The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) has been a symbol of high academic and athletic achievement within NCAA Division III since it’s founding in 1962. Equally symbolic throughout the majority of the conference’s history has been its timeless blue oval icon.
Coinciding with its 30th anniversary celebration in the 2020-2021 academic year, the conference is proud to announce an updated depiction of its iconic mark, the cornerstone of a rejuvenated, comprehensive brand identity system.
For the project, the conference partnered with New Jersey-based Skye Design Studios (www.sdsbranding.com), a national leader in sport branding and long-time ambassador on behalf of Division III.
Following an in-depth brand assessment in early-2020 that engaged SCAC student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and alumni, it was determined that rather than making a full departure from its roots, an evolved blue oval icon - complete with refined SCAC initials - would enable the conference to leverage 30 years of brand equity from the mark while injecting new features that could be activated into a more dynamic and multi-functional identity system.
"There is no doubt the conference has undergone quite a bit of change over the last few years, so in that regard, a logo refresh seemed appropriate. We were purposeful, however, in going the route of a refresh, as opposed to a complete overhaul. Although the membership may look different today than it did 30 years ago, the standards and core values that our blue oval stand for remain steadfast. We believe Skye Dillon and his team at SDS landed on the perfect balance with our new primary mark, capturing the tradition of the SCAC while reimagining our logo into a version that is much more modern, contemporary and exciting."
- Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Commissioner
One of these new features designates athletic gold as an official secondary color for the conference. Notably, the tapered, gold brackets introduced to the oval design form a graphic framing device that naturally carries over to a full family of sport-specific marks.
This same sport-specific imagery anchors the new SCAC championship logo system, embedded within a template capped by the conference's championship trophy silhouette.
Intended to function perpetually, this layout can be modified to feature text for any specific event - complete with the correlating year - and commemorate sport-specific champions by incorporating member-specific logos and colors.
Finally, an icon animation sequence and brand anthem theme music were developed to heighten media-related segments of the SCAC brand experience.
ICON ANIMATION
BRAND ANTHEM
"Dwayne and his team have been great at prioritizing the use of different media - from podcasts, to videos, to social channels - as a strategy to enhance brand engagement. With this in mind, creating interactive assets such as the animation and anthem which are relevant to that space was key to helping the conference achieve its overarching branding goals and add value in the process."
- Skye Dillon, SDS Founder
An official style guide was created to articulate the power of the SCAC brand, organize each of its updated assets, demonstrate proper application, and equip the conference with a universal manual to unify deployment among membership for years to come. This guide is accessible as a public resource on SCACSports.com.