ESPNU realizes that the interest in college sports rests heavily upon the loyalties of the fans—namely their teams. Attitudes, alumni, regions and passions are embodied in a name, color and mascot with a fierce loyalty and devotion that echoes the broadcasting brand's tagline, "Never Graduate."

To get a piece of that emotive excitement, ESPNU set out to discover how they could bring their already nationally recognized identity down to a more local level—getting viewers to identify with the U more personally. The result is pure awesome (best viewed in HD mode).

After research and ideation from Rosalyn Durant, VP ESPNU—programming, Dan Steir, Sr. CP, and Dan Margulis, director—programming & acquisitions; creative director Mark Groeschner and Sr. creative director Chris Mantzaris got to work. Adopting an attitude of "the logo is not sacred," they created U / college hybrids, using mascots, colors and animation to bring the ubiquitous U to the fans in a new and personalized way.

It's a delight to see how they've represented each school, with details down to pinstripes and perfectly executed character animations. Each U design takes about 10-15 seconds to fully animate, and about 140 logos have been designed thus far. The logos spin on the screen between team highlights and throughout their programing.

The ESPNU team collaborated with National Television in Los Angeles to bring the characters and creations to life in a convincing and beautiful way. Design, "character animators” and “articulating parts” pooled into creation on a steep learning curve—while the first logos took weeks to reach completion, National “got it down to a science” and could produce a finished logo in just days.

Some other hand-picked posts you might enjoy on our Design Blog:

Barclay's Premier League Intro with 3D Logo Morphs
Athlete Objects: Sport Nickname Illustrations from Jesse Hora
A Nike Lovefest: Where Interaction and Design Ingenuity Meet

Via ESPN Front Row