Who let the dogs out?
(read below to find out)
Their Story
Bluefield State College is a Division 2 historically black college and university that competes in the United State Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). In response to the college’s declining enrollment and fear of becoming the following satellite location for West Virginia University, Bluefield State announced in August 2020 that it would be adding twelve competitive sports to its athletic program, including football, a sport that hadn’t been associated with the college since the 1940s.
The Challenge
Bluefield State came to Joba Studio, and me wanting to rebrand their athletics department and mascot. Because of the local religious influence and tie to the school’s declining past, Bluefield State wanted to move away from its previous identity of the Blue Devils and be associated with something that represented strength, loyalty, and determination.
The approach to designing Bluefield State College’s Athletic Department’s mascot, Big Blue, was to make it look proud and ready to guard its ground without adding snarl or sharp K9 teeth.
The Solution
Several concepts were explored before ultimately arriving on the Spotted Great Dane, which were vital to pioneers traveling westward through mountain lion and black bear-inhabited Appalachian Mountains. The mascot was designed in both full-body and abbreviated (head), paired with a series of wordmarks, and applied to a vast range of mediums that included everything from apparel, jerseys, tents, stadium signage, and golf balls (to name a few).
A wordmark and monograms were created in the same style as the Big Blue mascot. These secondary marks are used intermittently with the mascot on jerseys, apparel, and social media.
The Big Blue mascot and supporting typographic marks can be seen throughout Bluefield State College’s online presence.
Bluefield State College
Big Blues.
Impact:
Since the launch of the rebrands in 2021, Bluefield State has seen an increase in undergraduate enrollment by 45% (with minority enrollment rising from 3% three years ago to nearly 22% in 2021), fielded its first football time in over eight decades, and recruited a baseball team that won its first-ever Black College World Series. Sales of rebranded apparel also increased by more than 700%.
The case study has been awarded half-dozen times by national and international design competitions and is part of UCDA’s permanent collection.
Awards:
2022 United Design Alliance - Signs, Systems, and Letterform Marks (SSL) Gold Award
2022 Indigo Awards Silver Award in Branding
2022 American Advertising Federations Gold ADDY in Integrated Brand Identity
2021 University and College Design Association’s Design Awards Award of Excellence
2021 Art Director’s Club of Tulsa’s Graphex Competition Honorable Mention in Identity
Client:
Bluefield State College | Bluefield, WV.
Creative Team:
Kevin Jones, Art Director
Patrick Finley, Designer
Robyn Jones, Project Manager
Media:
Mascot, Wordmark and Monogram, Social Media Template
Year & Duration:
2021 | 2 Months