09/26/23 | General, @GoDucksMoseley, BEOREGON
The goal was daunting – reconceive the logo for the UO athletic department's BEOREGON campaign to better reflect the movement's spirit of diversity and inclusion across a broad spectrum of race, gender, sexual identity and beyond. The result is stunning – a new mark building upon the "Soaring Duck" logo, with a remarkable colorway that recognizes the differing planks in the foundation of Oregon's student-athlete population. In the spirit of the U.S. national motto E pluribus unum – "out of many, one" – the new BEOREGON logo encapsulates the varied backgrounds of Ducks athletes who unite together to compete under the same banner.
First launched in 2016, BEOREGON encouraged UO student-athletes and those who cheer for them to embrace their authentic selves. The initial colorway utilized a rainbow of tones intended to reflect the various shades used by Oregon teams in their array of uniforms over the years.
But, said UO tennis player Uxia Martinez Moral, a member of the UO student-athlete advisory committee's BEOREGON subcommittee, "I think there was a little bit of confusion with the past logo, that BEOREGON basically symbolized 'Pride' and the LGBTQ community. And that's obviously part of it – but it's not all of it."
The process of reconsidering the BEOREGON logo began in 2020, with Zoom calls that included several current student-athletes at that time. The project was led by Van Horne Brands, directed by former Nike creative director Todd Van Horne and his son, Quinn, senior designer for the firm.
On Sunday, three years of development culminated in the unveiling of the new BEOREGON logo during the athletic department's annual "Opening Ceremony" for student-athletes, prior to the start of fall classes at the university this week. For most of them, it was the first chance to see the way so many elements of BEOREGON's spirit had coalesced in the new logo.
"I originally thought, there's no way this can happen," said Katie Harbert, a UO associate athletic director for student-athlete development. "And then they produced these drawings and renderings, and I was blown away. Then it evolved with feedback through the process, and got better and better. It's awesome."
Todd Van Horne said the decision to build the new logo on the "Soaring Duck" was the first of many intentional steps in telling the story of BEOREGON. The image can be repeated to turn a single "Soaring Duck" into a flock, as appears on several athletic department buildings and uniforms.
"The Duck represents each person as a student, and when Ducks fly together as a flock, they help each other fly," Van Horne said. "So it's an analogy that, you can't do it alone. You don't fly as far alone. You fly together better as a flock."
The "keystone" of the imagery on the Soaring Duck is a cascading inverted V of nine triangles. Those represent the nine Native American tribes that first populated the state of Oregon, an idea that came to the Van Hornes during consultations with UO assistant vice president and Coquille Indian Tribe chief Jason Younker.
On one wing of the Soaring Duck is the Pride rainbow, as well as a spectrum of tones representing racial equality. The other wing features an array of colors meant to represent the flags of the world, and the international student population that flocks to Oregon. In the middle of the logo is the university's familiar "O"—"the 'O' is still the heart," Quinn Van Horne said — and the head of the Soaring Duck is green and yellow.
"So much of it was finding common feathers for people to be able to find different things that represented different parts of Oregon student-athletes, and what brought them to Oregon," Quinn Van Horne said. "What defines who they are, whether it be who you love, who you are, your skin tone, your culture. We're hoping all those things are well represented."
Sunday's unveiling capped a three-year process of reconceiving the BEOREGON logo. During that time period, Da'Mon Merkerson joined the athletic department as senior associate athletic director for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. He joined the collaborative process of enlisting as many voices as possible to capture the true spirit of the campaign, which involves internal and external programming that educates and celebrates the inclusivity behind BEOREGON.
"We just really had a lot of conversations about, OK, how are we making sure we keep the essence – because we're not trying to change that," Merkerson said. "We're just trying to make sure it visually represents what the programming has already been."
Both Harbert and Merkerson said that, of the student-athletes they've spoken with who'd seen the new logo, it was universally appreciated – especially after all the design aspects were elucidated.
"In a way, everyone's Duck is different," Quinn Van Horne said. "In that way, everyone can choose the parts that say, hey, this represents me on that big level. This is what makes me soar. This is what makes my unique feathers."
