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Post by PantherU on Dec 12, 2011 19:58:38 GMT -6
Our athletic department likely discussed the matter with them. I do hope that we continue to push for the reference more in other places.
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Post by ghostpost on Dec 28, 2011 23:06:48 GMT -6
Green Gulls? Or Milwaukee Gulls? With all due respect to those teams I don't think going backward to that would be a good thing. Not very aggressive, those gulls (though we do lay claim to the infmaous "sea/lake gull 'Bird Poop' parking lot on Water Street across from MSOE's Kern Ctr..).. but them gulls do fly, which is a decent attribute.
Muskies. Madison Muskies? This has already been tried (no offense to the Madison Muskies), but it isn't an especially popular brand, despite it's status as our state fish. Muskellunge... whether we (FYI I am an avid fisherman) want it to or not, that brand name isn't ever going to work.
Fighting Squirrels? This made me laugh out loud- not because I think it's outright terrible (though I do), but because I saw them squirrels!!! NOONE, I mean seriously, NOONE has experienced the rare breed of seemingly fearless (even if sometimes annoying) squirrels on the UWM campus. Very strange.. Maybe a CEAS experiment gone terribly wrong... Lol.
All kidding aside- I'm sticking with: MILWAUKEE PANTHERS. '11-'12 H-League Champs? If they are again, let's hope it's (at least in part) "Horizon League Tournament" Champs.
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Post by Hack on Dec 29, 2011 9:10:20 GMT -6
Go Normals!
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Post by PantherU on Dec 29, 2011 10:42:12 GMT -6
Fighting Squirrels? This made me laugh out loud- not because I think it's outright terrible (though I do), but because I saw them squirrels!!! NOONE, I mean seriously, NOONE has experienced the rare breed of seemingly fearless (even if sometimes annoying) squirrels on the UWM campus. Very strange.. Maybe a CEAS experiment gone terribly wrong... Lol. Actually, the squirrels on UWM's campus are the way they are from decades of inbreeding. The campus is isolated from other squirrel populations and this has caused them to continue to mate inside the group. I had a biology TA who was doing his thesis on it. |
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Post by thegreengull on Dec 30, 2011 17:33:00 GMT -6
I think many of us on this message board would agree that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or otherwise known as UW-Milwaukee, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee-Wisconsin, Wisc-Milw, Milw-Wisc, UW-M, and UWM Athletics needs to strengthen its brand identity. Although the athletic department has made strides to improve its brand identity to be known as Milwaukee Athletics, national media outlets and even local media outlets, for example the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have been still calling us by different, incorrect names. In order to be known as a single athletics name and to strengthen the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s athletics program’s brand identity the athletics logo needs to be drastically improved. The athletics program needs to have one logo, and only one logo. As many here on the board have expressed not only has the athletics program been called by a lot of different names, but there are a lot of different logos out there for the athletics program as well. A simple “Milwaukee Panthers Logo” internet search will result in numerous logos along with numerous names for the athletics program. The athletics program should be called by one name, and a strong logo can help build a strong brand identity to move towards the goal of being known as one consensus, unified name, with one consensus, unified logo. The new logo should strengthen our brand identity while building on our competitive advantages in our local and national markets. I think the new logo should encompass a large “M” logo. The “M” is representing Milwaukee, in which the athletic department and university is trying to market the athletic program as the Milwaukee Panthers. The university is the only public 4-year doctoral granting university in the city of Milwaukee, and as a result its logo and brand identity should be founded on the notion of not only representing the university but of representing the city and the community of Milwaukee. Also, the university has more Wisconsin born students than any other university in the state, and it is the second largest university in the state of Wisconsin in terms of student enrollment as well. Milwaukee Athletics should build on the idea of being Milwaukee’s college team and a logo promoting an “M” will definitely contribute to that idea. Also, I would improve the color scheme, by keeping the color black, but changing the mustard/nacho cheese yellow, to a more refined, Vegas gold, akin to Vanderbilt, and Central Florida. Also, by changing from the current yellow to a more refined Vegas form of gold, the Milwaukee Athletics brand would also be distancing themselves from the other NCAA Division 1 athletics program in Milwaukee, The Marquette Golden Eagles, who famously wears the mustard/nacho cheese yellow. Also, there are many examples of sports programs changing from the mustard/nacho cheese yellow to the more traditional style of Vegas gold. For example, the St. Louis Rams of the NFL changed its color scheme from yellow gold and blue to new century gold (old gold) and Millennium (navy) blue in 2000. Also, the Milwaukee Brewers in 1994 changed its color scheme from a royal blue to navy