band camp
- STL City
Love the blue. Classic and clean.
Illini Basketball Uniforms
Not sure why they would have different shades of orange and blue. Don't really like itReviving a dormant thread and off-topic, but the Illinois soccer team has slick new uniforms with the script Illinois prominently shown.
Illinois Soccer on Instagram: "New kits are š„ Catch them in action on Thursday at Demirjian at 7 PM! #Illini | #HTTO | #UP ā¬ļø"
803 likes, 6 comments - illinisoccer on August 13, 2024: "New kits are š„ Catch them in action on Thursday at Demirjian at 7 PM! #Illini | #HTTO | #UP ā¬ļø".www.instagram.com
Script Illinois and a shield sighting
LadyLoyalty
- Indian Wells, CA
Agree. Awful baby aspirin orange. Hope they are a one-off.
LadyLoyalty
- Indian Wells, CA
Great mockups. Maybe itās just that Iām old, but one thing that ruins all uniforms imo is the players wearing mismatching shoes. Not sure when it started but I hate that they often donāt wear school colors. Sometimes they downright clash (Imagine any of those above with pink or toothpaste green shoes, for example). Itās a team. Itās shouldnāt be about individuality while on the court.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
nopeReviving a dormant thread and off-topic, but the Illinois soccer team has slick new uniforms with the script Illinois prominently shown.
Illinois Soccer on Instagram: "New kits are š„ Catch them in action on Thursday at Demirjian at 7 PM! #Illini | #HTTO | #UP ā¬ļø"
803 likes, 6 comments - illinisoccer on August 13, 2024: "New kits are š„ Catch them in action on Thursday at Demirjian at 7 PM! #Illini | #HTTO | #UP ā¬ļø".
It kinda bothers me that they use two different but very similar script fonts across all the different sports.
The first (and better) version is the one that is used on our basketball jerseys. It matches (or at least more closely resemebles) the original 70s script jerseys.
The second version is used in a lot of the social media posts and is now also being used on the soccer jerseys.
How did that the athletics branding people not notice this? or if they did notice, how could they ignore these inconsistencies lol?
The first (and better) version is the one that is used on our basketball jerseys. It matches (or at least more closely resemebles) the original 70s script jerseys.
The second version is used in a lot of the social media posts and is now also being used on the soccer jerseys.
How did that the athletics branding people not notice this? or if they did notice, how could they ignore these inconsistencies lol?
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
^ This is a great catch for something so subtle! Yeah, I don't understand how that type of stuff is not monitored with OCD-level passion for people who do that for a living.
Only thing I can think of is the Illinois script used on socials and the soccer uniforms is our rebranded script, and for the basketball uniforms it was for that specific jersey as a āthrowbackā font rather than our modern scriptā¦.
The weird part of this is (from quickly looking at GameDay Spirit and Fantatics) lots our script merch is the basketball typeface - even the non-Nike stuff ... but then you get the non-basketball variant on a basketball specific shirt like this. I'm frantically looking for pics the football coaches zipups from last year that had script to see which one they used, but haven't found a pic yet.
I was thinking it was a Nike rebranding thing somehow but nothing makes sense.
EDIT: The NIL Store jerseys have the wrong font. WE'VE UNCOVERED A SCANDAL!!!!
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And to add onto this the non-basketball sports all use the non-basketball Illinois script variant on their jerseys, so it's starting to make more sense.The weird part of this is (from quickly looking at GameDay Spirit and Fantatics) lots our script merch is the basketball typeface - even the non-Nike stuff ... but then you get the non-basketball variant on a basketball specific shirt like this. I'm frantically looking for pics the football coaches zipups from last year that had script to see which one they used, but haven't found a pic yet.
I was thinking it was a Nike rebranding thing somehow but nothing makes sense.
EDIT: The NIL Store jerseys have the wrong font. WE'VE UNCOVERED A SCANDAL!!!!
