T-Day Special: The Unified Gold and Other Branding Updates

In a social media release this beautiful Friday morning, Tech unveiled its new shade of old gold, Tech gold, in the latest announcement regarding the Adidas brand refresh. This represents a massive shift from colors anywhere between black and royal blue or yellow and murky brown, countless fonts, and other inconsistencies that plagued Georgia Tech Athletics’ branding. All in all, it is an exciting standardization of one of college football’s most historic brands.

A note: this story could very well still be developing as of 8:05 AM EST, and we will continue to updated as From the Rumble Seat learns more.

8:20 AM: There’s a new website with lots of things to click on and explore about the new brand and new merchandise. Go give it a click.

For quite some time, Tech fans have been counting down to the end of the Russell Athletic contract. In fact, being a relatively recent addition to the Tech fold, one of the first articles I read on From the Rumble Seat when I got to Tech was this look into the state of the brand at the time by our very own Joey Weaver. Since then, the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, after a summer of speculation, announced the Institute would sign with Adidas once the legacy deal with Russell runs out on July 1st, 2018, via a press conference in McCamish Pavilion and an intriguing video on social media. In the meantime, the financial details of the contract have been discussed a little, but the most exciting parts of the contract, the colors, the fonts, and the logos that will be on every piece of merchandise, of which there will be a flood come the end of the old contract, have been kept under lock and key in the Edge Building.

Finally, today, the wait is up. All day I dream about shades (of gold), and Georgia Tech Athletics has one universal hue to use on the field, on uniforms, and in the bookstore. Like Athletic Director Todd Stansbury has said throughout the process, they took a bunch of different swatches and tried to pick the right one for the program’s message. Old gold represents the school’s strong heritage and selecting that color had to take into account the Tech legacy and also how the brand should be viewed today. One of the biggest considerations was matching Institute standards like the iconic gold of the Ramblin’ Reck that proudly leads the Yellow Jackets out of the tunnel every time they play at Bobby Dodd Stadium. On top of the new old gold, there’s a sharp new font. Take a look at the picture at the top of this post: the graphic standard in the end zone is brand new. To the left of center, pay attention to the T, and, particularly, the serifs on the letter. Now check out this picture of Tech Tower:

Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics

Now check out how Tech is printed in the south end zone:

As you can see, the letters are certainly derived from the most famous icon of the Georgia Tech campus, the neon letters high atop the Institute’s oldest building. Though the H has a modern looking edit, the letters ring true to the inspiration of Tech Tower, while still appearing fresh. Further inspection of the name of our state reveals the work the designers did to adapt the classic look to words on which it had never been used. It is quite refreshing to see the branding team consider the most famous parts of the Institute and incorporate them into the media millions will see on television, online, and in print around the globe. A brilliant step in the right direction, low resolution photo of the end zone not withstanding.

The only qualm that remains with the visual palette of Tech as a whole does not lie at the feet of the Athletic Association, but rather with the powers that be on the Hill. If the past is any indicator, academic administration will likely not see a major shift from their visual identity, that of white and “buzz gold.” It doesn’t make a lot of sense to invest in branding for Athletics just to use a slightly different identity for the rest of the Institute. Some construction signage around campus updated with old gold aside, publications from non-athletics sources remain unchanged and no hints of a broader, all-encompassing unification have been dropped by anyone in Tech Tower or the Carnegie Library. Change by evolution, not revolution means that any progress is healthy, and this represents positive growth. The new athletics brand spearheaded by Stansbury seems to be a resounding success, though, especially when considering how far the organization has come.

The apparel deal announcement left the fans with a little treat as well. According to the word on the street, bless their hearts, fans can also buy a limited selection of new merchandise from our friends at Adidas starting later today at the spring game, and, in the future, at the bookstore.

If more information is revealed, we will continue to provide the latest and greatest details in further edits of this piece. EDIT: Now you can check out the website athletics just posted. In the meantime, buckle up because it’s spring football time. The game starts at 7:00 PM at Bobby Dodd Stadium and it will be free for anyone interested in watching the Yellow Jackets both win and lose a football game. What a time to be alive.

Friday:
Spring Football Game
7:00 PM, Bobby Dodd Stadium