blue, and it changed its yellow to a metallic gold. I would also add the color of Cream. Cream would strengthen our connection to the city and community of Milwaukee. Milwaukee is known as the Cream City, because of a lot of the buildings built in the mid and late 19th century in Milwaukee was built using cream colored bricks which came from the Milwaukee area. Also, our informal nickname derived from the Panthers could be the Cream City Cats, similar to what the LSU Tigers has with the Bayou Bengals, as a previous poster on this message board has mentioned, which would strengthen our connection with Milwaukee. Along, with the new logo symbolizing the university’s connection to the community and city of Milwaukee, a new slogan could be utilized to represent the athletics program as well. For example, “Built Milwaukee Tough,” “We Are Milwaukee,” or “Milwaukee’s College Team” could be utilized in cooperation with the new color scheme, and logo to build the brand identity of Milwaukee Panthers Athletics. Pictured below is a rough draft mock up of a possible logo representing Milwaukee Athletics. I used the “M” that was posted on this board by Illwauk, and I just changed the color scheme a little bit to include Vegas gold, and the color of cream as well. The first logo is with the “M” with the Vegas gold color, outlined with cream. The second logo is with the “M” logo with the cream color, outlined with Vegas gold. I am not experienced in graphic design; this is just a rough draft mock up of what a potential logo could look like to represent Milwaukee Panthers Athletics. Please, feel free to add any insight or suggestions that you might be willing to share. I look forward to your comments. |
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Post by illwauk on Jan 3, 2012 8:41:15 GMT -6
Green Gulls? Or Milwaukee Gulls? With all due respect to those teams I don't think going backward to that would be a good thing. Not very aggressive, those gulls (though we do lay claim to the infmaous "sea/lake gull 'Bird Poop' parking lot on Water Street across from MSOE's Kern Ctr..).. but them gulls do fly, which is a decent attribute. Are Golden Gophers aggressive? Or Ducks? Or Buckeyes? Most mascots that aren't particularly intimidating make for better identities than the Panthers. That's because the ideal mascot calls attention to something unique, interesting or historic about the campus or locale it represents and stands out in the marketplace because of it. Regardless of how anyone feels about the Green Gulls identity, there's no denying that it does these things better than Panthers does. The gull was adopted as our mascot because the campus is visited by lots of real-live gulls from the Lake Michigan shore, something that's arguably even more relevant now that we've established the world's only School of Freshwater Sciences. As far as reclaiming the Gulls identity being a step backwards... I would have to argue the opposite. I think it'd make a bold (and, if you ask me, necessary) statement to drop the identity we adopted as a low-profile commuter school for the one we had before we joined the UW system by embracing the entire history of the Milwaukee campus, not just the post-1956 history that's been ok'ed by the UW overlords... err... Regents in Madison. Muskies. Madison Muskies? This has already been tried (no offense to the Madison Muskies), but it isn't an especially popular brand, despite it's status as our state fish. Muskellunge... whether we (FYI I am an avid fisherman) want it to or not, that brand name isn't ever going to work. The Madison Muskies were only around for 12 seasons and people who are college-age now were in diapers when they moved, so I honestly don't see how that could cause an issue. Fighting Squirrels? This made me laugh out loud- not because I think it's outright terrible (though I do), but because I saw them squirrels!!! NOONE, I mean seriously, NOONE has experienced the rare breed of seemingly fearless (even if sometimes annoying) squirrels on the UWM campus. Very strange.. Maybe a CEAS experiment gone terribly wrong... Lol. Bradford College (a relatively low-profile D3 school) is the only school that currently uses Fighting Squirrels and their merch is at least as widely available on a national scale as ours... possibly even more... due to the power of a unique identity. But if the campus squirrels are indeed the way they are due to inbreeding, that's probably not something we want to call attention to. All kidding aside- I'm sticking with: MILWAUKEE PANTHERS. '11-'12 H-League Champs? If they are again, let's hope it's (at least in part) "Horizon League Tournament" Champs. I have absolutely no problem taking pride in being a Panther, but there's also no denying that it's an extremely difficult identity to build a brand from. The Panther is the 4th most common mascot in college athletics (a huge problem by itself), but the only Panther school from a BCS conference is the chancellors alma mater... Pitt. Therefore it would stand to reason that if anyone could build a strong Panther-based brand, it'd be them... which they tried in 1993 when they decided they no longer wanted to be known as Pitt. They introduced a new primary logo, a navy & gold panther head, that replaced the famous Pitt script on the football helmets and anywhere else Pittsburgh athletics were visually represented. But by the end of 2006, a new Pitt script was back and now the panther head is rarely seen outside of the campus bookstore. The lesson here... you can't build a strong collegiate athletics brand based solely on a mascot like a Panther. If we are to continue to be known as