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I'm still trying to digest this new logo.

The fact that OSU won't comment means it's likely real.

This is my biggest issue: it doesn't convey OSU's reputation as a blue collar, hard working bunch. In fact, it doesn't convey anything. I look at it and literally feel nothing. I guess that's better than feeling repulsion while looking at the muskrat.

In short, better than looking at the muskrat, but I feel like we traded one logo that doesn't represent OSU for another.

Some things to consider:

  • If it is so difficult to make a logo, why make one at all (matte black helmets would be fine).
  • Why does the beaver have to look angry? The CA Parks logo is better than this one, and that beaver looks totally tame.

 

Open discussion.

150 COMMENTS

  1. This logo has the same lack of feel to it the inter-locking OS has to it; it’s different than its predecessor, more “modern,” but not necessarily an improvement. It ends up looking unresponsive to Oregon State University.

    • Right?

      They need one font and one logo across all sports. They need to make that font and logo blue collar and classy. There’s way too much imitation and concern over what a modern design should look like in these latest ideas (interlocking logo and now this). It’s like an author who writes with his audience’s reaction/opinion in mind rather than telling a heart felt story. You can feel these things in any art form (i.e. feels forced) and these haphazard fonts and logos are no exception. The interlocking fonts are a disaster. This logo is better than the last, but when the prior was one of the worst in college sports that’s not much of an achievement. They really should look at the Canada parks logo and take inspiration from that. And if something is hard to draw, don’t draw it. It’s just like in music…a musician doesn’t have to play notes every beat, that’s what rests are for. OSU needs a “rest” since when they “play notes” they’re sour.

  2. I’ve always thought the current logo is awful. A cross between not funny and not edgy. This logo is better. But the Giant Killer throwbacks were the best look, and they were universally loved. Why go away from that? Hopefully they can keep the giant killer throwbacks and just stick this Beaver-head patch on the shoulder or pants. Don’t even put it on the helmet.

  3. I don’t totally dislike this design, but at the same time, I feel like it could have been created by any student in a high school graphic arts program. Why spend a ton of money on having Nike working on this for years if this is the outcome. Feels like they mailed it in.

    Reminds me of the stock “insert college here” football t-shirts Nike puts out every year. They create a lazy generic football design, and slap the name of every team in the country over it and sell them in retail stores for $25 a pop. Every year is a slightly different design but that design is shared by every team.

    The Beavs got their own unique design, but it was created by the same lame-ass graphics team. This is not top-notch work that you would expect from a major re-branding campaign.

    https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRbWs_HN2MNpmntRbmBeeSVizfHK6m6SuQIFm7wpDJiTX56Sj0n

    https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSSrcR2Bks97D34KiZHbPVY-Sb1oGR0vtThL6cpmI_Vgn92GRny

    https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRgt9LN9dTpY-yrI0qgA90BVMIpxUPbexlpaAYBJbKC2k8HygxqHg

    https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQXT2Q8oEyz4LWIKpbB_0H-nW0y7YJSqbHSu3mDwvrmDnGnBLXp4A

    https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQr-A3bTvUJRdaGa8xZ7MWT7A1GZ5jRzDrSUgxikOokdwwPgHdX

  4. I feel like this is still trying too hard to be “modern” and “cutting-edge” and only ends up looking more painfully rodent-like. Which is not a good thing imo, as much as I love the Beavs. It seems like nearly every other team in the PAC (Stanford, UW, UA, Colorado) is content with using block letters on the sides of their helmets. Cal and UCLA still have the curly script going on, WSU has its own unique theme, ASU has the pitchfork, and SC has the same style that they seem to have for a long time, which to me is the most attractive style when you compare the “style” of OSU vs that of UO. The Beavs will probably never have the same brand-recognition as programs like SC or Alabama, but I think a style that is similar in its simplicity to the Giant Killers unis that we saw a couple years ago (that doesn’t change or keep trying to reinvent itself every four or five years) will go a long way towards setting OSU apart from the Ducks and their 10,000+ combinations. Kind of a “let’s get to work and play football and stop trying to have the ‘coolest’ looking (ie new) shit” mentality. I think most OSU fans are already tired of the yearly “omg guys have you seen the new duck uniforms, they’re so sickkkkkk”, so I don’t know why we wouldn’t create a “brand” that is completely the opposite of that, and stay with it.

  5. A lot of you just need to be honest with yourselves and realize that you weren’t going to like any new logo regardless of what it looked like.

    The change is a bit underwhelming, but I would bet that is what they were aiming for in a way. Maybe they didn’t want to completely change the image of Oregon State since we have actually established some recognition through various sports – even if it isn’t up to your standards. No sense in completely dumping the angry beaver because it does have decent value. Instead they just made it look a lot better.

