Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor

Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

After a design process that has lasted almost one year, the Athletics Department, in collaboration with the Office of Marketing and Communications, has finalized a new athletics logo to replace the current Viking head icon.

The new logo maintains the historic Viking head imagery, depicting a Viking helmet within the same shield shape used in the college’s logo. According to Director of Creative Services Natorio Howard, the new logo is meant to be an evolution of Berry’s existing iconography.

“It’s an update to the current Viking head,” Howard said. “It’s a more sleek design, it’s a little bit more, I would say, futuristic. It’s kind of a little bit abstract–it’s not personified.”

The new Viking head is intended to preserve some of the elements of the old logo. It uses Berry’s primary colors of blue and silver and keeps with the Viking theme. Mason said the logo was designed to present well in many different applications.

The Office of Marketing and Communications announced last spring that it would introduce a more consistent athletics wordmark and a replacement for the Viking head. The college unveiled the new wordmark last July, but the search for a Viking head replacement has taken longer than expected.

Marketing and Communications solicited student ideas for the logo when the rebranding was announced. The office selected two designs, depicting Viking longships, to develop further. Due to lukewarm response to these ideas in focus groups made up of students, staff and coaches, the redesign team returned to Berry’s current branding.

“In hearing [athletes, coaches and alumni] feedback around a ship–it’s just such an inanimate object, it doesn’t really say ‘us,’” Mason said. “We’re staying the Vikings. Much of that was, it’s time to find what is going to fit being Vikings.”

Howard, along with Mason, worked alongside several committees. The athletics administrative team, as well as head coaches, were joined by several Student Government Association (SGA) officers, other student life representatives, the Student-Athlete Advisory committee and members of the Board of Trustees. A council of alumni was also consulted. These teams gave feedback on the various logo propositions.

“Our mindset coming into this was making sure that everybody was heard and having a look that could be cohesive with all of our branding,” Howard said. 

The rebranding team decided to pause design efforts last fall to conduct listening sessions with these groups. Based on the feedback from these sessions, the creative team then prepared many different designs for these groups to critique.

“The designs, they were plentiful–easily 30 to 40 different designs that came out of that,” Mason said. “We narrowed that down to a top six. We showcased those top six amongst all those groups again.”

According to Mason, two of the designs received especially favorable feedback from several focus groups. After evaluating how the designs worked in context, the team put the two logos to a vote. There was a broad consensus in favor of the final design.

“Each time it was almost unanimous in those top two,” Mason said. “Even of those top two, we asked for their feedback on, I know you like it the most, but what would make it more practical, what could you see. And then we used those comments to tweak it later on.”

The final design is a departure from the original intent of the rebranding effort. The President’s Office, when announcing the redesign, said that the Viking head was inconsistent with Berry’s support of men and women’s athletics. Mason said that new Viking head’s connection to Berry’s past was an important factor in its selection.

“I’m really proud that we were able to keep some of the history of who we are while continuing to move us forward,” Mason said.

While the mascot will continue to be a Viking, it will be redesigned, according to Mason. The mascot costume will be updated with a new design and improvements such as cooling packs inside for costume wearers. These changes are not expected to be rolled out until Fall 2024.

The new logo’s rollout will be a multi-step process. According to Mason, the logo will first be used on athletes’ uniforms next fall. The mark will then appear on merchandise to be given away at special events before being sold on apparel in the Shipyard. Spots on campus with the old logo will be updated when scheduled renovations are due. Mason hopes that athletics will be able to refocus with the new logo in place. 

“The first thing we need is to focus our attention back on being competitors and not have so much attention [on the logo],” Mason said. “Our alignments with our identities are now clear with the B and the shield and our secondary logo will represent who we are as the Vikings. The logos speak to each other as the Vikings.”