Virginia Highlands Community College wanted to refresh its beloved Wolf mascot while preserving the character and school spirit students had embraced for more than two decades. We redesigned the mascot logo to create a flexible logo system for signage, apparel, print, digital communications, and promotional materials.

Logo Design Process

Every good logo begins with a pen on paper. Or, in this case, with Apple Pencil on an iPad. The freedom to explore and try new ideas in a simple sketch is often overlooked. In this case, art director Matthew Childers took to his iPad to sketch out a few concepts to gauge the look and feel the client was going for based on their initial comments and thoughts.

This approach allowed us to quickly serve up some concepts to get a sense of the direction we needed to go.

The first concept.

Though striking and powerful, this first sketch was quite a bit more illustrative than the finished product.

A bit too cute.

This initial concept turned out to be a little too cartoony and cute, but was fun and added to the variety of ideas we wanted to present. It gave us an option that was endearing as opposed to aggressive.

We really liked this one.

Sometimes an idea comes along that you just have to push and develop. The graceful shape of the mountains in the logo almost perfectly matches the back of a wolf lying down. While this wasn't the final logo chosen, it has been asked of us to keep exploring this and to perhaps bring it into the fold as an alternate logo at some point.

The simple silhouette.

This concept wasn't one of our favorite initial sketches, but there was something to it. It was a start, but was far too complex and needed refinement. The simple silhouette shape intrigued the client and was the direction chosen for us to explore further.

Exploring Logo Integrations

After receiving feedback from VHCC, we simplified the look and experimented with various color treatments to add visual interest and depth. We also explored other profile options and how the wolf integrated with the VH logo.

Refining the Logo

With a silhouette selected, it was time to refine the wolf. We took away any typography and focused just on the icon itself. In the video below, you’ll see how the Wolf silhouette evolved, starting with a dark blue coat of fur, transitioning to more of a white wolf with a light blue gradient, and then how we integrated typography back in with many typographic variations.

Here you can see all of the different variations from the video.

Final Logo System

The final set of changes to the mascot were subtle. The angle of the head shifted slightly and the wolf’s eyes were adjusted. Because the mascot icon would need to work on many different applications, we created several different lockups of the mascot.

Logo Applications

A successful mascot logo needs to do more than look good. It must be recognizable from a distance, reproduce clearly across apparel, signage, and printed materials, and create a sense of school pride. The refreshed identity provides Virginia Highlands Community College with a flexible mascot logo system that works across campus communications, promotional elements, apparel, and events.

We also had a hand in helping VHCC obtain an actual mascot costume for use at their events.

Nikelle Hagey, the designer of the original Wolves logo presenting the new logo.

A fun video of the Wolf logo being engraved by Johnnie Keene.

Mascot Logo Design for Virginia Highlands Community College