brianstl Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 I'm not sure if the trademark issue is real. For the longest time we didn't TM or license the new Billiken logo. It took us a decade to do that. A decent group of SLU graduated copyright lawyers could shut that down. SLU adopted the Billiken before anyone else. Our interpretation of it should take precedence. I don't think the issue was us not being able to use the crown mascot. If I recall what I heard correctly, it was that we couldn't stop other people from using it. The powers that be at the time wanted something distinct to SLU and that only SLU could use. This was back in the early Grawer days and I was in grade school at the time. Who knows if I am remembering it correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 I had a Nike team-issued one with the same logo, as well. Freaking Ian Mooney said I should take the white material out inside that gives it a more rigid stand-up crown (a la MLB) and make it a more natural crown. Of course, when he started to do that, the whole front became wrinkled and dumb looking. I still wore it until the stretch-fit band wore out. RIP, only piece of SLU gear I had with the best logo ever. I got a t-shirt last year with the crown face logo, and another one with the old basketball spinning full body Billiken. So they are definitely still using a variety of the old logos. I also still occasionally see people at games wearing stuff from the '80s with pinkish/flesh-colored Billiken faces. Those are slightly disturbing. Almost uncanny valley territory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 i worked in the athletic department (as a part-time student event worker) when the 80's new Billiken logo was introduced. It was not popular with students and there was some talk of formal protesting (there may have even been a little but I cannot remember) but nobody got that organized about it. I remember the artist that did it was friends with our SID at the time (the one after Andy Woods). There was not marketing firms involved; probably not many athletic dept. meetings either. I did not like it but I have thought the minor refinements since have been in the right direction. In the last two years of the "tuxedo" Billiken, the reason why the physical mascot appeared to have little energy and was a might scary was that he was probably drunk. He was a real fan but also used games as times to party (not paid). When we got a new cartoony Billiken there was also a better selection. As I was the one who selected the person one year I know there was little thought that went into who would don the costume (I chose not to get someone who necessarily was a big fan but one who was an energetic and out-going person--which worked). And while I am reminiscing just think how things have changed when our AD, (straight ahead) Jim Bakken was given the job simply because he was a sports guy (worked in TV business before SLU) and then left because community relations director at Wisconsin was a lateral or step-up move (he was a Wisconsin guy and probably thought maybe he could become AD there I suppose). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne's_World Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 The university has done a terrible job advertising this. Many students I have talked to don't even know we are rebranding, let alone about the unveiling tomorrow. Also, I could find ZERO information on the Billiken Athletics Facebook page. Unreal. AD is really struggling right now from what I hear, especially in terms of marketing. They are significantly understaffed because of all the high level position vacancies in the AD, and we didn't have a guy in charge of marketing for almost 5 months. The new guy from Stephen F Austin has a lot on his plate and they basically just threw him into the mess that they created by not establishing some sort of continuity with the previous people in charge. Not very good management if you ask me.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 AD is really struggling right now from what I hear, especially in terms of marketing. They are significantly understaffed because of all the high level position vacancies in the AD, and we didn't have a guy in charge of marketing for almost 5 months. The new guy from Stephen F Austin has a lot on his plate and they basically just threw him into the mess that they created by not establishing some sort of continuity with the previous people in charge. Not very good management if you ask me.... The SLU athletic department has always been a revolving door with regard to staff, especially lower to middle level staff. Over the years, I've been in a situation where it is beneficial to know who these people are and what they do. With the frequent turnover, that's pretty hard to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FromDaEastSide Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 AD is really struggling right now from what I hear, especially in terms of marketing. They are significantly understaffed because of all the high level position vacancies in the AD, and we didn't have a guy in charge of marketing for almost 5 months. The new guy from Stephen F Austin has a lot on his plate and they basically just threw him into the mess that they created by not establishing some sort of continuity with the previous people in charge. Not very good management if you ask me.... The Associate Athletic Director for External Operations position is still posted online, ie Marketing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenfan05 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Paging