[Rally]

What do you think?



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Rally]

What do you think?



[attachment deleted by admin]

[BostonCard]

I like it generally.  The style is very nice, and the stadium picture in the background is great.  There are some legibility issues around a red Stanford with transparency over a red and white background.  Specifically, the F looks like a P because the red uniform looks like it closes the letter.  The O looks like a C or a G because the right side is overlying some white numbers, making it look like an open letter.  The R just looks off.  Also, it just looks a little busy.  I would either shift around the background to make it so that it is more aligned with the text (i.e., the open portion of the F is on a white number instead of a red uniform), reduce the alpha on the text, or move the text so it is not overlying the players.

BC

[BostonCard]

I like it generally.  The style is very nice, and the stadium picture in the background is great.  There are some legibility issues around a red Stanford with transparency over a red and white background.  Specifically, the F looks like a P because the red uniform looks like it closes the letter.  The O looks like a C or a G because the right side is overlying some white numbers, making it look like an open letter.  The R just looks off.  Also, it just looks a little busy.  I would either shift around the background to make it so that it is more aligned with the text (i.e., the open portion of the F is on a white number instead of a red uniform), reduce the alpha on the text, or move the text so it is not overlying the players.

BC

[rudruff]

More glasses and tape.

[rudruff]

More glasses and tape.

[Hulk01]

Don't see how this reinforces the current brand. 
Seems off-brand, frankly.

"Inspire. Champions."  What does this mean? 
Is there a less inspiring way to convey "inspire" than "Inspire, period, Champions, period. 

It tries--I think--to convey an inspiring message with a staid, conservative, and quiet design. 
If you want to remove the fire from the color Cardinal, could you choose a better color than Sand?

Why a retro look?  Isn't the essence of Stanford that it is forward-thinking, innovative? 
The first IPad playbooks, the first body cooling gloves, the T formation, Plunkett and the West Coast, Air Coryell? 
Bill Walsh?
The Silicon Valley? 

It looks like this could be a design for the Vow Boys. 
I simply do not get this or any part of it.

[Hulk01]

Don't see how this reinforces the current brand. 
Seems off-brand, frankly.

"Inspire. Champions."  What does this mean? 
Is there a less inspiring way to convey "inspire" than "Inspire, period, Champions, period. 

It tries--I think--to convey an inspiring message with a staid, conservative, and quiet design. 
If you want to remove the fire from the color Cardinal, could you choose a better color than Sand?

Why a retro look?  Isn't the essence of Stanford that it is forward-thinking, innovative? 
The first IPad playbooks, the first body cooling gloves, the T formation, Plunkett and the West Coast, Air Coryell? 
Bill Walsh?
The Silicon Valley? 

It looks like this could be a design for the Vow Boys. 
I simply do not get this or any part of it.

[Leftcoast]

I like the way the straightforward and grainy image evokes tradition and continuity.  I get Hulk's point but Stanford football fits well with that style choice in a way that basketball doesn't (at least in my mind.)  These guys are just the next to represent Stanford in a string of excellence.  Plus tradition, strength, discipline and old style virtues personify football as a sport but aren't the descriptors that spring to mind when I think basketball.  In yet another season where everything is changing invoking continuity isn't a bad thing.

One minor point.  I don't like the mismatched background words - "Inspire.  Champions."  The two words are placed together and separated by full stops in a way that suggests they are intentionally joined qualities, perhaps as two elements in a list.  Yet when we look at the list we find that one quality is a verb and the other a noun.    As a counter example two nouns such as "Warriors. Champions." work together;  Two verbs such as "Inspire. Excite." work.  "Inspire. Champions." are words that are mismatched and unintentionally jarring.

I'm probably thinking too analytically.

[Leftcoast]

I like the way the straightforward and grainy image evokes tradition and continuity.  I get Hulk's point but Stanford football fits well with that style choice in a way that basketball doesn't (at least in my mind.)  These guys are just the next to represent Stanford in a string of excellence.  Plus tradition, strength, discipline and old style virtues personify football as a sport but aren't the descriptors that spring to mind when I think basketball.  In yet another season where everything is changing invoking continuity isn't a bad thing.

One minor point.  I don't like the mismatched background words - "Inspire.  Champions."  The two words are placed together and separated by full stops in a way that suggests they are intentionally joined qualities, perhaps as two elements in a list.  Yet when we look at the list we find that one quality is a verb and the other a noun.    As a counter example two nouns such as "Warriors. Champions." work together;  Two verbs such as "Inspire. Excite." work.  "Inspire. Champions." are words that are mismatched and unintentionally jarring.

I'm probably thinking too analytically.

[teejers1]

In this day and age, I'm surprised it doesn't read "#Inspire.  #Champions."

This is an important season for the continued vitality of the program.

[teejers1]

In this day and age, I'm surprised it doesn't read "#Inspire.  #Champions."

This is an important season for the continued vitality of the program.

