My honors project for my ART100 class this semester was to re-imagine the visual identity of the University of Illinois. This mainly concerned the lack of a mascot to represent our campus --this being before the squirrel started appearing across campus in the form of a potential new mascot. I started the project with a formal, contextual, and semiotic analysis of the past imagery that has represented the University of Illinois. I also researched symbols and mascots of other schools. Chief Illiniwek was an icon that represented the University of Illinois both on an off the field and was loved by many in the community. Its use was officially discontinued because of the offensive nature towards Native Americans. Very recently Nike designed a new logo for the university's sport teams. The "Victory Shield" features the simple yet iconic block I that has also been used to represent the campus.
During my research of the past mascots of the University, I came across a design for a proposed mascot in the comments on a forum. The suggested design simply substituted the body of an eagle in the place of Chief Illiniwek's face leaving the majority of the old logo intact. I liked the idea of an eagle as the mascot but I thought the retention of aspects of the old logo had been taken too far. The eagle is a powerful and respected bird as well as a common mascot that isn't used by any other schools in the BIG 10 conference. This makes it the perfect candidate for the university's mascot position.
Initially I tried to make improvements on the eagle imagery I found, but my focus moved towards producing my own version of an eagle mascot for UIUC. I incorporated the new Victory Shield logo in its entirety along with some elements of the old Chief Illiniwek logo in my designs to aid in formal and semiotic continuity to the new mascot. However I feel that my sketches without these characteristics are stronger and more original. My designs as well as the Victory Shield, the old Chief Illiniwek logo, and the combination Eagle-Chief logo are included in the gallery below.
During my research of the past mascots of the University, I came across a design for a proposed mascot in the comments on a forum. The suggested design simply substituted the body of an eagle in the place of Chief Illiniwek's face leaving the majority of the old logo intact. I liked the idea of an eagle as the mascot but I thought the retention of aspects of the old logo had been taken too far. The eagle is a powerful and respected bird as well as a common mascot that isn't used by any other schools in the BIG 10 conference. This makes it the perfect candidate for the university's mascot position.
Initially I tried to make improvements on the eagle imagery I found, but my focus moved towards producing my own version of an eagle mascot for UIUC. I incorporated the new Victory Shield logo in its entirety along with some elements of the old Chief Illiniwek logo in my designs to aid in formal and semiotic continuity to the new mascot. However I feel that my sketches without these characteristics are stronger and more original. My designs as well as the Victory Shield, the old Chief Illiniwek logo, and the combination Eagle-Chief logo are included in the gallery below.