the Milwaukee Panthers, then any potentially meaningful identity would have to rely on the Milwaukee half of the name... something that carries its own set of problems due to our city having a collection of more established and better funded pro teams that also use the Milwaukee name, but it's not impossible. Again, see the way the U of Pittsburgh is able to distinguish its athletic teams from the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins by use of the "Pitt" moniker (hence my advocacy of a name for Milwaukee such as "UMil"). Still, with all of the significant changes that appear to be looming over Milwaukee athletics (the new arena, the possible addition of football and hockey) and the university itself (the University of Milwaukee name change); and the fact that the Panthers brand might be irreparably damaged in the marketplace thanks to years of sloppy and inconsistent execution, a complete overhaul of Milwaukee's athletic identity should at least be considered. |
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Post by illwauk on Jan 3, 2012 10:13:55 GMT -6
thegreengull, I couldn't agree more about adding cream... I've advocated for this for years now and even posted a basketball uniform concept in this thread (its on page 3) with cream homes instead of white. I also love the "Cream City Cats" idea... we seem to be on the same wavelength on a lot of ideas because that one came to me too when I was thinking of an equivalent of a "Bayou Bengals" type nickname for Milwaukee. Another one I really like is "Beasts on the East." Since the culture of Milwaukee's East Side (I would include places like Bay View, Third Ward and Walker's Point in this as well) differs so much from the rest of SE Wisconsin, it would behoove Panther athletics to try and carve itself a niche by marketing as "the eastside's team" rather than try and challenge MU's dominance in the suburbs and Bucky's in the rest of the state. And with "Beast Mode" already being part of Milwaukee's sports culture, we should do all we can to incorporate it into our own tradition seeing as how our mascot is an actual beast. Anyway, I took the liberty of playing with the golds in this graphic:  The top left is the current colors, only with cream in place of white. The top right features the "old gold" that we used in the 60s & 70s (and occasionally until yellow-gold became standard in the 90s). I like it, but Mizzou already uses this shade prominently and our brand is already too similar to theirs IMHO. The bottom left is a "vegas gold" that's more in line with what the Brewers use. I can't say I like it more than our current gold, but I don't hate it either and could certainly live with it if we did switch to it. Finally, the bottom right is my personal favorite... an "autumn gold" that not only looks great with cream, but isn't used by anyone else in Division 1 (I'm not sure about D2 & D3). In other words, this is a color we could "own" the same way North Carolina owns baby blue or Tennessee owns highlighter orange. If you ask me, this is the route to go if we keep the Panthers identity. Best part is, we already sell some merch of this color (although I'm not sure how easy it is to tell the difference from an online pic... it's obvious in person though: bookstore.uwm.edu/MerchDetail.aspx?MerchID=914181&num=7&start=71&end=80&type=1&CategoryName=Hoodies&CatID=6446&Name=Hoodies) |
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Post by PantherU on Jan 3, 2012 12:08:26 GMT -6
I'm just disappointed that no one thought of our Cream City identity and suggested we become the Creamers.
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Post by PantherU on Jan 3, 2012 12:20:32 GMT -6
Kidding aside, I'm against switching to a crayon-gold color. 'Old Gold' is our color for a reason - the real, UCF kind of gold we used to use got switched because it looked awful.
If there's anything we don't need to change, recognize that it's the school colors. If we change to Milwaukee Gulls, change the logo, change the arena, change the colors, it's almost like we're a completely different program. I think we need to keep the colors, for some continuity and, for crying out loud, because our uniforms look badass in every single sport. I have friends who don't go to game who want a jersey because they look cool.
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Post by thegreengull on Jan 3, 2012 14:20:29 GMT -6
I think a great positive for changing from the current yellow gold to a Vegas gold, would be to differentiate us from other programs in the region that use the same shade as gold that we currently have. For example, the other division 1 program in Milwaukee, the Marquette Golden Eagles, basically use the same shade of gold that we have. UWM also has the same colors as Iowa and Missouri, with the same shade of gold as well.
I think by changing the shade of gold it could help us differentiate ourselves as well as helping us to build a stronger, more identifiable brand.
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Post by BBFran on Jan 3, 2012 15:29:44 GMT -6
If any of you creative types can think of a way to get the imbeciles on the JS Sports desk to simply call us what we are -- the MILWAUKEE Panthers -- it would be a bigger step than any new logo or uniform color.
By the way, how's this for a billboard/ad campaign: Picture the Panthers (of any sport) in their uniforms, which, alone of all the sports teams in the area, say MILWAUKEE on them. The slogan?
"Our name is your name"
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Post by jhart05 on Jan 3, 2012 17:08:52 GMT -6
"YOUR city is OUR name."
