I'm not sure when this started; I feel like they were using it as far back as the 1990s when I was an undergrad. I did find this mark registered with the USPTO in 2010 http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4804:i8n4a2.10.131, but I am sure they were using this much earlier.
In any case, I'm with you @zythe. Let's start the petition - maybe drop a line to Dr. Blue? He understands that athletics is essentially marketing for the university at large and how important branding is in that effort. Maybe he will know the proper channels?
As an aside....I'm completely onboard if they decide to ditch the horse-C logo on the helmets and roll with script Davis almost exclusively, with maybe some block-CA as an alternate.
Yes, the horse thing was a good idea but the complicated design was horrible. Just too, too much. Not good and I don't think anyone ever really liked it at all. The best are simple and clear: no. 1. the tree- stanford; next: cal- cal; next nothing without just the first letter of the school on the cap. I Loved the CA cap and will always have one. I bet blue has figured this out already.
I have a feeling we are headed in this direction. The script Davis has been BOLDED and enlarged and is now more visable. Its all about marketing. In the "old days" the script Davis was hardly visible from afar.
The current wordmark, athletic logos, and Gunrock incarnation were developed in 1999 as a committee project between athletics, students, bookstore, etc. Before that departments and teams could use a lot of different logos and fonts, including the Block CA (with and without the mustang and wheat showing next to the "A"), the horseshoe CA, water towers, cows, script Davis, among others. I think the catalyst for the branding effort was when a "Cal-Davis" banner was raised at the 1998 men's basketball national championship. I know the Band-uh continues to use some of the old Block CA logos, although there was a crackdown starting along about 2008 where the administration tried to restrict its use. The explanation at the time was that the public wouldn't know who we were without the C-horse logo. I don't think the Band-uh has ever walked into a room without it being clear who they were, but that is beside the point. Interestingly a lot of the old logos have popped back up on merchandise and teamwear the last couple of years as "vintage" has become a hot marketing item in the retail world.
The logos are now 18 years old, so they may be due for a modernization/update in the next couple of years. But at the same time, when I think about the number of signs, vehicles, business cards, websites, uniforms, etc that would need to be updated, it seems cost prohibitive to change things broadly. I mean, they are only half done changing the signs in front of buildings to the *current* typeface.
Yes, and the current horse/horseshoe logo on a baseball cap looks ludicrous and hardly even fits on the front of our caps. Shame on whoever came up with this idea. CA forever! Keep it simple!
On the other hand, the school wants something it can copyright. Can't copyright a C, or an A, or even a CA. So much for calling the teams the California Ahwahnees.
California Ahwahnees....hahaha...good one! What a crock that whole thing was also with the vendor who said they would sue Yosemite if they continued to use the word Ahwahnee for the hotel etc. Jeeesh!!
The name change is so tacky with tarps covering the original names (I assume with the hopes of being able to use them again?). Our family will always call it The Ahwahnee, Wawona Hotel, Curry Village, etc. I want to say that the NPS is going to litigation over this.
I certainly hope the NPS does litigate but, with funding stretched to the limit and probably little interest in NP's and conservation from the incoming administration, I doubt that the the NPS will be able to anything about it. Sad state of affairs for the NPS.
At some point the thing will settle. What is the prior concessionaire going to do with the names? Open up an Ahwahnee Hotel in Manteca? They are still bidding for concessions on other national park properties, so common sense (Har!) would suggest they need to stay on the good side of the NPS. Why would the NPS ever grant them a concession in the future if they hold out for a gazillion dollars here? While I am rooting for the NPS on this, they aren't without blame in the whole thing, either. Why didn't they put something in past concession contracts about naming rights, copyrights, trademarks, etc.. And to be fair to Delaware North, as much as it hurts me to do so, when they acquired the first concession I believe they paid for a certain amount of this intellectual property and "good will" to the prior concessionaire, (Yosemite Park & Curry Co. ???).
My wife and I are heading up there later this winter. Looking forward to a night and dinner in the Grand Majestic Marigold Budapest Yosemite Hotel." In our hearts it will be The Ahwahnee.
God bless the law. “One attorney in town will starve to death but two of them in the same town can make a pretty good living.”
I wish this was a joke. After I posted the bit on the Trump Tenaya I googled Delaware North and found the following about a Trump victory lap fundraiser in Buffalo, where Delaware North is headquartered:
"Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman of Delaware North...is also listed as a sponsor. Delaware North owns the new Westin Hotel where the fund raiser will be held." http://buffalonews.com/2017/01/04/trump-fund-raiser-attracts-old-new-supporters/
Never liked the two font logo. Looked temporary and unfinshed. I'm OK with the horse and horseshoe, but can't disagree that it is busy and probably doesn't work well on caps, helmets and team uniforms.
That being said, I am old school and not excited about the new font itself. Looks like someone took nail clippers to the upper left corner of each letter, or like the dog-eared pages of used text books and magazines. I can see that font changing every 2-3 years when uniforms need to be replaced, just because....
Is this a new campuswide logo??? ... Looks like someone thought it was a cool look... in 1986. UCLA, UCB, and SB have always been better at these things.
I have seen other schools start to separate their athletic and academic branding in terms of appearance. Maybe that is what they are doing here, since they are using that "clipped corner" font all over the athletics site. I feel like if the University as a whole was updating branding, there would have been a committee and announcements.
In the last few years a lot of organizations have updated the logos to be more optimized for new media. Nowadays logos and wordmarks are used as profile pictures and most social media is viewed on mobile devices. So it has become more important that the logo is identifiable when it is the size of your fingernail on your phone. Fonts with thick and thin strokes (like the "UC" in UC Davis) are hard to read at small size. The issue of screen size is why the opening title sequence of new Disney movies just says "Disney" and not "Walt Disney Pictures" anymore. Just a hypothesis on this new athletic font.
Kind of related, I noticed that the Athletics site has a trademark symbol next to the phrase "#GoAgs". A year ago, that hashtag would yield results for several schools including NM State and Texas A&M, but now it seems to mostly refer to UC Davis. You can't really control what users do with a hashtag, but perhaps we have prevented other schools from officially promoting the phrase. If so, that is a slick move.