College Sports Information Directors of America

by Tom Perry, Marietta College Executive Director of College Relations

Note: Click here to read Perry's feature article which he wrote for the Marietta College publications and campus website

See the new CoSIDA logo and release: CoSIDA Launches New Organizational Logo, Branding Campaign (Nov. 17, 2009)

Ryan Zundell, Marietta College’s Art Director, spends his workweek designing publications, postcards and a multitude of other items that are used by all of the departments on campus.
 
So his recreational time is normally spent playing golf, coaching his son’s youth baseball team and walking his black Labrador. But when he heard about a national competition to redesign the logo for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Zundell decided to see what he could come up with over a few weekends.

“I believe one of my biggest strengths as a designer is my ability to come up with logos that are both functional and aesthetically what a client would want to use to communicate professionalism and provide a consistent graphic identity,” Zundell said. “I am excited that CoSIDA chose this logo to represent them in the future.”
 
Zundell led the three-person design team that included Dan May, Marietta’s Sports Information Director, and Christina Moritz, a former student assistant in College Relations.
 
“Congratulations to Dan, Ryan and Christina for their wonderful work on behalf of a partner as nationally recognized as CoSIDA,” said Hub Burton, Associate Vice President for Alumni and College Relations. “Not only does the work demonstrate their abilities, but the auxiliary marketing with our peers is worth a great deal along the same lines as CASE awards, magazine distribution, etc.”
 
The CoSIDA board was impressed with the redesign work of the Marietta creative team.
 
“As CoSIDA moves forward with our first-ever strategic plan and branding initiative, we needed a new logo that represented our clearly changing future while still paying homage to our past,” said CoSIDA President Justin Doherty, Wisconsin assistant AD for media relations. “Since we are a 52-year old organization of communications leaders, we believe the circular movement of this new design, with our ‘CoSIDA’ name in the center, does a terrific job of tying our new image of progressive and strategic communications into our history.”
 
CoSIDA’s new logo features a three-color scheme (blue, gold, red) with the definer being the organization’s first-ever branding tag line “Strategic Communicators for College Athletics.”
 
The new design utilizes sleek, circular connecting shapes, emphasizing progression, movement, motion and connection. The new logo incorporates the notion of forward-thinking communications and technology woven with history (keeping the long-time “CoSIDA” wording prominent in the new design). The new design emphasizes CoSIDA’s fundamental and prominent interconnected role within intercollegiate athletics, demonstrating CoSIDA’s commitment to promote, advise and support collegiate student-athletes, coaches and administrators.
 
“We sincerely thank them for their efforts. They truly understood the mission and forward movement of CoSIDA and gave us a visual identity which accurately reflects CoSIDA now—an organization of proactive communicators,” Doherty said.
 
Zundell ’93, who has more than a decade of graphic design experience, has worked as Marietta College’s Art Director since 1997. He has won numerous awards from CoSIDA for his design work on athletic posters and media guides. He and his wife, Renea, live in Marietta, Ohio, with their son, Owen.
 
May ’03 has been Marietta’s Sports Information Director since 2003. He is an active member of CoSIDA and is the College’s main contact with the media when it comes to information about varsity athletics. He has won 14 publication awards for his division, including Best in the Nation for the 2007 baseball media guide and 2005 softball media guide. He resides in Marietta.
 
Moritz ’08, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Marietta, is currently a graphic designer for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. Moritz lives in Mount Prospect, Ill.