    The Canada Parks logo is literally an outline drawing of a generic beaver – I somehow don’t believe that you would have been satisfied if something similar had been released.

    My first reaction was that it was okay but after seeing it on the helmet like in the picture above, I think it looks pretty great. Hopefully they don’t see the need to write “Beavers” under it.

    • The Parks Canada logo is pretty cool. It’s not edgy or pretentious. It’s simple and cool.

      That said, I actually like this new one as it’s presented without the “axe” outline. I don’t know how they would make it work on an orange or white shirt/uni/whatever. Maybe they could place it inside a black oval and make it look like a badge?

      The two-dot eye still sort of bugs me. but I like the rest without the outline. So even if we go forward with the outline, maybe someone will realize it looks good without one of these years and fix it with a minor modification.

      • “Maybe they could place it inside a black oval and make it look like a badge?”

        Isn’t that how Penn State deals with it? That’s not a criticism, just wondering.

        Ahh it’s almost funny. The Canucks, with a governmental department, process and budget, have outdone OSU and Nike in developing a beaver logo…maybe because its their national animal, not just a state (province) animal, so more resources were dedicated to the effort…

  6. “This is my biggest issue: it doesn’t convey OSU’s reputation as a blue collar, hard working bunch. In fact, it doesn’t convey anything. I look at it and literally feel nothing. I guess that’s better than feeling repulsion while looking at the muskrat.”

    agreedd!!!

  7. It’s tempting to get a helmet, go to a good auto-restoration shop, and have them do a proper matte black paint job with an Orange block “O” and send the thing to BDC. By the way, I’d like to see one with facemask options of white and orange.

  8. I suppose I don’t love or hate the new logo (if this really is the new logo), though I will say it has grown on me over the last few days.

    My guess is that it actually is pretty hard to come up with something good. Out of curiosity, what would a “blue collar” and “classy” beaver logo look like? Are you envisioning the beaver actually being part of it? Is this a beaver carrying a lunch pail and wearing a hard hat? Or maybe a beaver with a tuxedo t-shirt? Cause the beaver knows how to be formal, but he’s still down to party.

  9. We may have done this before, but if you had to pick 3 teams who combination of logo, colors, and uniforms, you liked and thought appropriate for a school like OSU, who would it be? A few I can think of would be:

    Chicago Bears (Orange);
    Penn State; and
    Auburn.

    • It’s not football, but the SF Giants lettering would look cool for the OS logo. They make Black/Orange uniforms look good on a consistent basis

    • I like the orange and old school” look of Chicago uniforms, not the “C” font for OSU;

      Like the simplistic penn state nittany lion graphic, and the fact they don’t need to paste it on a helmet and everything else;

      Like the Auburn use of letters on the helmet, relatively simple uniform, again, kind of “old school,” but not stale.

      I really don’t think the “Giant Killers” were far off; put an intensely orange block “O” on at least one side of a matte black helmet (uniform number on the other?), orange facemask, narrow the white helmet stripes or remove them, shorten the jersey numerals, (they were too tall and made the players’ torsos look weird) use black instead of brown for jersey color. Have an orange jersey version. Bingo. A team that looks like it blocks, tackles, runs the ball, throws the ball, catches the ball, scores more points than it allows, and is maybe just a little bit secure in itself.

  10. OT here are the starters for this weekend, sorry if this has been posted already
    @Beaver_Baseball
    Probable starters for this weekend: Fri.-LHP Ben Wetzler vs. RHP Devin Nelson (UVU) | Sat.-RHP Taylor Starr vs. LHP Marco Gonzales (GU) …
    @Beaver_Baseball
    Sun.-LHP Matt Boyd vs. LHP Ben Doucette (UCR) | Mon.-RHP Dan Child vs. RHP Mitch Patito (UCR). #gobeavs

    • Looking like a Wetzler-Boyd-Child weekend rotation with Starr as the weekday starter. That’s not a bad rotation. I think Starr will be pretty good this season. He was inconsistent at times last year but really solid overall. Looking forward to the start of the season

  11. TO: Phil Knight

    From: Design Team, North Campus, B21-56F Internal Memo

    Mr. Knight…. We have a potential problem in regards to the re-branding effort on behalf of Oregon State University.

    As you know we have been working closing with a certain Mr. BDC. It appears that he has made a decision and wants to proceed with an entire re-branding.

    The problem is that the design he has picked was not designed by our staff. It was created by one of our designers four year old daughter. She called it Mr. Ratty. As such is was pinned up in his office. Somehow it fell off the wall and included in the options presented to Mr. BDC. He loves it and wants us to proceed.

