Samford University’s athletic teams, the Samford Bulldogs, compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Southern Conference. The university fields 17 varsity teams and lists its official school colors as Navy (PMS 289) and Red (PMS 200).[1]
Design and History
The current Samford Bulldogs spirit mark was publicly unveiled on November 12, 2016, during the university’s 175th anniversary celebration and homecoming weekend.[2] The new bulldog logo coincided with the 100th anniversary of the bulldog as the university’s official mascot and replaced a bulldog logo that had been in use for about 15 years.[2]
The 2016 rebrand emerged from a nearly yearlong branding study conducted with Dartlet Inc., a Seattle-based reputation strategy company, according to Betsy Bugg Holloway, Samford’s vice president for marketing and communication.[2] The university retained Dartlet in March 2016, and the project engaged hundreds of employees, students and alumni through focus groups and listening sessions.[3] Dartlet also conducted a branding audit of 12 peer and competitor institutions and completed an online survey of hundreds of people in Birmingham, Nashville and Atlanta to assess awareness and perceptions of Samford.[3]
The 2016 launch included new spirit marks, a revised bell tower logo and new brand marks for the university’s 10 academic schools.[3] The bell tower symbol, which more formally represents the university and its academic programs, was first developed in the mid-1980s and depicts the bell tower atop Samford’s Harwell Goodwin Davis Library.[2]
An earlier graphics update occurred in 2009, when Samford launched a redesigned website and updated logos. That refresh introduced a new bell tower image for use in all official university logos, while athletics continued to use the bulldog image as part of its graphics identity.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
Samford’s brand identity guidelines describe the bulldog as the university’s “spirit” logo, used to represent athletics and school spirit, while the bell tower symbol more formally represents the university and its academic programs.[2] The university’s official brand standards document the bulldog as a federally registered trademark alongside the words SAMFORD and SAMFORD UNIVERSITY.[5]
Typography and Design
Samford’s brand standards specify that the university’s primary colors are blue and red, with gray and sky blue used as digital secondary accent colors.[6] The primary blue corresponds to Pantone Matching System 289 with hexadecimal equivalent #0C2340, and the primary red corresponds to Pantone Matching System 200 with hexadecimal equivalent #BD1F2D.[6]
According to the university’s brand standards, the one-color bulldog in navy should be used on white and gray backgrounds, while the one-color bulldog in white must be used on dark backgrounds, specifically navy and red.[7] The sport-specific spirit mark includes the bulldog symbol, the spirit wordmark and the team’s name.[7] Samford Athletics is permitted to use the solo bulldog, with no reference to Samford University, on uniforms, apparel and promotional graphics when used within a game day context.[7]
For web typography, Samford uses Chronicle Deck Bold for display text and Whitney Book for body copy, with Georgia and Tahoma as fallback fonts respectively.[6]
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