Wednesday night marked an end to a year-long process of rebranding and redesigning the athletic logo for UNCW. The design was created by Joe Bosack & Company for $26,500. The company has a long history of redesigning university logos and UNCW expects the redesign to boost merchandise sales.
Senior associate athletic director Rob Aycock claims that this new logo will be beneficial to the athletics program as a whole.“We think that this is going to be money well spent, to open up new revenue streams to better support our student athletes in the future,” Aycock explained.
This is the sixth logo for UNCW in its 68 year existence and the first redesign in 22 years. The department of athletics hopes that this new logo is more “aggressive” and “aspirational” than ones in the past. Below are the logos that have been used here at UNCW since the 1960’s.
Students and alumni sounded off on Twitter Wednesday and Thursday night, expressing their thoughts on the new logo.
Do you think the rebranding of the athletic logo is an improvement?
IMC Hawks Blog 
The logo has been very controversial over the past few days. Although I have my own reservations about the new logo, I do think it was something that had to be done. As our school and athletic programs grow and change, so does our brand. We have to have something that represents the aggressiveness and winning mentality of our athletic programs. However, I am not sure the new logo does very well at portraying our school as a whole. I am not even sure it looks like a hawk. Seems closer to an eagle to me, but whatever helps our school and athletics is pretty much fine by me.
This is a huge change for UNCW, but I feel it is important. I am not the biggest fan of the new logo, but the athletic department continued to use the previous logo, it would soon be way out of date. Something to think about, if the department was still using the logo from 1986, the school would not be seen as a strong brand school, possibly loosing many athletes and incoming students. Overall, I feel this was a good change, it will just take time to get used to, as does all change.
This new logo is for sure a stride in the right direction for UNCW. It shows that not only is UNCW looking to improve the appearance of the universities athletics but it is also taking action to do so. I know there are many individuals who believe that the $27,000 wasn’t put to good use but I believe that this is showing that UNCW is willing to change it’s brand to accommodate to the times and is willing to put in the time and effort to improve the appearance. People normally take some time to adjust to change and that is what’s exactly needed. In the end I believe this was a wise decision by UNCW. The new look will catch individuals attention which is good publicity.
– Andrew Cremer
In my opinion the new logo is very controversial. UNCW’s brand personality is descried as laid back, beachy and attractive. I am don’t think the logo really shows our true personality. The logo appears aggressive, something that most UNCW students wouldn’t describe themselves as. Also, the color yellow is very prominent and the color teal doesn’t scream as much as I wish it did. On the other hand, we have to keep in mind that it is our athletic logo, not our admissions logo. The new logo of UNCW athetlics can help with the growing of sports on campus and to give it a stronger, more aggressive brand.
I think that the new logo was a much needed change for UNCW’s athletic department. The new and improved Sammy Seahawk is a lot more fierce looking, and one of my friends even said he was “pointier” looking than before. Perhaps the intense look in Sammy’s eyes suggests that he has his game face on or has a competitive edge in sports. I didn’t realize it until they released this new logo, but the old design actually really does appear as though it was meant for the 90’s. Some people may not like it because of its design, but I think a lot of times people don’t like change in general. After a while, the change grows on you and the new thing becomes more familiar and normal looking. Change is a good thing by the means of this new logo–well done UNCW.
I wasn’t too sure about the logo at first, but it’s really growing on me. I think it gives our athletics department more of an edge. Yeah, the Seahawk looks more aggressive and angry, but I think this is a good thing! It’s telling other universities that, “Hey, we don’t back down, and we’re ready and willing to put up a fight.” UNCW is such a laid back community full of people who emanate this “no worries, just chill” type of attitude, and I think the new logo helps to shake us up a bit. The new logo gives us an edge that we’ve been lacking and I think it’s a nice change for our community.
The new logo gives UNCW a new meaning. Many people cherish our brand as “laid back” or “beachy”, and this doesn’t signify that. While I think that we need to stick to the times considering the old logo was back from the 90’s, I think that there should’ve been more opportunities for students to really come together and agree on a logo as a whole and as a community. The logo is great for the athletics department in the way that it is fierce, intimidating and makes us look good, but it doesn’t represent what UNCW is known for. I think that if there was a controversy between the new logo as far as representing athletics or the school as a whole, there should’ve been two different logos. I personally am not a fan of the new logo and I hope that in the future the University will consider all of the students.
