Charlie the Charger has received a facelift.
The Hillsdale College Athletic Department unveiled its new slew of logos in a press release on Aug. 8, including a new Charger, a modified Hillsdale “H,” and stylized “Hillsdale” and “Chargers” fonts in an effort to create consistency across all of Hilllsdale’s sports teams.
“The conversation started three or four years ago about the lack of uniformity in terms of color, branding, and logos,” said Director of Athletic Communication, James Gensterblum. “Some teams had a variety of different shades of blue. We had the horse head and the lightning bolt but they were all being used a little differently. We looked at other collegiate athletic groups, and they were all much more uniform than we were.”
Once the need for a rebrand became apparent, the athletic department began work with both the college’s marketing and financial teams to create new brand guidelines.
“We started working with the marketing department and the financial affairs department, who gave us more funds to execute the project,” Associate Athletic Director Josh Calver said. “Because of the help from financial affairs, all teams will be able to wear the new uniforms. This is really the first time we’ve developed a brand guide for the department.”
Despite the size of the project, most of the work was able to remain in house.
“We realized that this wasn’t a process that would be wise to handle on our own, so we brought the whole college into it,” Gensterblum said. “The logo was designed by Bryan Springer and our marketing department, who went through several iterations before landing on this one. They designed the new font and typeface for our brand. We really included all the departments of the college to end up with what you see today.”
Due to the amount of people involved, the process lasted more than four years.
“There are a number of reasons that it took quite some time, one of which being that it was a pretty extensive overhaul between the visual brand and coming into agreements with outside partners to secure the brands,” Calver said. “There were a lot of pieces of the puzzle from the athletic department’s thoughts, to the college departments, all the way up to Larry Arnn himself.”
New partner BSN Sports signed a three-year contract with the college, and will facilitate the production of new uniforms for all 16 official Charger teams.
“We had to switch out all of our old brands and get our new gear through BSN,” Football head coach Keith Otterbein said. “We’ve been here for two weeks at early camp and the team’s been sporting their new stuff around and seem proud of it. I can’t speak for all of them, but they seem very excited about the change and representing our school this season.”
The athletic department solicited the thoughts of players and coaches throughout the redesign process.
“They asked us for input early on in the process, all of the coaches’ opinions and some of the players as well,” Otterbein said. “I think they did a really good job of studying that and finding what we want to represent here at Hillsdale.”
The athletics department says the response to the rebrand has been generally positive so far.
“Every time you make a change like this, not everyone is going to be happy,” Gensterblum said. “But I think in general people really understand what we were trying to do with this rebrand, and most people have been really receptive to it.”
