SWP Logo Design Boards

Lorna Milligan

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Lorna Milligan

RATIONALE The brief was to create a logo for Leeds University Unions Swimming and Water Polo Club. This is one of the largest clubs at the university. The commissioned logo will be unofficial but will be used on the union website and the team’s own website and social media accounts. The logo will also be used on unofficial club merchandise. The society is highly competitive whilst also maintaining an incredibly friendly atmosphere, offering an active social scene. The club encompasses five separate squads: Development A (Swimming), Development B (Swimming), Performance (Swimming), Women’s Polo, Men’s Polo. The logo must be appropriate for all teams. The outcome must be appropriate at national competitions, while also representing a young adult team, as all members are of university age.

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Lorna Milligan

RESEARCH Research began by looking at existing swimming and water polo logos and seeing what worked well and what didn’t.

Not many combined swimming and water polo clubs exist on their own, but they are common place at universities. However, there was little visual examples as many teams adopt the university crest as their logo.

This logo had to be competitive, without being intimidating to new comers and considerations had to be made for how it would look as part of the uniform. This led to researching existing University of Leeds sportswear and existing logos in an effort to promote uniformity.

Swimming and water polo are part of the ‘Gryphons Performance programme’ which means athletes have access to Gryphon kit. The Under-Armour kit is black with white writing and green stitching. The Gryphons logo a simple line drawing. The same san serif typeface is used throughout and is always set in upper case. Other sports kit incorporates the universities colours: red, green and white.

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Lorna Milligan

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CONCEPTS Two ideas were chosen to develop further and create visuals.

The first idea was an Americanised logo that was bold and competitive. The strong line work and block colours gave an aggressive feel. Many of the existing logos in this style use an animal as part of the logo, however this wouldn’t be appropriate as the team doesn’t have a mascot and the obvious choice for water sports being a dolphin or shark may come across childish. The outcome of this experiment was intimidating, it did not create a friendly feel and the way in which the colour was used makes it easy to associate it with medical practices or pharmacies. Ultimately this idea was rejected. The second idea was to create a logo that was in line with the existing Gryphons logo. This style of illustration took inspiration from designer Brian Steely work. It uses flowing lines to create a sense of movement. This design only uses line work which means the colour can be changed depending on its positioning. The typeface used is Futura, set in upper case to reflect the existing style of the Gryphon performance kit.

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Lorna Milligan

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DEVELOPMENTS It was important that the logo was easily understood at a glance. The imagery had to make it obvious that the club was both a water polo and a swimming club. The initial logo only showed a male water polo player. To understand that the club was

multi-disciplinary the audience would have to read the type.

The logo was developed by the addition of a swimmer. It was important to make the swimmer female as the club is mixed with both males and females training to-

gether.

The logo now represents the whole society. The line thickness of the waves and inner circle was reduced to keep the attention on the athletes and make it more dynamic. The logo is a circle to work on

all social media platforms, including Instagram.

Lorna Milligan

FINAL OUTCOME The final outcome is a logo that represents both sports and genders within the society. The style is in line with the Gryphon aesthetic and the feel is both energetic and approachable. The simplicity of the line work means it works well at small sizes. The details such as change in line weight and muscle definition means it is still visually interesting at bigger sizes.

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Lorna Milligan

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T-SHIRTS To promote the society and the logo, t-shirts were produced and sold to club members.

T-shirts were ordered to demand and screen printed at Leeds Arts University. The T-shirts feature the logo across the shoulder blades with LUUSWP printed on the left-hand side of the chest. The design was printed in a dark green to match the university colours.

The demand was high and the t-shirts have travelled as far as Italy and Australia.

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Lorna Milligan

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EVALUATION The outcome of this brief was successful. It is now being used across several media platforms including websites and social media as well as the University of Leeds Union website. The merchandise was a huge success and will hopefully bring more members to the society. The project did present some difficulties. Working with a client meant every change to the design had to be approved by her, there was a lot of back and forth between emails. This made it a long process. The final design also had to be approved by a comity of the club’s executive members. This experience helped with communication skills. The process overall was a great experience and it’s exciting to see the design used in a real-world application.