    At this point we need some direction as to how to proceed. It is the sentiment of the Design Team that “Mr. Ratty” is not reflective of our best work, but then again “the customer is always right”

    Please advise how to proceed. We would hate for this story to reach the public. In our opinion the Beavers have suffered enough.

    Respectfully Submitted,

  12. Again, you guys are debating the impossible…..there is no way to make a Beaver look like anything that resembles an effective sports mascot. Please accept this fate however unjust it seems and move on. The logo could be a beaver hanging upside down dead in a trap and I would still root just as hard for my team.

  13. Hey…..the double dots for the eye makes it look nuts, so maybe the kids will like it…..

    Seems to me it looks even more like a muskrat than the old one.

    But it should have been done just after the 3-9 season. Then it could have ridden the new success into huge sales….

    …or maybe with that logo he goes winless….hey, take a chance…

  14. This new logo is likely the helmet logo and placed in that context was done reasonably well. The field won’t have this logo on it. Amongst the whole and with the new unis I think the big picture can still be a very good look that serves OSU well for the next 10+ years. Could it be better? Sure. But even if we get a pretty strong and bold look now it will be fairly typical within 3 or 4 years anyway. Better to be ahead of the curve now and right in the sweet spot for several years to come as far as attracting recruits and more of the younger generation across the country into being OSU fans.

    Confident Oregon State’s New Look will be Good:
    http://beaverbyte.com

  15. The helmet mockup looks like a rooster with a big comb. It is Arena Ball. It is an updated clone of the Iowa Hawkeye. Next will be a name change to a pr concept. The Revolution, the Avalanche, the Clash…the OS Natural Water Impoundment Structure.

  16. When Tinker Hatfield started this process, he said he wanted to project the lunchpail U aspect of OSU in simple terms as opposed to the holes glitzy style. Kind of going after the Giant Killer uni type. I hope this isn’t the result of that effort. In the back of my mind I see Nike wanting to paint OSU as the court jesters to show superiority in the Oregon brand. Hopefully they have kept this all under wraps till spring.

  17. OT – Kiffin, USC having a poor off-season with late losses of recruits, coaching instability:

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ci_22569139/college-football-oregon-state-o-line-coach-turns

    It’s good for OSU if Kiffin stays there, probably bad for the PAC-12 in terms of how the league is viewed in context of other leagues.

    I wonder if Cavanaugh had any serious interest in the position, or it was more polite listening and/or leveraging for a pay raise. He’d certainly get the opportunity to coach some of the best O-lineman talents in the league and that’s maybe attractive, but I could see he’d be concerned about the longevity of the Kiffin regime.

  18. My thinking is that OSU is not really needing an immediate rebranding of it’s athletics program. The reason is because OSU is not a high profile athletics school. If the logos were changed, would the rest of the nation notice? Would the rest of the PAC12? Not likely. The majority of the impact would be in Oregon.

    Having a lot of fans wanting a rebrand doesn’t make it something that had to happen right now. I’ve tried searching for any good looking beaver logos across the internet. I have come to the conclusion that there is not one good beaver logo out there. It doesn’t seem anyone can make a great beaver logo. every one is cartoonish.

    I am not sure what the fan base wants either…..a modern look, retro, modern retro? Futuristic? Doesn’t seem to be an consensus and possible logos just keep coming out of the nowhere. I was never and probably won’t be sold on the OS interlocking logo.

    If there was a major rebranding, I think the emphasis should be focused more on Beavers than Oregon State. Outside Oregon, people always get confused Ducks or Beavers. More emphasis on the mascot should create a differentiation between the Oregon schools on the national stage. If OSU wants the create a national brand, it needs to answer the question I hear constantly “OSU is that the ducks or beavers?”

    Maybe have promotional items say the Beavers of Oregon State. Ask announcers to use Beavers instead of saying Oregon St.

    Oregon created their brand and have done a great job doing it, we’re playing catch up. Trying to create a differentiation between Oregon and Oregon State is difficult. To do Beavers vs Ducks/Oregon/Cowboys/Buckeyes is easier.

  19. RUMOR: Heard another message board was saying Malcom Agnew was transferring to Southern Illnois.

    Have not been able to confirm anything, anybody else see anything?

    • It’s reasonable attrition. Injuries and handle have put him down on the depth chart, and Haskins and Mattison aren’t going to sit behind him for long, if ever.

      Also start looking for fourth and fifth year guys who are graduating this spring or who have had injury issues to start leaving the team.

    • That is why they recruited and signed two backs. Even if Agnew were to stay, someone is leaving. Same can be said for other positions recruited this cycle where multiple recruits were stacked up. Just don’t expect a press release announcing it to the world.

