The purpose for Georgia’s news conference on Tuesday was for the Bulldogs to unveil their new secondary logo and some subtle changes they made to their uniforms. But it seemed the primary message Athletic Director Greg McGarity wanted to send was that nothing much was really changing.
The Bulldogs rolled out their “brand identity launch” with Nike at a news conference in the Nalley Multi-Purpose Facility.McGarity and Nike senior designer Clint Shaner took over the podium and, with high-quality enlarged photos placed on easels all around them, proceeded to explain the changes they’ve been plotting over the last 15 months to “promote a consistent and unified look across all sports.”
But McGarity emphasized that nothing was changed regarding the general look of the traditional football uniform or, most importantly, Georgia’s “Power G.”
“I want to make it really clear that this is not a re-branding process regarding the ‘G,’” said McGarity, a 1976 UGA graduate and the Bulldogs’ AD since 2010. “We’re not touching the G. That will never be altered as long as I’m here.”
McGarity said in evaluating all 20 teams Georgia fields, every team had a different number font and letter font and they felt the need to “bring some clarity to our program” by providing a consistent style across the board.
“We felt like we needed to provide more consistency for our program in all other sports,” McGarity said.
Over the last 15 months, Nike’s creative arm worked to identify what would lookbest. They actually created a font specifically for Georgia and called it “Bulldog Bold.” Lettering and numbering in Bulldog Bold will now appear on all uniforms.
“If we had kept it under wraps and not said anything before we ran out on the field for the Clemson game, nobody would have noticed,” McGarity said.
The most notable change was the addition of a secondary bulldog logo. Featuring wide bulldog head in a red, spiked collar, it was created only for “non-uniform use” and will be prominently displayed during G-Day near the two end zones and throughout Sanford Stadium. One UGA fan tweeted that it “looks too much like Spike from the Tom and Jerry cartoon.”
One sport was “grandfathered in” as far as using their old, unique logo and that was coach Andy Landers’ Lady Bulldogs’ basketball team. McGarity said they will be permitted to use that program’s “Script G” in a non-uniform capacity.
“That’s one sport where we’re very sensitive to that,” McGarity said. “The game uniform will have the Power G. But all the warm-up stuff and practice gear and all that will continue to have the Script G. We are sensitive to the tremendous job Andy has done of developing everything from the very beginning with that program and we’re very sensitive to that.”
The long-standing color palette of red, black, white and silver remains unchanged and the letters and numbers will be consistent on all uniforms.
Nike has been going through this branding process with three other schools the past year, though representatives declined to identify the others until they unveil their changes.
Georgia’s process, as it turns out, was as much about staying the same.
“We always like to push the envelope creatively,” Shaner said. “But I think it was important for this project was to do something that would stay true to Georgia.”
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