TOP 10

Renowned design agency Pentagram has unveiled yet another Big Ten hidden logo. The famous logo has been the identity carrier of Big Ten Conference, the oldest and largest Division I college athletic association in U.S. Michael Gericke (a graduate of the University of Wisconsin) and Michael Bierut are the chief architect behind the new logo for the conference.

The concept behind previous ‘11’:

Initially, Big Ten represented ten of the leading teams in the country namely University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa, Indiana University, Ohio State University, Michigan State University, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Purdue University. Another team was included in 1990 by the name of Pennsylvania State University. This formed the rationale behind the concealed “11” in the previous hidden logo.

Why go from 11 to 12?

This year, there will be one more addition to the playing teams in 2011 namely University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Thus the need for a change in the identity was necessitated in order to create a more flexible and compatible logo design.

 Michael Gericke, co-designer of the logo, said:

New BIG TEN Logo – Groundbreaking or ordinary?

After finally having discarded the famous logo, BIG Ten decided to go simple with a “one-size-that-fits-all-approach”. About anyone can see the ‘10’ hidden within the word “BIG”. The concept is to enable the audience to read “Big Ten” in a single word “BIG. Another reason is to make it compatible for future uses in case other teams are added. But the confusion arrives when you look at the full version of the logo. It includes the word “TEN” stacked beneath “BIG”. I mean what is the point of “TEN” separately when you already have it in “BIG”?