BigMouth: the king of I could do it better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbj14 Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 There is a billiken statue in the BSC that people keep shouting is the new design. I'm assuming they are freshmen because it is the current design and not new at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 i worked in the athletic department (as a part-time student event worker) when the 80's new Billiken logo was introduced. It was not popular with students and there was some talk of formal protesting (there may have even been a little but I cannot remember) but nobody got that organized about it. I remember the artist that did it was friends with our SID at the time (the one after Andy Woods). There was not marketing firms involved; probably not many athletic dept. meetings either. I did not like it but I have thought the minor refinements since have been in the right direction. In the last two years of the "tuxedo" Billiken, the reason why the physical mascot appeared to have little energy and was a might scary was that he was probably drunk. He was a real fan but also used games as times to party (not paid). When we got a new cartoony Billiken there was also a better selection. As I was the one who selected the person one year I know there was little thought that went into who would don the costume And while I am reminiscing just think how things have changed when our AD, (straight ahead) Jim Bakken was given the job simply because he was a sports guy (worked in TV business before SLU) and then left because community relations director at Wisconsin was a lateral or step-up move (he was a Wisconsin guy and probably thought maybe he could become AD there I suppose). I think Bakken was let go. He was hired to raise money and all he did was play golf. He could be found every day at Algonquin if the weather was decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 I think Bakken was let go. He was hired to raise money and all he did was play golf. He could be found every day at Algonquin if the weather was decent. That makes sense. He was never in the office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 That makes sense. He was never in the office. He also hired an official score keeper who wore his Missouri garb. That got him in hot water and he was gone the next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Oh good lord... http://shop.slubillikens.com/COLLEGE_Saint_Louis_Billikens_Mens/Saint_Louis_Billikens_Campus_Icon_Long_Sleeve_T-Shirt_-_Royal_Blue Thats a joke right? Did they put the current logo into a trapezoidal crusher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Oh good lord... http://shop.slubillikens.com/COLLEGE_Saint_Louis_Billikens_Mens/Saint_Louis_Billikens_Campus_Icon_Long_Sleeve_T-Shirt_-_Royal_Blue Yeah, this sort of sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 http://images.footballfanatics.com/FFImage/thumb.aspx?i=/productimages/_2261000/altimages/ff_2261554alt2_full.jpg&w=600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 It isn't great, but I guess it could have been a lot worse. I don't get the shadow on half the face thing they are doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgeldmacher Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, or worried it was going to be, but not good either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I don't think it's that bad, but if that's what we came up with, I don't understand the reason to change. Seems like the kind of logo that could be outdated in 10 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Looks like something a 4th grader would draw while daydreaming in school. It could have been worse but not better than what we had. I agree with those that were hoping we'd go back to the crowned billiken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I agree it isn't nearly as bad as I feared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 http://images.footballfanatics.com/FFImage/thumb.aspx?i=/productimages/_2261000/altimages/ff_2261554alt2_full.jpg&w=600 Is this the official one? With that font for the wordmark? The script has a very mid-century retro feel. I'm a little torn on the logo; the font would go well with some of our mid-century Billiken logos (my favorites, of course), but it actually does work together decently. It's not bad but it's not fantastic, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I don't think it's that bad, but if that's what we came up with, I don't understand the reason to change. Seems like the kind of logo that could be outdated in 10 years. Could be a good thing. Refreshing every now and then is good unless you have a truly awesome, classic, untouchable logo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLU_Nick Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I kind of like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Is this the official one? With that font for the wordmark? The script has a very mid-century retro feel. I'm a little torn on the logo; the font would go well with some of our mid-century Billiken logos (my favorites, of course), but it actually does work together decently. It's not bad but it's not fantastic, either. I doubt the font is the official font. If that is the case, it is good to see that they didn't even go 1 day without skipping over any sort of branding standards on official apparel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FromDaEastSide Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Looks like Shrek with the pointed ears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.