The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams of the University of Iowa, competing in the Big Ten Conference. The visual identity of Iowa Athletics is built around the Tigerhawk, a stylized hawk head that has served as the department’s primary mark since 1979.
Design and History
The Tigerhawk was created in 1979 at the request of newly hired football coach Hayden Fry, who wanted a distinctive new decal for the team’s helmets. Fry asked Iowa’s sports information director, George Wine, to spread the word that he was seeking a new design. Wine contacted Charles Edwards, whose firm Pepco Litho printed Iowa’s media guides, and Edwards turned to Bill Colbert, the art director for Three Arts Advertising in Cedar Rapids. On a plane trip home from the Twin Cities, Colbert sketched a rough design on a paper napkin. He later polished it and named it the Tigerhawk. Colbert presented the design to Fry on June 11, 1979, on two decorated helmets, and Fry approved it shortly after. [1]
Colbert described his intent: “I wanted to design something that had the head, eye and beak of a hawk. I wanted it to have simplicity, yet have a striking effect.” [2] Fry and Colbert initially formed the Hawkeye Marketing Group to promote the logo on merchandise, but when Colbert moved to Chicago in 1982, the University of Iowa licensed the Tigerhawk and took over the marketing program. [1]
The Tigerhawk has served as the national brand logo for Hawkeye athletics since 1979. [3] In 2000, the university updated the logo, with Sports Marketing Director Rick Klatt noting that the new version featured a more aggressive beak and brow. [4] The Tigerhawk was added to the midfield of Kinnick Stadium in 2017, the first logo at midfield since a block “I” was removed after the 1980 season. [3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Tigerhawk is a stylized representation of a hawk’s head, eye, and beak, designed for simplicity and striking effect. [2] The Iowa Athletics licensing program identifies the Tigerhawk as the primary identifying mark for Iowa Athletics, and it is available in all Hawkeye Gold, all black, and all white versions, as well as full-color versions in black with a Hawkeye Gold outline or Hawkeye Gold with a black outline. [5]
The black-and-gold color palette dates back to the 1880s and is one of the most recognizable aspects of the University of Iowa visual identity. [6]
Typography and Design
The official gold of the University of Iowa is the spot color PMS 116 C, with a HEX value of #FFCD00. For black, the university specifies solid or rich-black values. [6] The Iowa Athletics brand standards note that the alignment of the registration mark in the Tigerhawk is determined by a horizontal line drawn from the bottom of the tail feather to the point of the top beak. [5]
Iowa Athletics uses a custom “Hawkeye Font” for lettering on fields and end zones, as seen in the Kinnick Stadium design introduced in 2017. [3]
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