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Post by ghostpost on Jan 3, 2012 19:13:32 GMT -6
I vote for concentrating on getting our current brand unified and solidified. Believe it or not (believe it, trust me) it is already happening. It doesn't help when our own uwmpanthers.com press releases move between "UWM" and "Milwaukee" like changing lanes (nothing wrong with UWM- but it should reference ACADEMICS- not sports... there is no (acknologized/branded) thing such as the "UW-Madison Badgers").
If you would have told me just 2 years ago (it began at the beginning of the '10-'11 season- trust me, I've been a thron in the side of JS and a "Pouncer" of sorts on this topic for years), that ESPN would have our team page titled "Milwaukee Panthers" and they and other reputable rags like the Washington Post, NCAA.org, SBNation, RushTheCourt, etc. would consistently reference our teams as "Milwaukee" and the "Milwaukee Panthers"... I'd say you were kidding.
Slowly, but surely, change is underway. The J-S (and Wisc. State Journal to a lesser extent (but does anyone read that outside of Madison?) is the main obstacle- as stringers from national outlets naturally look to our state media for guidance on referencing in articles (thanks JS!).
Maybe we should ask the Sweet 16 vets what they think about changing our name to the "Milwaukee Creamers".
Sorry, but though I understand the whole cream city connection.. we aren't talking about "The Making of Milwaukee" book (great read, btw for those like myself who aren't from and/or don't know the history of this great city).
Let's stick with this Milwaukee Panthers brand. I have a feeling "brand" discussions will die down with a big (ie. NCAA's) '11-'12 campaign....
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Post by illwauk on Jan 7, 2012 10:40:12 GMT -6
If there's anything we don't need to change, recognize that it's the school colors. If we change to Milwaukee Gulls, change the logo, change the arena, change the colors, it's almost like we're a completely different program. I think we need to keep the colors, for some continuity and, for crying out loud, because our uniforms look badass in every single sport. I have friends who don't go to game who want a jersey because they look cool. That's just it though... with a new arena, new ice hockey teams, new football team and (presumably) a new football stadium, we will be a completely different program. Black & gold are some bad ass colors, they just don't feel very Milwaukee... I found this out the hard way when I made the mistake of wearing my black & gold "Beat Green Bay" shirt last year during Super Bowl week. This is why I'm advocating so hard to add cream to the color palette... not only can it easily take the place of white without disrupting the things that make our uniforms look so good, but it would make a bold statement about Milwaukee athletics' commitment to representing the city in the college sports world. Maybe we should ask the Sweet 16 vets what they think about changing our name to the "Milwaukee Creamers." You realize that no one seriously proposed changing our nickname to Creamers, right? Honestly, unless it's re-capturing some form of the Green Gulls identity (even if it means keeping our current colors and becoming the Black Gulls or just Gulls), I'd rather we remain the Panthers. I was just throwing out other options to gauge interest. Sorry, but though I understand the whole cream city connection.. we aren't talking about "The Making of Milwaukee" book (great read, btw for those like myself who aren't from and/or don't know the history of this great city). The Making of Milwaukee is fine if you want to read up on the various European immigrants who settled into Milwaukee in the 19th & early 20th century, but it's painfully obvious that John Gurda didn't care to do too much research into Milwaukee's Black or Latino history (full of historical inaccuracies) or anything that happened in the city past the late 60s... for my tastes, it smacks a bit too much of the "Brown people destroyed the city!!!" attitudes that way too many baby-boomers have when it comes to Milwaukee. |
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Post by ghostpost on Jan 7, 2012 12:53:21 GMT -6
First off- the book is called, "The Making of Milwaukee". Not, "Milwaukee Since 1960". That's why the bulk of the book is about the Germans, and Irish, and Poles, and Italians, etc. who settled this great city.
What historical inaccuracies are you talking about? I have a great respect for all cultures and for the even more diverse melting pot Milwaukee has become since the 1950s. I also have many "brown" friends as you refer to them by.
I'm not challenging you or saying you are wrong. I really want to know- what inaccuracies are you referring to? I have read the book, watched the DVD, and though I recall little attention paid to Milwaukee post 1960.. I don't recall anything controversial or blatantly inaccurate.
Thanks in advance. I just like to know the truth about things.
PS: I am under 30 years old and I too lived in Riverwest, for 2 years. I am hardly the type who would think "Brown people destroyed the city!!". I think your sh*tting on a great book (I guess it started as a series of articles in the Milwaukee Journal) for no good reason other than the fact that I used it as a basis to dismiss the fascination with Cream uniform colors you have. But please, do tell about the false statements Gurda made. I don't liked to be lied to any more than the next guy.
Maybe Cream is awesome and people will love it? We all have opinions. I think the current uniforms (still learning to like the grays) are pretty damn nice. If the Bookstore, the AD and the Uni could all push the same brand and same color palettes and same logos, this thread would not exist. The current brand environment is a clusterf***. And it has nothing to do with us having Gold instead of Cream.
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