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Looking for a school logo

Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
School logos and such can be tricky. Make certain you have written authority to re-create this to use. I would also think the school will have this on file in a vector format, unless you are going through a department that doesn't usually do this sort of thing and doesn't have permission to use it as is. Be careful.
 
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Photolew

New Member
I photograph sports for a lot of HS's and one thing I've learned is logos are everywhere. On the sides of band trucks, signs in front of the school, on the wall in the gym, I even pulled one off of a lunch tray one time......just look around.

Go find a clean one, photograph it and extract it. Might have to clean it up a bit...but generally its a start.

Also might ask the schools AD, they may or may not have a digital copy of it as well.....
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Photolew said:
I photograph sports for a lot of HS's and one thing I've learned is logos are everywhere. On the sides of band trucks, signs in front of the school, on the wall in the gym, I even pulled one off of a lunch tray one time......just look around.

Go find a clean one, photograph it and extract it. Might have to clean it up a bit...but generally its a start.

Also might ask the schools AD, they may or may not have a digital copy of it as well.....
Click to expand...


So, if someone asks you for a sign or whatever with a school mascot or logo on it/in it, you don't get anyone's permission to re-use it in any form ?? You just go take a picture of it and re-create it at will ??
 
wildside

wildside

New Member
Gino said:
So, if someone asks you for a sign or whatever with a school mascot or logo on it/in it, you don't get anyone's permission to re-use it in any form ?? You just go take a picture of it and re-create it at will ??
Click to expand...

if a school comes to us to produce something for them using their logo, yes we will do whatever is necessary to finish the job, not all schools have a clean vector file of their mascot believe it or not

the school here just switched to a new logo a few years ago since the last one was before the computer age and was photocopied to death and was nowhere near the original hand painted and adopted logo, we actually get calls all the time for logos as we are known to have worked with almost everyone in the area and most likely have a clean version of whoevers logo they are looking for

its not all cut and dry piracy in these cases, as for the OP, i totally get the idea of the city looking to do something with the schools name and not have the logo, when asked you often get a gif off the website, so seeking a good place to recreate it is standard practice sometimes.
 
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Photolew

New Member
Gino said:
So, if someone asks you for a sign or whatever with a school mascot or logo on it/in it, you don't get anyone's permission to re-use it in any form ?? You just go take a picture of it and re-create it at will ??
Click to expand...

Im not in that segment of the market...these are for products I sell (photo products) that I have a contract with the school to do....but many schools I work with do not have a digital version of their logo.....
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
wildside said:
if a school comes to us to produce something for them using their logo, yes we will do whatever is necessary to finish the job, not all schools have a clean vector file of their mascot believe it or not

the school here just switched to a new logo a few years ago since the last one was before the computer age and was photocopied to death and was nowhere near the original hand painted and adopted logo, we actually get calls all the time for logos as we are known to have worked with almost everyone in the area and most likely have a clean version of whoevers logo they are looking for

its not all cut and dry piracy in these cases, as for the OP, i totally get the idea of the city looking to do something with the schools name and not have the logo, when asked you often get a gif off the website, so seeking a good place to recreate it is standard practice sometimes.
Click to expand...

Okay, I totally understand your reasoning........ if you have permission to do so. However, that's where it ends. Just some teacher, office manager, or someone in the school district cannot just go out and get something made without written permission. It's a kinda checks and balances system in place, so people don't get things made without the schools knowledge of it. It's the same in all schools from my understanding. THEN, you cross over to doing sports related projects...... and it gets even harder.

These schools, along with sports teams and such are very protective of their name and how it's used and who it's associated with. Even if a Principal of a school asked me to do it, which has happened, I make sure all the information is in writing and I have signatures. Far too many bootleggers are doing this stuff for their kids teams and skirting around the rules. If you think I'm making this up, think again. I'm not trying to be a bummer.... it happens to be the truth. It's the same as using franchise logos, sports teams, City crests and other copyrighted material. It's not free for the taking, just cause you know how to do it. Once you establish a relationship with a school or some other group needing this written consent, you're pretty much good to go..... but not until you have complete clearance.

Do you know how many school mom's/dad's have asked for their kids school emblem to become a bumper decal or window sticker ?? Like you said, it's easy-peasy to duplicate, but not on the books.


edit: now the OP has said he is working directly through the school and I'm sure he has all the 'i's dotted and 't's crossed, or he could get into a lota trouble. Should he do any work for a parent or plain teacher without proper paperwork, his/her a$$ would be in a whole heapa trouble.
​
 
Marlene

Marlene

New Member
I would also think the school will have this on file in a vector format
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I haven't ever worked with a high school that had a vector file of their school logo. I've had them send me stuff that is pretty horrid so I'm not too suprised that they didn't have anything. when working with a school, 99.9% of the time the person ordering the sign has the right to do so. where it gets into issues is when it is an outside source that wants to use the logo. on the college level, things are different as some have a company like LRG that control usauge of the school logos so that evern when the person can order a sign, you may have to clear it with a outside company that has the control over the logo use.
 