    • Competition is good. Especially when you’ve got a converted RB (Stevenson), a short RB (Marable) as back-up CBs. The return game should get more competitive and improve as well.

    • It sounded like he just missed another wide open shot and the Cougs came down and hit a three. Another one of those damned 5 point swings again. Instead of up 14 only up 9.

  20. Beavs should send Brock Motum a thank you card for scoring in the beavs basket in the last few minutes. Without Brock scoring for us, we lose. Thank you Brock ya big douche!

    • I mean, maybe, things could have gone any kind of way if he hadn’t done that. But I certainly didn’t mind that. And hopefully that’s the last time OSU faces Brock Motum. He’s such an annoying player and almost always kills OSU. Tonight he helped out though.

      • I didn’t see the game (damn directv!!!!) but judging by the box score Motum was just average tonight. Personally I think Motum is over rated. But in his defense he doesn’t have much help on that team. DaVonte Lacey was who single handedly brought them back.

        • Beavers have done a solid job against Motum this year, shooting numbers have been so-so, last year he killed them. He’s still gonna get his points though. Just something about him is pretty damn annoying, almost like E.J. Singler at Oregon.

  21. OT, but look at this assessment of potential top NFL talent. Beavers faced 9 out of 40 of these players, pretty impressive.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130206/2013-nfl-big-board-2/

    On a related note, I’ve seen some WR rankings and was surprised how low Wheaton was. on some of them. Some had Michigan’s Dernard Robinson higher, ridiculous. He did very well at the senior bowl, and I’m sure some NFL scouts have their eye on him. I have a feeling Wheaton will make somebody happy by round 3. With top WRs going 200-220 these days, he looks skinny/light, and that probably doesn’t help. Wouldn’t mind seeing him end up in Seattle.

    • What a mess of a post:

      On a related note, I’ve seen some WR rankings and was surprised how low Wheaton was. Some had Michigan’s Dernard Robinson higher, ridiculous. WHEATON did very well at the senior bowl, and I’m sure some NFL scouts have their eye on him. I have a feeling Wheaton will make somebody happy by round 3. With top WRs going 200-220 these days, he looks skinny/light, and that probably doesn’t help. Wouldn’t mind seeing him end up in Seattle.

      • There’s probably some scouts lowballing him so they can pick him up in later rounds and call him a “steal”. Happens all the time.

        I would be surprised if he fell below the late 2nd rd. A 40 time of around 4.45 should solidify a 2nd round slot.

  22. BREAKING: @JHuntweet Already without Jace Fry (elbow), Pat Casey will begin the 2013 season without starters Ben Wetzler (back) and Taylor Starr (shoulder), too.

    @beaverkman
    @JHuntweet What? Didn’t @Beaver_Baseball name them starters for this weekend??

    ?@JHuntweet
    Some late dings. We don’t know the severity. Freshman Andrew Moore will get a start.

      • Angry, I know you aren’t bullish on Wetzler but along with Conforto he’s on the USA Baseball Golden Spikes watch list (their top 50 players in the nation). 11 PAC-12 players on the list.

        For some reason it looks like Schultz will be the long relief anchor. With his performance at the end of the season last year I figured he’d be a regular starter this year.

      • Replacing Wetzler with Schultz is not a good idea. Wetzler is good and Schultz is probably best for this team as a long reliever/middle reliever

  23. I don’t see anything on BeaverNationOnline about streaming baseball game video this season. And hardly any are picked up by P12-network yet. Are we going to get to watch any baseball?

  24. The logo: keep in mind Univ. of Oregon had several logos (can’t find them) that went public that never “flew” before the final toilet seat was revealed. These included duck heads and other failed attempts at depicting their mascot.

    We’ll see…

    Don’t you think this Beaver logo is a …decoy/fake/teaser/nothing to do with Nike… for the final presentation?

    I do.

    • “Don’t you think this Beaver logo is a …decoy/fake/teaser/nothing to do with Nike… for the final presentation?

      I do.”

      I agree.

      I think it’s a real Nike logo, but I think it’s for this line of shirts: http://bit.ly/WLB8vs

      I think it’s an angry beaver redesign and may never end up on a helmet. Or maybe it’s a once a year helmet design at best. The real thing will be better.

      Nike doesn’t usually accidentally reveal anything before they want to. It’s impossible for me to believe that they accidentally sent out a bunch of shirts with the actual new logo.

  25. @MikeCoppage
    2013 Warren Easton LB Edward Williams continues to weigh options, really likes Texas Tech. Also considering Tulane, Miami, Oklahoma.

    Nothing on Tatum Taylor

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