So now we have 3 different script typefaces as part of our branding:
- Illinois script
- Illinois script - basketball jersey variant
- Illini script
I've actually never cared for the cursive I ..... looks too much like a lower case g or capital J to me...... Now that the subtle differences have been pointed out, I'm going to notice it forever, lol. Here is a font capital I that I think would look great with either of the 2 cursive llinois we use. It's distinctively different that the l's. And yes, I get that it is probably a totally different font..... but hey, I think it would work.
Lest we forget, the Illinois script - wrestling singlet variant thatās even more different than the ones above.
OMG.
The brand guys I know at my place of employment are militant about anything branding related - even for something as insignificant as an internal Powerpoint template. They've re-printed employee polo shirts because heather grey wasn't allowed in our brand guidelines. Can't believe UofI's branding dept aren't similarly hyper focused on consistency.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
JMO, but if there was any uniform that would be tailor made for the shield logo, it would be the wrestling singlets.
#TeamShieldIronically, last year's new home shield-heavy soccer kits were great. The orange aways and blue alts were hold overs from the previous kits, so it seems like they get one new set every year. The shield is perfect for soccer IMO.JMO, but if there was any uniform that would be tailor made for the shield logo, it would be the wrestling singlets.
Different people, different tastes.
My favorite is the orange w/white lettering. I do not like the cursive script, or diamand pattern on the shorts in the left most uniform. The font for Illinois seems a few sizes too large on the blues.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
The white soccer kits are FANTASTIC. As in some of the best all-white kits I've ever seen, and I'm not kidding about that. The shield is almost perfect as a crest, and those uniforms show how the shield could be a very good secondary branding mark if used correctly.
Even going back to when I was in school, these types of branding/marketing items were never really a major point of emphasis.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Regarding your last sentence, I feel like right before the most recent rebrand (1LL1NO1S and the Shield) was the depths of our total lack of brand consistency. You'd see totally different fonts, shades of orange/blue, etc. across sports. It reminded me of my high school, where the newer/more high-profile jerseys for football and basketball and green and actual gold and the "right" font, while minor sports like track were rocking a different green and straight-up yellow, lol.
While I hate our current font (it's not trendy OR traditional ... worst of both worlds), I don't mind the Shield at all, as an accent. Given the history of Memorial Stadium and the WWI aspect of "Fighting Illini" being one of the last remnants of any sort of tradition we have left, I am frankly shocked we have never come up with a unique "column-themed" Block I logo to use. You know the 100th anniversary logo below took the Shield as inspiration and added in a vibe consistent with our history?
I think a tweak of our Block I that did the same thing would be a home run. I feel like a college sports brand has to first and foremost not be forgettable. Our current logo, besides being orange, is as forgettable as it gets. VERY few changes would be needed to make it a bet more "Memorial Stadium/Red Grange-esque" and make it really cool, JMO.
splitter
- and not Nebraska
i agree about the cursive I looking like a g, but there i see a T J and L. i used l when writing in cursive or went full e e cummings and use the i. Keep trying, there has to be a better cursive I out there. It maybe because the block I is so iconic that the cursive one bothers us.
My custom name would have been Fighting Illini!
Just make the script Illinois font the standard default font. It's unique and vintage style is in. The way our basketball team is doing, within the decade it'll prob be seen as "ours" nationally and part of our identity. The calculator 1LL1NOI5 font is already looking tacky and outdated.
Then in 50 years they can break them out again for nostalgia all over again and the cycle can start anew.
Then in 50 years they can break them out again for nostalgia all over again and the cycle can start anew.
The only issue with the script being used as a true font is it doesn't translate well when used for things other than Illinois or Illini (and it hardly works for Illini, at least with how they've used it). As a wordmark, it's great and distinctive. When they redid the turf before 2022, they should have put it in the endzone, it should go on the back of the new scoreboard we're supposed to get in a few years, and it should go on the baseline for basketball. For it to be a font tho, it needs to work for any word and letter which it realistically wouldn't in today's landscape. Gotta remember that the font gets used for more than "1LL1NOI5' and "F1GHT1NG 1LL1N1."