OldPaint

OldPaint

New Member
our high school in burgettstown pa was the BLUE DEVILS. used the sme logo as the north carolina college "blue devils." next town was the avella eagles. usedthe same logo as the old philly eagles football. across the street the little league football is PACKERS.. uses the greenbay logo G. as for you doin them......its not on you to have the ok to use it.
 
Jillbeans

Jillbeans

New Member
Our school district is the Mars Planets. It's a big M with a planet on one side, which I think was stolen from the local bank logo. No one has ever been able to provide me with a clean file. I built one myself for the one time every couple years that someone actually contacts me to make a sign. Usually they just go to the cheapest hack in town...or online.
Love....jill
 
signcrafters london

signcrafters london

New Member
I think I'd have a heart attack if any school in my area provided me with a vector logo. It hasn't happened in 17 years. I'm lucky if I get a blurry 100 x 100 pixel gif embedded in a publisher or ms word file. 90% of the mascots here are direct ripoffs of pro and college teams. The last original artwork I got was a drawing of a Patriot, no doubt drawn by a 10th-grader in the 1990s and photocopied 50 times. That was close to 10 years ago; I figure they've adopted New England's logo by now.
 
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Photolew

New Member
Up here in the middle of PA many of the schools mascots are variations on native americans...red raiders, warriors, indians, etc. And many of them dont' really have official "logos" either. so when I am creating my sports products I use some generic "indian" clip art, a profile, crossed tomahawks, etc.

Another local school's mascot is the Spartans and they have at least 5 different versions of a spartan/trojan head in use around the school. Or they just use a big "H" which is the first letter of the town's name.

My limited experience with this (and that is in very small rural school districts) is that logo's are not a big deal. However once you get to the collegiate level, even tiny ones, they take licensing very serious.

I did a project for a Div 1 University in New England this fall. A client of mine locally is the head of the football parents association and he wanted a button with each kids name and photo on it as well as the name of the school. Told him to talk to school first. Wasn't allowed to use any logo, just the name of the school.....

Technically HS's are probably in the same boat in that some sort of licensing should come into play...but the reality in this area is if you were to call up schools in my are and ask to license their logo they'd go...WHAT???????????
 
TyrantDesigner

TyrantDesigner

Art! Hot and fresh.
Photolew said:
Up here in the middle of PA many of the schools mascots are variations on native americans...red raiders, warriors, indians, etc. And many of them dont' really have official "logos" either. so when I am creating my sports products I use some generic "indian" clip art, a profile, crossed tomahawks, etc.

Another local school's mascot is the Spartans and they have at least 5 different versions of a spartan/trojan head in use around the school. Or they just use a big "H" which is the first letter of the town's name.

My limited experience with this (and that is in very small rural school districts) is that logo's are not a big deal. However once you get to the collegiate level, even tiny ones, they take licensing very serious.

I did a project for a Div 1 University in New England this fall. A client of mine locally is the head of the football parents association and he wanted a button with each kids name and photo on it as well as the name of the school. Told him to talk to school first. Wasn't allowed to use any logo, just the name of the school.....

Technically HS's are probably in the same boat in that some sort of licensing should come into play...but the reality in this area is if you were to call up schools in my are and ask to license their logo they'd go...WHAT???????????
Click to expand...

the ones I see around here are Pirates (in a land locked area), tigers, panthers and rangers. Some I would be amazed to see a shared liscensing agreement for use.

I have never received a vector file from a school, ever. If it's from a highschool class I might get an illustrator file filled with live traces if I'm lucky. Either way, it's something you encounter.

I won't pretend to know all the finer points of copyright infringement from my clients ... so whenever I get approached by someone from the company looking to get work done and they supply the artwork ... they sign an art release stating they have the proper rights to reproduce the work. Saved me a lot of hassles and having to explain things like copyright basics to everyone (mainly because I cover it on the form they sign and I make a copy of for their files). I still get people who want to rip off the big 4 in my book (harley, disney, warner bros & sports teams) so I have to deny those jobs or convince them to do non-trademarked work (unless it's harley ... i just tell them no) ... but you know ... middleschools doing an afterschool sports thing and needs the logo vectored to be put on some shirts and a few banners ... release comes out.
 
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