Discussion: OUSA – Team USA Uniform Design Competition WINNER

For Immediate Release

Contact: Glen Schorr, Orienteering USA, 410.802.1125 or gjs@orienteeringusa.org


ORIENTEERING USA ANNOUNCES TEAM USA UNIFORM DESIGN

Riderwood, MD – Orienteering USA has announced the winner of its Team USA uniform design competition. The winning designer is Frank Cucciarre, President of Blink Concept & Design of Newark, Delaware, USA.

The winning design was chosen from over 70 designs submitted by artists from North America, Europe and Asia. A committee made up of Team USA members selected the winner.

“Blink Concept & Design has created an innovative and bold concept” said OUSA Vice President, Charlie Bleau.

Blink Concept & Design was created over 20 years ago to provide cutting edge design quickly and at a great value. Cucciarre works with clients all around the country including: The University of Delaware, Cleveland State University, The Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute, STERIS Corporation, New Mexico State University, Michigan Opera Theatre, Chicago Firefighters Union, The Cleveland Browns and the University of Missouri. For more information on Blink Concept & Design visit www.behance.net/blinkconcept/frame.

Orienteering is a race in wilderness navigation where the athlete uses a map and compass to complete a course as quickly as possible over miles-long terrain. For more information on orienteering and Orienteering USA, visit www.orienteeringusa.org.

See the winning design here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/28xsti7fwsuim1j/TeamUSAU...

Very nice design!

That's very...busy.

That background I agree with Becks is extremely busy! you can't even read the OUSA logo on it :/

I like it a lot and think it looks great! And I'm so glad I didn't get to vote or have the opportunity to read 100's of discussion posts about it.

+1 Cristina. Thanks to everyone who made this happen!

I can't wait to wear this around Germany.

This is going to be a great uniform...love the design. Thanks to Frank for submitting the entry!

Looks good!

It IS busy, but there are enough conspicuous features that it will still read well from a distance. It is bright, has movement, and is pretty sharp. I like it.

Me, too.

I curse Betsy Ross and her stars.

I like it; hope it looks as good in real life.
Having just watched the Olympics with the variety of uniforms, I do wish we weren't so wedded to the red, white, blue, and the stars/stripes. I love, for example, the Russian's firebird design. It would be nice if some day we could branch out!

Eagles, anyone?

I'm a little concerned about the background pattern. Maybe it's just the way it's showing up on my screen, but it looks like random crud. Is that supposed to be some kind of a map?

@jjcote I had the same thought, actually not thinking it is random crud, but random pattern that remotely looked like it could be from a map without contours.

Many thanks to Ali Crocker, Alex Jospe, Clare Durand, Tori Borish and Greg Lennon for serving on the Uniform Design Committee. I am grateful for their unbiased, thoughtful, articulate, vigorous yet respectful debate and deliberation throughout. OUSA is very lucky to have the support of such a dedicated, talented and selfless group.

The winning design was the overwhelming favorite of the group and I hope their respective teams wear it with pride.

Go TeamUSA!!!

Like! And by a local company no less (I've never heard of them but looks like they do nice work).

The design is fine, and everyone will have a different opinion (I think it is a bit 'dated' to the 1990's with the swoops, gradients, and white flecks)-- of course, you can't please everyone. And OUSA tried really hard to please everyone by making it a contest and creating a panel of judges that represents all the teams.

That's quite democratic, and I can appreciate the urge to try to be as "fair" as possible...

But on the part of OUSA, it shows a lack of articulated goals. (And full disclosure, I totally submitted to this contest!)

For instance, some goals might be: unify the look across all teams, create uniforms that are distinct from a distance, find a design that is contemporary but classic, create uniforms that unify with the OUSA logo.

With all due respect to the panel (truly, thank you for your time, and for making a difficult decision in front of a large audience)... they are not designers-- so why are they making a design decision?

I would have preferred that OUSA select a designer, then work directly with them to achieve their goals. And I don't even think that designer should have been me! I would have selected the designer of the OUSA logo, who has also designed some of the best O' jerseys around.

I just wish OUSA would better articulate its goals and act on them accordingly, instead of operating like a small club, trying to please everyone.

More input does not create a better product. Expert input and articulated goals creates a better product.

Hmmm, wasn't the winning design done by an expert? 20 years of experience if I read the first post correctly.

@Run_Bosco The designer in me can think of gazillions of reasons why contests are the most horrible thing ever. I can even think of things I don't like about the winning design.

But I think this was an incredibly efficient way to choose a design that makes a majority of the team happy. (And it sounds like a lot of people are happy! Thanks to everyone involved!) I'd be upset if OUSA spent resources creating the most awesome-looking uniform ever when it could instead be developing the junior program or drawing more people into the sport.

@carich -- I'm sure the design was done by an expert, as were many of the submissions. But all the designers had to work "in the dark." It was unknown what the clothing supplier would be (would the sleeves be raglan? would the neckline be v-neck? this effects the design!), what OUSA was "going for" (something loud? or subtle?). And on and on.

The designers had to just guess what the client wanted, submit, and hope it was what they wanted. (Something with a "USA vibe" is not enough to go on.)

I'm saying the ideal would have been to select a designer, then work with them. The reason I'm bringing this up, is that I want OUSA act a bit more like a business with a clear branding vision, than to act like a club who just wants to make people happy. But that may not be want OUSA wants for itself right now.

