Do not adjust your monitor. That horrible monstrosity you see at the top of the page is merely one of the worst visual identity changes in recent collegiate athletic (re)branding history. Following the creatively blind vision of the University of California system, Ohio State has confirmed that more often than not, from a creative sense anyways, less is not more. In a report by Karen Farkas of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio State unveiled a number of new identities Monday morning, the absolute worst being their new athletic logo.

Ohio State had been using a simple mark that had become known as the "Athletic O" as their primary point of visual identification since 1987. Prior to that, since the 1950's, they used the simple Block O, which still factors into alternate branding both athletically and through the university today. Under the new logo, Ohio State has essentially tried to de-80's-fy the logo, and the end product is equal parts nauseating and stranger than fiction.

Though Ohio State could've gone any number of directions with the new logo, they instead effectively rendered an end result that looks something like an Adobe Photoshop CS6 mistake from a first time attendee at a design camp. The biproduct is a mark that's unreadable at best, and appears to the naked eye as "O-S-E hio-tat" (tattoos? Get it?). While the minds behind the creative decision could've properly kerned the logo, instead they elected to take the easy way out and completely punt on crafting the typography. If you're going to update/rebrand something, you might as well do a full exploration and do it right, but instead the creative vision instead appeared to be "your front headlight is broken, how about we give you a full matte black paint job on the rest of the car?"

The Buckeyes will now be identified by that "Paint Bucket-Fill" revised athletic logo...and that's to say nothing of the ugly new mark to be showcased on diplomas moving forward:

via Cleveland.com

To the university's credit, at least the new academic logo/typography isn't totally terrible?

via Cleveland.com



