The University of Hartford Athletics Department unveiled a new logo for the Hartford Hawks men’s and women’s sports teams this summer, just in time for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Members of the University community, including coaches, alumni, donors, and President Walter Harrison and Athletic Director Anton Goff were in attendance for the event at NIXS Restaurant in Hartford.
The new logo, a red hawk soaring between two columns forming an italicized ‘H,’ and the secondary logo, a front view of a red hawk with its wings unfurled and baring its talons, complementing the new Hartford Hawks word font, were created by the 160over90 branding agency, the same agency hired by the University to rebrand the school’s logo and its overall image.
In only his first year as athletic director for the University of Hartford, succeeding former AD Pat Meiser, Director Goff has transformed the image of the Division I school. He says his goal with rebranding the Hawks logo was to get as much input on the matter as possible, from all points of the University community.
“I’m the type of guy that likes collaboration,” Goff says. “I didn’t want to make this decision in a vacuum.”
Student-athletes, administrators, coaches, and even members of the Student Government Association were asked to give their input on the new logo by 160over90, who took the school’s “Hawk Nation Domination” mantra and created a number of different possibilities for the new Hawks image.
The school made its first changes to replacing the former Hawks logo by removing the old logo from the roof of the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion and adding the new ‘H’ to the center.
The inside of the arena also saw a new makeover, as the entire basketball court was pulled up and replaced with new hardwood flooring, and a new color scheme with the new ‘H’ logo at center court, and the secondary hawk logo at both ends of the court . The individual hawk logo itself, separated from the ‘H,’ is also included, adorning the red boundary sections of the court, with the school’s website and #HawkNationDomination painted.
Overall, Director Goff estimates the costs of everything relating to the new logo around $400,000, but he says the school plans to continue to transition over to the new logo in phases, with changes potentially coming to Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium, Fiondella Field, and the Hartford Softball Field in the near future.
The feedback from the logo reveal has been very positive, according to Goff, who hopes this new logo will make the University of Hartford stand out from the rest as a true competitor in the world of collegiate sports.
“What I wanted to do was make sure that we owned our own unique space, and hopefully with this brand identity…Hartford Hawks stands alone,” Goff says.
