The 2014 Illini Nike Uniforms and Rebrand

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#1,226      
illini1
Kams Bathroom said:
Caribous%20drew%20deshorn%20serious.jpg
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pizzaman said:
YIKES! That can't be real.
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The uniforms in the pictures are remakes of the actual uniforms worn by the Colorado Caribou. The team only existed for one year in 1978.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Caribous#Uniforms

Caribous%2078%20Home%20Phillip%20Jones,%20Whitecaps%204-23-1978.jpg
 
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#1,227      
mattcoldagelli
Kams Bathroom said:
I don't know if I speak for all of team shield when I say this, but other than as a bit of joking around, I think any association of the shield or Illinois athletics generally with superheroes in a direct fashion is hacky and stupid. I was cringing when the Nike guy kept referring to our athletes as "superheroes".
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This is correct. Any actual talk of superhero inspiration is incredibly lame and not endorsed by Team Shield.

HOWEVER, if you are wearing the Shield and want to emulate a superhero for the sake of an Illini-oriented visual gag, that's highly encouraged.

This will all be outlined in the Team Shield brand book that we're pulling together.
 
#1,228      
Deleted member 27002
Kams Bathroom said:
I don't know if I speak for all of team shield when I say this, but other than as a bit of joking around, I think any association of the shield or Illinois athletics generally with superheroes in a direct fashion is hacky and stupid. I was cringing when the Nike guy kept referring to our athletes as "superheroes".
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Agreed. So please don't even...or our Chancellor will be all over it in an effort to supplant the chief. Prefer no mascot.
 
#1,230      
Sybok
mattcoldagelli said:
...HOWEVER, if you are wearing the Shield and want to emulate a superhero for the sake of an Illini-oriented visual gag, that's highly encouraged...
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And game days in the stands could become very interesting.
 
#1,232      
STL FANATIC
Those players are wearing old gear. Which is totally expected, it just makes the whole concept behind the graphic... well about as silly as most of the graphics football churns out.
 
#1,233      
illinicb
pizzaman said:
Seeing that action shot with the fringe flying got me wondering why the Nike guys didn't go with some fringe. The Chief and Neil Young, rolled into one.
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What about David Crosby? Annie Oakley? Plus Neil Young is Canadian.:hand:
 
#1,234      
Kams Bathroom
STL FANATIC said:
Those players are wearing old gear. Which is totally expected, it just makes the whole concept behind the graphic... well about as silly as most of the graphics football churns out.
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THAT is the in-house designers fault.
 
#1,238      
STL FANATIC
Kams Bathroom said:
Huh?

Is Beckman making that graphic himself?
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His staffers are. Believe me, the designers in-house would like nothing more than to have things pass through them (despite the extra work load).

But different departments and teams want to do their own thing, when they want to do their own thing, and think they're capable of doing their own thing. Football just happens to be the worst offender.

That's a big reason the brand gets fractured actually, although it will help to have some official guidelines at least. Still nothing forcing them to be applied, though.
 
#1,239      
Kams Bathroom
STL FANATIC said:
His staffers are. Believe me, the designers in-house would like nothing more than to have things pass through them (despite the extra work load).

But different departments and teams want to do their own thing, when they want to do their own thing, and think they're capable of doing their own thing. Football just happens to be the worst offender.

That's a big reason the brand gets fractured actually, although it will help to have some official guidelines at least. Still nothing forcing them to be applied, though.
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I guess I don't know a ton about the org chart at the DIA, but for me, someone with both the capability and the authority to make a thing like that graphic counts as an "in-house designer"
 
#1,240      
chiefini
pizzaman said:
I never liked Crosby, I'm afraid of women with guns and what's wrong with a Canadian, eh?;)
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You and CB are cracking me up! All the young'uns on IL are saying, "What are these old farts talking about?" :D

P.S. I still listen to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young when I want to chill...
 
#1,242      
ILLiNimob
I am surprised I have not seen or heard talk of what the warm ups will look like..I usually get one of the hoops warm-up zipper up jackets.. This could add a cool element / design..?? maybe a big shield on the back of the zip up? more of the lighting/feather thing? I will wait on buying new stuff because Im not a jersey guy but love the warm ups!

a mock up anyone? ideas?
 
#1,243      
STL FANATIC
Kams Bathroom said:
I guess I don't know a ton about the org chart at the DIA, but for me, someone with both the capability and the authority to make a thing like that graphic counts as an "in-house designer"
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Well they're not. I kind of don't know what else to say.

They're people in the football offices with photoshop who get asked by football coaches (and in some cases this may be coaches) to put something together that they can tweet out. They do this stuff with pamphlets and all kinds of stuff they give to recruits.

And it's really, really unfair to group that in with the in-house designers.

But then, that was always one of my original points. The DIA doesn't value good design enough to funnel it through the talented people they've hired to do these things. There's very little oversight at all.

New logos & fonts will help (wish they looked better, but that's a separate discussion), but we're still going to see a fragmented brand until the DIA places a value on design by setting and enforcing standards and giving someone qualified oversight of it.
 
#1,244      
illinicb
STL FANATIC said:
Well they're not. I kind of don't know what else to say.

They're people in the football offices with photoshop who get asked by football coaches (and in some cases this may be coaches) to put something together that they can tweet out. They do this stuff with pamphlets and all kinds of stuff they give to recruits.

And it's really, really unfair to group that in with the in-house designers.

But then, that was always one of my original points. The DIA doesn't value good design enough to funnel it through the talented people they've hired to do these things. There's very little oversight at all.

New logos & fonts will help (wish they looked better, but that's a separate discussion), but we're still going to see a fragmented brand until the DIA places a value on design by setting and enforcing standards and giving someone qualified oversight of it.
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Technically, I think you wish they looked different. Better is subjective.

Having dealt with issues like this in the "real world" myself, there is a pretty simple, although not always easy, solution. Mike Thomas should have control over this. If he wants consistency, then he should mandate it and enforce it. I worked at a place where every sales person wanted to tweak presentations and fonts and layouts, etc. We "locked" the documents and forced them to go through the graphics group for everything. In time, they all fell in line, but it was mandated from the top.

I don'' think it is the end of the world in this instance, but if it is happening, then either Thomas doesn't know about it or doesn't care enough to address it.
 
#1,245      
STL FANATIC
Yes, I agree with both your points, although I thought it was obvious that "better" was my opinion.

But you're right, what's needed is mandated oversight. Thomas (or someone pretty high) needs to care enough to want consistency. And then he needs to create a process through which this stuff has to happen.

And yes, there are times when a department needs something quicker than the process can handle, and that's where the designers could create a handful of templates for various applications where the department staffer just changes out text and photos.

But this has never been a priority of the leadership at the DIA, and I don't necessarily sense that has changed, although it's too early to say. They obviously cared enough about the brand to go through this process even if I think they underachieved, so hopefully that signals a change in priorities.

Most things coming out of the Sports Information Department (so that includes sport—not coaches—social media accounts) will look on brand. They've always done a good job communicating with the designers (in part because they're basically the same department even when they weren't). It's more about the other departments that have less direct contact—usually the individual teams—where this becomes an issue.
 
#1,246      
Kams Bathroom
So.....why can't I buy one of these football jerseys yet?
 
#1,249      
IL2000
The New Illini Nike Uniforms and Rebrand

@IlliniBaseball: Want a free #Illini baseball mini helmet? The first 1,000 fans at today's game will get one. Doors open at noon!
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Looks like the new Block I.
 
#1,250      
ILLiNimob
Interesting helmet. Like I said I can't want to see the non official gear the kids wear in Warmups etc an see if it's really cool an worth purchasing!
 
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