Over 50 Warwick sports clubs challenge Team Warwick rebrand

Warwick Sport has been asked to change a key part of its Active Wellness and Sport rebrand by over 50 of the University’s sports clubs who have come together to share their “concern”.

Removing [our] logos, and hence any club identity that [our] have built, is a big step backwards

Warwick sports clubs, in a joint letter to Team Warwick

The 53 clubs are requesting that they can keep their individual logos, rather than abandoning them in favour of the University of Warwick crest like the rebrand calls for. They believe that “removing [their] logos, and hence any club identity that [they] have built, is a big step backwards”.

Together they “understand the intention behind this rebrand” and how “a consistent visual identity across Team Warwick can strengthen [their] collective presence”, but are “concerned” by how removing their individual club logos will “look in practice”, particularly on social media.

Voicing these worries in a joint letter to Team Warwick, seen by The Boar, the clubs have written a proposed compromise that would see clubs “be asked to recolour their existing logos, using the official black and red colour palette, while keeping their distinctive shapes, symbols and layouts intact”.

They believe that this would deliver the visual consistency and brand cohesion that Team Warwick desires while preserving the individuality of each club and making them findable and memorable.

The club engagement session slides reject the students’ proposal

These suggestions have been looked at by Team Warwick, who responded through their own letter and a club engagement session.

The club engagement session slides, seen by The Boar, reject the students’ proposal, arguing that keeping individual logos will cause “brand fragmentation to remain” and solely creates colour consistency without “fully addressing the wider challenge of creating a single, recognisable Team Warwick identity”.

Speaking to The Boar, Team Warwick and the Students’ Union Vice-President for Sports, Nazrana Meghji, said that the rebrand “has been developed to create a stronger, more recognisable identity for active wellness and sport across the University, increasing visibility, celebrating achievement and strengthening community”.

“A more aligned approach creates greater awareness for clubs… helping raise visibility amongst prospective students and growing support for student sport across campus”, they added.

Team Warwick “are grateful” for the “constructive way” that clubs have shared their feedback

Team Warwick have suggested alternative options to clubs: the first is to solely use the University’s crest as social media profiles, the second is to include written text of the club’s name, the third features a stacked crest and club name, and the fourth includes sport-specific icons.

Executive committee members have been asked to vote for their favourite of the aforementioned options in a form that closed on 2 October.

While the review is ongoing, clubs have not been asked to change their social media avatars.

Team Warwick “are grateful” for the “constructive way” that clubs have shared their feedback and ideas and “look forward to continuing to work with” them to find a solution.