Although UNCW definitely needed to update it’s logo, I’m not sure this was the way to go. It’s a dramatic and bold, which is great for representing athletics, but I’m not sure if that really captures UNCW as a whole. Words that come to mind when I think of UNCW are relaxed, laid-back, and clean, which the logo doesn’t quite emulate. Though keeping in mind that the logo is just for athletics, I think UNCW did a pretty job!
I think it is common that if someone support about specific results, there will also be negative people who totally deny it. Thus, it isn’t surprising that the opinion to the new logo is controversial. It’s difficult to judge the renewal is success or not if I consider expense. But I think the new one is better compared only on the design alone cause prior one was quite unambiguous and abstract. In my opinion, it might be good if school invite students participation like voting before they decide final decision.
UNCW’s new athletic logo is definitely a change, but not one that I believe is going to negatively affect the student body. With so many harsh reactions going around about how much was spent on the logo; Was it necessary? Does it even fit in with our brand? I think what we need to look at isn’t the cost of the new logo, but why we needed it. First of all, I absolutely agree that this new logo creates an aggressive and intimidating image: but it needs to be recognized that image is only for our athletics, not UNCW as a whole.Therefore, for the most part, our brand should remain intact. We could go back and forth about all the minor changes: the colors, the prominence of the actual seahawk, etc. But again, I think it is important to recognize that those things don’t matter on the larger scale. This new logo can take UNCW athletics to the next level; shouldn’t that be a good thing?
Out with the old and in with the new. I absolutely love the new logo. It is definitely an upgrade from the other up–being so sleek and modern it gives off the vibe that our athletic programs are fierce. Albeit, it resembles a hockey logo, I think it was a good change for UNCW. But there are a few things I have an issue with. First, the basketball team had yellow warmups (are we the UNCW yellow jackets now??). This isn’t such a big deal to me but at UNCW we have such a vast group of talented students in graphic design. Instead of hiring a company, one of our own could have designed the logo. This could of possibly saved us that $27k and we could have saved the athletic programs that were cut. Also, from word-of-mouth and reading social media, majority of the student body does not like the new logo. Maybe UNCW will give the students a chance to vote on a couple of logos in the next 6 years!
I agree with others when discussing the new logo, it is a highly controversial topic for many reasons. One thing that really bothers me about this logo is the cost. We can’t seem to save the track and field here but we can seem to dish out $27,000 for a rebranding attempt. Life would go on without a new logo, but many track team member’s career in running is now over. However as far as the impact of the logo goes I think it’s going to make a big splash. UNCW has never really been known for its athletics. We have a brand narrative as a school that is laid-back and easy going. I think by using the “stern” looking sea hawk shows a new level of intensity for athletics. As far as an athletic logo goes I think UNCW did a pretty good job.
I agree that a sports logo needs to be aggressive and inspirational for the athletes and student body. However, I think it also needs to reflect the school. My worst fear is hearing someone say, “Aw look at little UNCW trying to be tough, isn’t that cute.” We should have maintained the feeling of the school as well as include something that invoked pride. Pride rather than intimidation would have fit better within our student body. I agree it was time for an update, but there might have been a few too many changes. Specifically the yellow. There are suns everywhere, we are a beach school. We should have maintained the yellow of the sand. That is my personal opinion though.
I agree that a sports logo needs to be aggressive and inspirational for the athletes and student body. However, I think it also needs to reflect the school. My worst fear is hearing someone say, “Aw look at little UNCW trying to be tough, isn’t that cute.” We should have maintained the feeling of the school as well as include something that invoked pride. Pride rather than intimidation would have fit better within our student body. I agree it was time for an update, but there might have been a few too many changes. Specifically the yellow. There are suns everywhere, we are a beach school. We should have maintained the yellow of the sand. That is my personal opinion though.