University searching for new athletic logo
Students could be seeing a new Ram logo as soon as next semester.
Sam Isaacs
Staff writer
Students could be seeing a new Ram logo as soon as next semester. The current logo is unlicensed and not trademarked, and VCU is looking for another logo to replace it.
The university sent out a Request for Proposal to the public last month with hopes of finding a new logo to be used in athletics. An RFP is an open call for competing groups to submit their idea for a requested service — in this case, a new logo. The deadline for submission was Feb. 12.
The RFP indicated that the logo could possibly be used on clothing, official documentation, landscape design, printed materials, souvenirs, media, banners and billboards.
“VCU wishes to have the logos completed in time to purchase next season’s uniforms,” according to the RFP. The VCU Athletic Department declined to make a statement on which season the RFP mentioned.
The instructions included in the RFP mandate that submitted logo designs must have the ability to be trademarked and look original enough to not be different from existing logos. VCU’s current logos are not trademarked, according to the RFP, because they are “too close to existing trademarked logos for other existing teams.”
The logo will be chosen by a committee of VCU staff members and could be used as early as next year.
Current360, a marketing and ad agency based in Louisville, Ky. and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. is one of the the groups that responded to the RFP and submitted their own take on the new ram logo.
“We were contacted through VCU’s purchasing department,” said Dennis Bonifet, Creative Director of Current360. “The piece we submitted is our recommendation for their ram logo. We are very happy with what we came up with. It would be great if it was selected.”
Bonifet also said the St. Louis Rams logo could be the trademarked logo that VCU is trying to distinguish itself from.
Several legal problems could arise for a school with an unlicensed logo; the original owner of the trademark could sue for copyright infringement if they felt their logo was being replicated.
The logo used by the baseball team also looks similar to the logo used by Vassar College in New York. Christopher Boswell, assistant sports information director at Vassar, said the logos had some key differences.
“The color and shapes are different,” Boswell said. “The only thing that is similar is the fact that we both use VC and the order of the layout. It’s not enough to prove trademark infringement.”
The VCU Athletics Department declined to make a statement on the reasons for releasing the RFP, the logo selection process or when the decision would be made, but noted that the committee handling the decision has yet to look at any of the submissions.
