our 5 (as long as you count running cy with and without shoes as basically the same and Taz Cy with and without blue and holding words as the same)...running Cy, dressed up cy, leaning cy, taz cy, new cy. I don't really count that Cy they've used for Cy's locker room/kids clothes recently as I rarely have seen it in use.

[cyrocksmypants]

I'm sorry, but I've never had to explain the tornado part of the logo to people when I tell them we're the Cyclones. That was the easiest part to understand. If you've got to explain that to people, you're hanging out with idiots.

[ISUAlum2002]

Please stop messing with the logos. Its getting really annoying having all of my gear get outdated after 3 years, not to mention all the crap we take about how we can't settle on an identity. We need some consistency.

These new logos don't necessarily look bad, but its the fact that we keep changing it all the time. I've been trying to think of another school that has changed their identity as much as we have recently but I'm not coming up with one.

[AdRock4Cy]

This is what you are talking about. It is fantastic...it draws from a logo we have had for nearly 20 years, and matures it into a professional mark by eliminating the horrible font and navy blue color scheme.

What the AD/marketing department has done, cloak and dagger, with this new iteration (if you can even call it that) is just sickening. I have a hard time believing that we paid money for it to be done, and that someone was paid to produce that. It looks like a horrible version of Bucky the Badger, and the oval atrocities look like Mizzou's logo.

Words can not even describe how upset I am over this. You can't just go changing a mark every 3-4 years. Do we really want to represent our mascot in the most un-unique way possible? In my opinion this has set us back, immediately upon release, a good 10 years.

This logo needs to go on new gold helmets. I don't like the current helmet design because the red on red is very hard to see.