New VCU T-shirt design fresh off the press

Austin Walker
Staff Writer

Armed with a new logo, the VCU Athletics Department will be supplying VCU fans with fresh shirts to synchronize the stands’ colors during the men’s basketball season.

For the 2014-15 athletic season at VCU, a committee was brought in for the redesign of the VCU brand, which will be featured in all the upcoming merchandise that is distributed to the VCU men’s basketball game attendees.

Glenn Hofmann, executive associate athletic director at VCU, led the committee which coordinated with more than 30 different companies, ultimately working with Rickenbaugh Graphics in the redesign of the logo. The committee consisted of coaches, staff members, donors, season ticket holders and VCU students. They set out to freshen up the university’s look and to make the school’s image more appealing in preparation for the upcoming athletic seasons.

“At this point in VCU’s history, athletics is more visible than it’s ever been. That’s why when we put our committee together we were really conscious that we had a really wide representation,” Hofmann said. “Then, when Rickenbaugh Graphics came back to us, we asked them to give us ultimately three visual identity finals.”

The company received a positive response after showing the graphics to members of the student body, athletes, faculty members and fans. After minor tweaking they came to the logo seen currently, which will be displayed throughout the Siegel Center and on all of the new VCU merchandise.

In a press release following the unveiling of the new logo, VCU Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said the design will represent VCU.

“When our fans and our student-athletes walk down the street with these logos on their shirt, they can do so proudly,” McLaughlin said.

The redesign of the logo comes with the new wave of gear that will be given out during the 2014-15 men’s basketball season. At four home games, fans will find an originally designed shirt following each game’s selected theme. This year, the shirts will appear at the white-out, black-out, gold-out, and stripe-the-Stu games where a black and gold checkered pattern will cover the stands.

Ryan McLane, assistant athletic director for marketing, currently oversees the design for the shirts. McLane worked for two years in the athletics marketing department for the University of Oklahoma, then worked as an athletic marketing director for Utah State University, and finally came to VCU in 2013.

“We may have an idea of what we’re looking for in the shirts,” McLane said. “Sometimes it is something as simple as ‘We just want to put our logo on it,’ and sometimes it’s a little bit more creative.”

The atmosphere brought on by the student enthusiasm has garnered national attention. The student section is regarded as being extremely spirited, and in the games where shirts are given out a uniform black, gold or white surrounds the court. On the entertainment website Buzzfeed, the VCU Rams were named one of the most spirited student bodies in the country and in 2013, they earned the Naismith Student Section of the Year Award.

“I think our student section is as good as anybody’s around. I think our fans in general, specifically our students, give us a big life and a lot of energy,” said head coach Shaka Smart after accepting the award. “I’ve always said there’s a real strong connection here, more so than any school I’ve ever been at, between the students and the players.”

Dec. 6 against the University of Virginia will be a white-out game. Jan. 31 is the black-out game against University of Richmond. Feb. 21 will be the stripe-the-Stu game against the University of Massachusetts. The final gold-out game will be Feb. 28 at VCU’s homecoming game against the University of Dayton.