Welcome to Fan Theories, Varsity Partners’ experimental playground to explore opportunities that strengthen the relationship between sports brands and their fans.
Digging In
Background
As proud alumni of UNC-C, UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or as ESPN abbreviates it, CHA — we recognize we’re sorely in need of consistency across our verbal and visual brand. Over the past few months, Tim and I explored a theoretical brand refresh for our alma mater, taking into consideration Charlotte’s history and what makes it unique in the athletic brandscape. With a growing fan base and ever-expanding campus, now is a better time than ever to think through who Charlotte is, how we talk about our school and our pressing need for more Norm!
Past
While some renderings of past Niners ‘branding’ have been quite garish, there is an ornate, nostalgic feeling I get when I see that scruffy Norm pointing at me with his corncob pipe and the retro block “UNCC” (designed by the guy who invented the ball pit incase that factoid comes up in trivia). The bright green and usage of gold was the Charlotte I grew up admiring.
Current
In 1999, Charlotte worked with well established design firm SME to add a level of polish and consistency across all sports branding applications. Since its launch, our “HARLOTTE” logo has been picked and dissected ten times over, from the removal of the “UNC” to the simple “C” icon. Then, in the 2000s, Norm appeared again, big eyed and perfectly groomed with a beyond impressive wingspan. His intentions have always been unclear — guiding us through everything from New Year’s announcements to flu shot posters. I could never tell if he was mad, happy or both.
Current Colors
In that rebrand, the athletic department introduced a new green and gold. At the time, it appeared more buttoned up and professional. Seeing that the gold was less popular, somewhere in the 2008–2010 timeline, athletics flipped a script, claiming “Charlotte” as the verbal identity and dropping the “UNC.” This decision was met with much adoration since alumni were tired of being viewed as the little brother to the light blue school up north. At the same time, they subtly dropped the gold from all applications, changed the fight song and deemed ‘green and white’ the colors of Charlotte. Unfortunately, this change faded into the background as most fans were hyped about the semblance of their own identity in “Charlotte” with hopes of one day being “University of Charlotte.”
In this process, we started with the most glaring need in analyzing Charlotte’s brand colors. We wanted to bring back a bright green and introduce a new gold that can continue to grow the identity and ownership of what is “Charlotte.”
Color Study
While green isn't necessarily the most common school color, there is still a solid group of comparables — even within the conference. Mason, SFU and NDSU withstanding, there is room for growth in the green and gold category. Going brighter with the green differentiates the palette from all three schools.
New Colors & Usage
Given that green by itself is somewhat saturated, a balanced usage of Charlotte Green and Niner Gold ensures brand ownership in the space. This allows for both fresh colors to shine through as each are important in showcasing this new sports identity and visual language for Charlotte.
Primary Identity
There were quite a few iterations of the power pick that fell to the cutting room floor, some with a ton of character and potential, others that were too far out.
The final version has the balance, and more importantly, the flexibility/scalability that a rising D1 athletic department requires.
Primary Logotype
A strong and simple logotype is essential in feeling like a ‘big boy school.’ These letterforms have a squared, confident feel to them. The subtle ‘chip’ marks are a play off the gold rush and miner origin story of Charlotte history as a city.
Secondary Logotypes
We wanted to add some flexibility to the official secondary logotypes by bringing back the “49ers” look, an official “Forty Niners” and introducing two new variations — “CLT” a common abbreviation to Charlotte that should be used for UNC Charlotte, and a fan creed of “Foooorty!” I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve screamed that at the top of my voice in Halton arena.
Secondary Marks
One of Charlotte’s most successful programs over the past few decades has been the men’s and women’s soccer teams. As soccer continues to rise to the forefront of the common fan headspace, we felt a unique soccer shield that incorporates the iconic arches from the Kennedy building (first building on campus) was needed. Paired with that, a baseball/softball script was an obvious next step. The two variations to the right feature a recruiting ‘territory mark’ that we could see incorporated as a sign-off to as a sign-off to content and marketing tactics and other imagery. The “ Fan Creed Mark” is something that has risen to prominence in the last couple years. In the Lutz years we‘d “put the picks up” and say “LUUUTZ” after a free throw went in. Since then, it has seemingly evolved into a fun symbol to show your Niner pride.
The New Norm
Our beloved Norm the Niner is back in a primary way. We pulled inspiration from some of the original depictions of Norm through the logo to the left and other more crude mascot iterations. We’ve always loved the rough, almost barbaric nature of Norm. The goal was to give him a modern polish without taking away his genuine grisly appearance.
The full version of Norm is intended to evoke the underdog, ‘no silver spoons here’ and ‘ready to get to work’ nature of its alumni — which is commonly known as a great school for entrepreneurship (cough cough).
Typography
With typography, we wanted to bring a sense of ownership and flexibility to all typographic applications —from numbers on a jersey to game day social posts. The solution, through subtle ‘chips’ on the letterforms echoes the ‘chip on the shoulder’ mindset that our students, athletes and our alumni all share to some degree.
Past Typography
In the past, Charlotte’s typography has been tangled in a Futura web. Complemented with Gotham in previous applications, the brand typefaces have not allowed the school to shine through with an original voice or appearance. Given the youthful persona of the school, we agree that a sans serif is the right approach — just not an off the shelf option.
Past Numerals
New Numerals
Two sets of unique number sets were created, both directly tied to the Chipped typeface. The retro variation is inspired by the school’s first athletic “UNCC” logotype.
Jersey design brings brand elements together. While this is only one tactical execution, it harnesses many of the elements we’ve reviewed.
Basketball
Soccer
Football
Baseball
Track and Field
Summary
The seed of Varsity Partners was planted on the Charlotte campus where Tim and I were roommates. Needless to say, there isn’t much we love more than our 49ers; We’d like to think it shows in this theoretical refresh. At Varsity, we pride ourselves on digging into the details that matter to craft unique solutions that resonate with a fan base. I hope you’ve enjoyed gleaning some insight into our process, we’d love the opportunity to share more with you! If you’d like to talk about a challenge you’re facing, get in touch here.
Fan Theories is brought to you by Varsity Partners, a design led, fan forward design agency providing creative and strategic solutions for brands and sports properties.
