Is This The Worst Logo Update Of 2013?

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3022957/des ... e=facebook

I know this statement isn't going to make me popular on this board, but I'm not really overwhelmed by the full time return to "Victory Yosef". Although their write up is pretty extreme, there are some valid points. When I was a student in the early 80's, I thought the character looked too cartoonish and didn't really look like an athletic logo. Of course, the sanitized version that replaced it was the absolute WORST (far worse than the version we've had since 1999) since it had no personality at all. It was basically a man with beard and hat. As a student, I actually preferred the Mountaineer Mania version of the logo. It featured a snarling muscular Yosef that looked more like an athletic logo.

I understand the criticism of the "floating head" and didn't care much for it without the mountains in the background, although I did like that full version of the 1999 logo. The "mountaineer" idea isn't really an easy one to depict if you really think about it.

Victory Yosef is fun, and I have purchased some of the apparel myself including a new game day cap, but it doesn't really send the message that we are going "big time." I don't dislike it, but I do think it's a step in the wrong direction. Just my two cents.

Amen

Yosef84 wrote:I know this statement isn't going to make me popular on this board, but I'm not really overwhelmed by the full time return to "Victory Yosef". Although their write up is pretty extreme, there are some valid points. When I was a student in the early 80's, I thought the character looked too cartoonish and didn't really look like an athletic logo. Of course, the sanitized version that replaced it was the absolute WORST (far worse than the version we've had since 1999) since it had no personality at all. It was basically a man with beard and hat. As a student, I actually preferred the Mountaineer Mania version of the logo. It featured a snarling muscular Yosef that looked more like an athletic logo.

I understand the criticism of the "floating head" and didn't care much for it without the mountains in the background, although I did like that full version of the 1999 logo. The "mountaineer" idea isn't really an easy one to depict if you really think about it.

Victory Yosef is fun, and I have purchased some of the apparel myself including a new game day cap, but it doesn't really send the message that we are going "big time." I don't dislike it, but I do think it's a step in the wrong direction. Just my two cents.

Being from the era before you I am tickled with the return of this Yosef, but I do agree the Mountaineer Mania snarling Yosef was pretty good also. Coach Moore had a few logos made and used early in his tenure but they were ruled out by those with a higher pay grade.

I didn't read the review but I liked the first comment by Starla Hodges.

"You have taste for crap. This logo is the coolest one on the
planet. I believe that your position comes from a mindset of prejudice against
the Mountain people of the Southern Appalachians.You are just an ignorant closed minded person. I believe that because you feel that a damn "Gordon's Fisherman"
looking logo conveys the untamed spirit of a people that have been ridiculed
against since these mountains were first settled. All you are doing is piling on. We have a rich proud history in these here hills of Western NC and that stupid
Fisherman is an insult to all that have generations investments in these hills.
I am a hillbilly and proud of it. We embrace all the cliché things that society
has saddled us with over the decades. You know....... the corn cob pipe, black
hat, whiskey jug, and long rifle. These were all forced into our culture by ignorant "Flat Landers" that always had a uninformed attitude of superiority when dealing with the mountain people, (I am third generation hillbilly and none of my family ever smoked a corn cob pipe or wore a black brimmed hat).

Instead of being demoralized buy these symbols and permitting the outside society to use them as a weapon against us we embraced them and rallied around then as a sense of pride.
This is much more than a simple logo change. It is us as a University and people expressing our pride in our culture and getting back in touch with the rich heritage of the mountains people. We have a saying around here...If you are lucky enough to be a mountaineer you are lucky enough. YOU AIN'T!

Just my opinion but this feels like more than just an argument over a logo.

bcoach wrote:Just my opinion but this feels like more than just an argument over a logo.

Yep. I think you are right. Some folk are embarrassed by the heritage of the school and ashamed of the people it serves. Some believe we should be proud of our heritage and emphasize all the positives instead of always looking for, and accepting, the negative.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

bcoach wrote:Just my opinion but this feels like more than just an argument over a logo.

It sounds like its an attack on the fact that they didn't really get a "designer" to make it. Designers (just like photographers) are very scared that many people with a computer can do their own work and sometimes just as good or better than the experts.

The people that make TV/radio/print ads are the same way. Naturally they feel attacked by what the new technology offers.

Like I said before the best was to counter the attack is by owning it. Fans of the new logo should "paste" it everywhere they can.

cant speak for other people, but my "distaste" for the new logos has nothing to do with the mountaineer heritage, but rather it appears to me to be rather cartoonish, not well thought out, kinda of sloppy design. Why we could not have hired a professional design firm, and make sure its done right is beyond me, I mean, in the future when we are on TV playing a big game, do we really want the first impressions of our school for someone out West or in the North East, to be a Saturday morning cartoon character?!! The only saving grace to me is this is a secondary logo, and the block A, which, again in my opinion, is the best logo we have ever put on a helmet. Im glad we got rid of the "Gordon Fisherman floating head", but I don't see the new logo being much of an upgrade.

moehler wrote:Why we could not have hired a professional design firm, and make sure its done right is beyond me

This secondary logo is the old school traditional logo. If you make changes it is a new logo.Maybe they could have hired someone better 40 years ago but it is too late now.Do people hate the ND logo?