[yvonne]

I would have made different choices regarding transparency. Perhaps, the message is that the players and Stanford are together and of equal weight, but like Boston Card, I think the letters and player images fight each other. Given that the image has the Block S, the 1-800-STANFORD, and www.gostanford.com, I think the Stanford branding is strong enough. I would probably change the color to brown, and set the transparency level at between 30 and 50 percent. That way, we hint at Stanford, rather than shouting it again. We could even remove the word Stanford and still convey the same message.

I think the branding is appropriate. Tan is almost more synonymous with Stanford than cardinal. It's everywhere, and has been since 1891, before, if you're counting when the school was being constructed. The parchment is old school, which is how the football program has been branding itself since Harbaugh. A single player isn't featured because we don't have a single player who's the face of the program.

I had to make similar choices with the layout of the page templates. The message body is set to 90. I wanted to still hint at the sandstone walls, but didn't want to sacrifice readability. I would have preferred more transparency to allow the sandstone to show more, but readability was more important.

[yvonne]

I would have made different choices regarding transparency. Perhaps, the message is that the players and Stanford are together and of equal weight, but like Boston Card, I think the letters and player images fight each other. Given that the image has the Block S, the 1-800-STANFORD, and www.gostanford.com, I think the Stanford branding is strong enough. I would probably change the color to brown, and set the transparency level at between 30 and 50 percent. That way, we hint at Stanford, rather than shouting it again. We could even remove the word Stanford and still convey the same message.

I think the branding is appropriate. Tan is almost more synonymous with Stanford than cardinal. It's everywhere, and has been since 1891, before, if you're counting when the school was being constructed. The parchment is old school, which is how the football program has been branding itself since Harbaugh. A single player isn't featured because we don't have a single player who's the face of the program.

I had to make similar choices with the layout of the page templates. The message body is set to 90. I wanted to still hint at the sandstone walls, but didn't want to sacrifice readability. I would have preferred more transparency to allow the sandstone to show more, but readability was more important.

[jacketree]

Ditch the periods.  Print it on sepia  ;)

There are a million of these things out there, pretty much all forgettable.  The "Iron Dukes" poster is fairly creepy, if you look it up, so maybe forgettable is safer.

Didn't realize my kid's squad had their own poster. They get something like 357 people at their games. The poster must really work.

[jacketree]

Ditch the periods.  Print it on sepia  ;)

There are a million of these things out there, pretty much all forgettable.  The "Iron Dukes" poster is fairly creepy, if you look it up, so maybe forgettable is safer.

Didn't realize my kid's squad had their own poster. They get something like 357 people at their games. The poster must really work.

[needle]

What is this? A marketing plan for ants? The marketing plan has to be at least ... three times bigger than this!

[needle]

What is this? A marketing plan for ants? The marketing plan has to be at least ... three times bigger than this!

[BostonCard]

I saw the billboard on the corner of El Camino and Embarcadero going to the spring game, and it fits nicely with the theme and branding, but it too has legibility issues.

BC

[BostonCard]

I saw the billboard on the corner of El Camino and Embarcadero going to the spring game, and it fits nicely with the theme and branding, but it too has legibility issues.

BC

[Stymie]

Reminds me more of a Cisco powerpoint slide telling engineers the importance of user interface when selling to people who can't differentiate between a router and a server.

There are many "Marketing 101" 1st principles, i.e. rocket science such as "Who is the customer?" "What are you trying to sell?"  From what I can see (and it's not much since I am not an ant), they want people driving along El Camino to call the 800 line or visit the website and purchase expensive and poorly sighted seats to Stanford football games.  As for the graphics it's a bunch of evil looking guys who seem to be repeating the infamous Mercury Puma ad of the 1970's (which effectively said, if you don't buy a car we are going to send a carnivore to your house who will eat you and your children).

Minor niggles, but there seem to be two #8's, and the guy standing next to #91 doesn't seem to have a number.

My guess is that they didn't pass this by some of the GBS guys, just down the street from the Football campus, who may not know football, but at least have some common sense.....

[Stymie]

Reminds me more of a Cisco powerpoint slide telling engineers the importance of user interface when selling to people who can't differentiate between a router and a server.

There are many "Marketing 101" 1st principles, i.e. rocket science such as "Who is the customer?" "What are you trying to sell?"  From what I can see (and it's not much since I am not an ant), they want people driving along El Camino to call the 800 line or visit the website and purchase expensive and poorly sighted seats to Stanford football games.  As for the graphics it's a bunch of evil looking guys who seem to be repeating the infamous Mercury Puma ad of the 1970's (which effectively said, if you don't buy a car we are going to send a carnivore to your house who will eat you and your children).

Minor niggles, but there seem to be two #8's, and the guy standing next to #91 doesn't seem to have a number.

My guess is that they didn't pass this by some of the GBS guys, just down the street from the Football campus, who may not know football, but at least have some common sense.....

[CompSci87]

There are in fact two #8s -- Hogan on offense and Richards on defense. Lots of numbers are duplicated between offense and defense due to a shortage of two-digit numbers in base 10.

[CompSci87]

There are in fact two #8s -- Hogan on offense and Richards on defense. Lots of numbers are duplicated between offense and defense due to a shortage of two-digit numbers in base 10.