Being a graduate of the MSU Graphic Design department I have a few choice words for the university after seeing the 'new' Bobcat logo and then discovering how much and to whom the university paid.

Old logo in blue, new logo in red

New logo in blue, old logo in red

Director of Athletics Peter Fields had this to say about the new logo:

We see these new identity elements as an investment in the program. They are truly unique to Montana State University and Bobcat Athletics. The timing of upgrading our logo and introducing Under Armour as our new uniform and apparel partner in the same general time frame could not have worked out better.”

The bobcat is obviously more animated and has more personality than the previous logo. It's not the design of the logo that has got my designer-side stupefied; it's how little of a change was made and how much we paid an out of state entity to do it. Doing a quick Google search I found out the university paid Torch Creative $18,000 to redesign the Bobcat logo and the "M." Both designers at Torch Creative are Texas school graduates.

Why not hire MSU Alumni to design our logo? Or have a student design it? That would look great on the resume of a Senior hoping to get a job after graduating. I should mention, making caricatures of animals for logos is one of the first assignments to Graphic Design students who pass the gate. Check out what a group of design students created last year for the Rail Jam! In the announcement on msubobcats.com they failed to mention who created the logo or why they chose them. I would like to know why the omission, MSU?

I know these points were all brought up during the last logo design in 2005. I even found these numerous opinion articles in the Chronicle referencing our outsourcing to Arizona designers for the last $20,000+ logo redesign. (See this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one) It appears the university did a great job of ignoring the pleas and concerns of the community with this current redesign.

I give the university an F and I think my years of tuition fees give me the right to do so.