Pictured are North Union’s new trademarked school logos that were unveiled on Friday. The district still has to come up with a final color before the logos are complete. (Logos submitted)
With the sporting world on hold, the North Union School District is trying to take care of business in other aspects of its athletic department.
School officials recently released four new logos they plan to use,
The purpose is to rebrand the Wildcats and cut down on past logos in order to centralize North Union’s image.
“We just wanted to mainstream everything,” said athletic director Nick Hajjar.
The process to design and implement new logos came during a strategic planning committee meeting with the district last spring, according to Hajjar.
The committee sent out plans they came up with at the meeting to the community for feedback.
There was an overwhelming response for new logos, Hajjar said.
The district hired a graphic illustrator, Corey Hubbell, andcame up with four new logos.
They include a Wildcat head, paw print, block ‘N’ and Wildcat text.
Hajjar said school officials wanted to blend old with new, so they updated two previous designs, the paw print and block ‘N’, while adding a new style to the other official logos.
“The biggest challenge was the Wildcat head,” Hajjar said. “There were a lot of allegiances to different heads. We wanted to pay homage to the past, but also wanted something to move us into the future.”
Hajjar said there are also numerous variations to the Wildcat head that different schools use.
NU officials wanted to get theirs right and didn’t want it confused with any other animal.
“We had to be careful because we didn’t want it to look like a lion or any other animal, so we just kept narrowing it down until we found the one,” Hajjar said.
North Union has also decided to trademark its logos to protect its intellectual property.
“Our illustrator challenged us to go down that route and Rich Baird (North Union superintendent) wanted it as well,” said Hajjar. “When we found something that fit, we wanted to protect it.”
There is still work that needs to be done to finalize the logos. The district also wants to get a color that is specific to North Union and which will be the official color of the Wildcats, Hajjar said.
Once the fine details are hashed out, Hajjar said local businesses and school offices will be able to use the new logos for branding and printing.
“We will put together a style guide with the official logos and colors,” he said. “That will be sent out to businesses and around the school.”
Hajjar said fans and athletes will soonsee the new logos going up around the schools.
“We have been holding off on any new art because we knew this was coming,” Hajjar said. “We will see it in the new facility.”
The new logos will also be phased into the different teams, according to Hajjar.
“There is a financial component so when teams get new uniforms they will use one of these logos,” he said.