I always liked this as well.
Also thought you could then have a souped up Captain America esque mascot who essentially led the rest of the soldiers and he could carry the shield. But that's a #TeamShield idea that will clearly never happen.
Illinois Football Uniforms
- Status
I always liked this as well.
Also thought you could then have a souped up Captain America esque mascot who essentially led the rest of the soldiers and he could carry the shield. But that's a #TeamShield idea that will clearly never happen.
The orange stripes at the bottom of the shield are supposed to represent the columns at Memorial Stadium. I thought the Blue around the negative space I is supposed to be F's representing the fight of the original "Fighing Illini" veterans.
They had good intentions with the shield. They just didn't do anything with it once we got it as a secondary logo.
IMO, the shield is lame. To me it looks like a child made an attempt and it belongs in a comic book series.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Yeah and they also referenced the Hallene Gateway up on Green & Lincoln that used to be the entrance to the main hall on campus.
Which is all well and good, Nike loves to spout a marketing line about the inspirations for the designs, but at the end of the day
These two logos are expressing the exact same idea. "We're an old school, traditional American University in the classic leafy fall campus aesthetic that idea invokes, and our name starts with the letter I" One says that in more of a "rah rah touchdown!" register and the other in more of a "shhh, this is a library" way.
And both have been jettisoned for the Block I, which accomplishes a standardization between athletics and academics, and is fine. Best to just move on with it.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
We are in the minority on this unfortunately. But I would love to see the Illinois in front of the updated Block I mockup.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's the script logo in front of the new block I I'm really afraid of people developing a hankering for.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I would be fine with a “more sportsy” redo of this to celebrate the heritage of the columns in Memorial Stadium and our celebration of the *Fighting Illini*.
I get there wasn’t an appetite for it from the Chief loyalists or the Chief haters, but it’s astonishing to me that we do NOTHING as an athletic department to market the incredible history being our honoring of WWI veterans.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
It just seems so bland and insecure to me. We shouldn’t have to tell people we’re Illinois at all, let alone in italicized and underlined Arial font…
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
When USC joins that will be the fourth member of our own conference whose football stadium was named and dedicated for its WWI veterans. (Indiana's retained the name of a previous facility, but still)
I don't want to be churlish about fallen soldiers of any era, and our Memorial Stadium truly is a grand and special piece of architecture in a way most college football stadia aren't, but an incredible unique history with WWI veterans is still just not something the University of Illinois has in any meaningful sense.
UNLESS you're sweatily thumbing your nose at the NCAA about how "Fighting Illini" doesn't actually reference any Native American symbology, which was always the driving force of the doughboy stuff and which feels like about nine zillion years ago now.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I think our columns, the way we can tie it into the logo, the specificity of ILLINOISANS who died and - yes - the connection (arguable to what degree if that’s something that for some reason interests you) to the nickname Fighting Illini … coupled with the COMPLETE lack of identity our logos and such currently have … makes our situation a bit different. Those schools aren’t in search of the same things we are, and I therefore think it’s an opportunity for us in a way it isn’t for them.
Who cares what Fighting Illini originally meant? We completely scrapped any identity with the Native American tribes of our state long ago now, and we even removed songs like the War Chant that absolutely didn’t have to be associated with the Chief at all … for God’s sake, we completely made it up, and it doesn’t have words! Lol, repurpose it!
The opposition to the Doughboy on any grounds other than just not liking the aesthetics outed the people who simply want to complain vs. those who took offense to the Chief, IMO.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Yeah I mean that's all I'm saying.
And you sorta said it well from a different angle. So much of our branding problem arrives from a place of trying excruciatingly, flop-sweatingly hard to pretend and fake like we have some bone-deep, decades old tradition to draw on when we don't. We did with the Chief and it's gone.
I will say this about the script wordmark, when I see it it makes me think of Kofi Cockburn and not Michael Finke, nor dorm room arguments about the Chief. Progress.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
Any logo that requires a paragraph to explain what the elements stand for should be dropped like a rabid weasel. 
I'm not gonna lie, I don't like "FAMILLY". Like the message is nice, but the intentional misspelling looks dumb. And if they wanted they could have spelled it correctly. IL is, after all, the two-letter abbreviation for the state. And yeah, I get the I-L-L of it all, the really bad misspelling just makes me cringe every time I see it.
dgcrow
- Kelso, WA
Agreed. Just like I dislike the way the U of Washington constantly referes to the Huskies as "Dawgs".
Ha! I also have the can, and it's unopened. I don't think I'll crack it open and try it LOST-style. But, like Homecoming 2019, I am in favor of the font, too. In fact, I am in favor of both the font and content, and would support helmets with "Illini Beer".
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
First thing that stands out as an improvement, white outline on the Block I with no extra orange business on the outer edge of the sticker. Positives.
If you are confused this outer edge nonsense appears to be gone:
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dgcrow
- Kelso, WA
White face mask! Love it.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Putting the warning label stuff into a designed sticker is genius, everybody is gonna copy that.
It's awful but it's awful in the way that all football coaches always are.
totally agree. That should say fighting Illini
- Status