Seems like the process worked pretty well this time. If the contestants were in the dark, probably "OUSA" (really, in this case, the team members who will be buying the uniforms so they can compete this summer) didn't have a clear idea what they wanted. I'm sure the committee can work with the winner to adapt his design to the chosen manufacturer's specifications.

@bshields -- that's exactly my point: OUSA didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted. I want OUSA to have a clear idea of what they want.

I'm a marketer. I want OUSA to have a branding vision. OUSA is just not there yet. I'm bringing it up here, because it's something to think about in the future. And it's not something that has to detract from other efforts (@Anna).

And again, I appreciate the time the panel put in, and it was all done very democratically, and to be as fair as possible. The uniform looks fine, and many are happy about it, but I'm disappointed that it does not incorporate the style of the logo better. That would have strengthened the OUSA brand (by using cleaner lines, similar palate, etc).

My main point is regarding the lack of brand vision.

I don't think anyone could argue with kick-ass uniforms that were also in line with the brand and didn't take any extra money or time away from the national teams :)

When I was creating my uniform design for the contest submission I had to keep in mind that this is branding for the teams, not OUSA organization as a whole. The teams are the product in this case. OUSA does not have a clear vision because there are so many diverse sub-brands. It is not easy to have cohesive brand image but large corporations, such as P&G and Unilever do this successfully (of course, they have ridiculous advertisement and marketing budgets). So this time OUSA has outsourced both the “packaging” and the branding of the teams via a contest. It would have been nice to see the vision at the start of the design process but it doesn't mean we couldn't do this the other way around. There are no strict rules in marketing. We could use the uniform design as inspiration for a vision that would be the underlying current moving the teams forward. As Anna said, the product does seem to match the packaging. Maybe it is possible to achieve some sort of cohesiveness on a sub-brand level.

Even with the knowledge that I was designing for the teams and not OUSA as a whole, I agree with Run_Bosco that more communication would have helped me produce better designs and also convinced me that investing more time in my designs would be worthwhile.

If uniforms are chosen in a similar way in the future, maybe those on the committee could do something quick and easy like pinning any uniforms/designs they like to a Pinterest board (or something else low-maintenance).

If the teams do decide to work with a single designer in the future, I think the major challenges would be finding the right one and making sure there's enough communication. I've never been involved in the uniform design/selection process before, but my perception is that working with single designers has also produced results that people think are out of line with the team's brand.

As someone on the deciding committee, I think it would have been helpful if designers had been given more direction, but as run_bosco said, OUSA maybe didn't have an idea in mind ahead of time. That said, I was very impressed with the quality of many of the designs. Thanks to all who submitted!

Rebecca, great comments and vision. If you want to promote OUSA, get on the board and get to work. We need you.

If OUSA had stuck to its original plan of working with a single designer on the logo we would not have reached out to the community and we would not have the great logo we have now. Hence the process this time around.

Yes, OUSA is the sanctioning body of orienteering in the USA. However, we are promoting the USA and TeamUSA, not TeamOUSA. Hence "USA vibe". These uniforms will be worn in national and international competition by those who represent the USA, not the organization. The description was deliberately left vague to allow for designs that had a USA vibe other than just stars and stripes, and there plenty. They had eagles and all sorts. They just weren't chosen.

The entries were blind so that the committee only saw the submissions for what they were and would not be influenced by knowing who the designer was. Four out of the five finalists were professional designers. Three have designed O-gear in the past.

The winning design had very strong OUSA branding on it in the first round. The committee suggested that the designer take it out, which he did. His design was the overwhelming favorite in the first round and in the final round.

I have commissioned many designs for all kinds of things through my work over the past 30 years. Some I have liked, and some I have not. But in the end, I was the one who chose which design I would use. Not the designer. I don't think it is unusual that the customer is the one who decides which one they like.

Remember also that Orienteering USA looked for new a logo when setting up the new website (2010); a professional designer was contacted who submitted several designs. None of those ended up as the current logo.

There was a subsequent contest and the current logo was chosen. That was an AP thread with over 400 posts, if I remember correctly.

The logo controversy was epic. Ultimately, the present logo was adopted and most, not all, think it is fine. If I had been able to vote on the uniform design, I would have voted for the one that was accepted. I will admit that I don't think that it is perfect although I don't know what I would change to make it that way. I would also venture to say that if the change that I would offer was made, other people wouldn't like it. It is always easy to complain about things in hindsight about how things were done. At the same time, Orienteering USA seems comfortable in a democratic process, in this case with members of all the teams on the committee. They were free to contact other members of their teams so they weren't working in a vacuum. On the other side, there were issues of who had rights to the design so there were issues there, too. Basically, you can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people..........

The original quote (Lincoln) was about fooling people, not pleasing people...

I was not quoting Lincoln and there are questions about whether he ever said it anyway. I think people will get the gist of what I said.

I didn't say you were quoting Lincoln. Nevertheless, the original version of the line that goes that way (whether Lincoln actually said it, or if the supposed witnesses misremembered) is about fooling people. I'm also not saying that there's any fooling going on here, just pointing out that the use of this line has mutated. (The more common line about pleasing is, "Well, you can't please everybody".)

Nope no fooling.

The new USA design team uniform looks real fabulous. Aren't the team jacket and gaiter include with the new designed. How about we get our new gaiters printed "USA" on the front?

Is there going to be a version that ordinary citizens can buy, preferably to help support the team?

the Trail O version should be good for that.

There will be polo shirt versions available for the Trail-O team, but those will have TeamUSA logos on them. Once the teams are taken care of (and there is much still to do), we will have an OUSA logo version for supporters.