North Allegheny hopes new tiger logo will be ‘purrfect’ addition to district
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North Allegheny is hoping to put some teeth into its plans to create a unified branding image for the school district’s marketing efforts.
While the “tiger” has come to be synonymous with North Allegheny, the logos used to represent the district’s feline mascot come in all stripes.
To cut the cat clutter, the district has unveiled a new logo that will replace the mishmash of images used in the past.
The new log was developed over the past year by a team of students and staff lead by Matt Walker, a communications specialist for the district.
“We started this in the fall after realizing that across the district we had many, many different tiger images that were being used,” he said. “So the stakeholders who were involved began by brainstorming about the qualities the logo should have to describe the district and make it memorable, timeless and unique to us.”
Another goal was to make sure that the new logo would be “friendly enough that it won’t be terrifying to a kindergartner, but is still fierce enough for our student-athletes,” he said.
To narrow the choices down, the tiger logo team reviewed scores of logos already being used by colleges and universities as well as other organizations.
“We tried to avoid logos that were either too cartoonish or overly realistic,” he said. “I think the one that we ended up with is a good balance between that and the response from people who have seen it has been overwhelmingly positive.”
It also was important for the logo to have a simple enough design so that it can be easily printed on materials such as sports team merchandise in both full color and black and white, Walker said.
The new logo features simple lines and only uses for colors — gold, black, white and gray.
While changing the logo on the district’s web pages and printed materials will be a relatively easy affair, images such as the one at the entrance to the district’s Baierl Center sports complex are literally cast in metal.
“We’re well aware that a change like this will take years to fully implement,” Walker said. “And we understand that there will be inconsistencies out there. But having a consistent logo is an important way to create instant visual recognition for the district.”