27 Aug. 2019
Last Friday, at the annual Kickoff Luncheon, Florida State Head Football Coach Willie Taggart announced that, starting in 2020, his team’s garnet jersey would once again feature white numbers [1].
This was welcome news. Much to the dismay of many fans, the garnet jersey, in a deviation from tradition, has featured gold numbers since 2014, when Florida State and Nike announced ‘Ignition Tradition’ [2]—an objectively poorly executed rebranding effort, the rollout of which was spoiled by a leaked picture of a Walmart T-shirt, revealing the then-brand new and controversial logo [3].
Many Ignition Tradition changes to the football uniform were almost immediately incrementally undone. The gold facemask, the more-yellow-than-gold helmets, the white tomahawk stickers, the eye-straining gold numbers on the white jersey, the full tribal patterned-collar, the crossing helmet spears—within months of first donning the new look against Oklahoma State, these design aspects had either been revamped or had completely reverted to their pre-Ignition Tradition form [4]. Yet, like the gold numbers on the garnet jersey, some of the campaigns worst vestiges—e.g., the over-designed uniform in general and the unfortunate black and purple helmet [5]—remain. It’s beyond time that Florida State correct this.
Reverting to white numbers on the garnet jersey is the right call. But it would be a mistake to stop there. The current uniforms need a significant overhaul. And I have ideas.
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At the core of my effort to create a new uniform for Florida State Football is my belief that a team’s uniform should engender pride among its fanbase, not controversy. I wanted to avoid repeating Ignition Tradition’s mistake of changing the aspects of the uniform fans identify with most. And so at the onset of this process, it was necessary to establish one very important thing that we all can agree on: don’t mess with the helmet.
Florida State Football’s traditional helmet—gold shell, garnet facemask, a garnet and white feathered spear on each side and those earned tomahawk stickers all over—is iconic. It is, if not the best, certainly one of the best helmets in all of college football. There must be no alternates—not black, not white, not chrome. None whatsoever. The helmet is the helmet.
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Certain aspects of the Ignition Tradition rebrand—the updated helmet spear, the tribal pattern, which I tweaked, and the Seminole Head Logo—I kept. I then set out to create a concept that fans could be proud of, a cleaner look that adds a bold level of simplicity and results in a modern version of the classic uniforms worn by Florida State’s three national championship-winning teams.
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The result is a look that should be familiar to die-hard Florida State Football fans. And that’s the point. This concept isn’t meant to be edgy or flashy; it’s only meant to make Florida State look like Florida State.
Rich garnet and brilliant gold are featured throughout, of course, but gold is showcased most prominently, from top to bottom. The jersey features gold trimming on the numbers, captain patch and monogram on the shoulder. The Nike logos are metallic gold. I brought back the metallic gold pants. The plates on the cleats are also gold. These gold accents tie in the overall aesthetic of the uniform.
In addition, I used turquoise, which represents harmony, friendship and fellowship in Native American culture [6], as a second trim for the captain patch, and I used the Unconquered font on the nameplate on the back of the jersey. These details give the uniform a fresh look.
I also created a concept for a set of throwback uniforms, which can be found below, along with the seven iterations of the main concept and some graphics I created to go along with the bold tradition theme of the concept.
Sure, when it comes to wins and losses, it doesn't matter what uniform Florida State is wearing—but according to the most famous Seminole ever, “If you look good, you play good.” Here’s to that.
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