Central Florida Knights Logo

Central Florida Knights Logo PNG

The modern symbolism of the University of Central Florida athletic department reflects the organization’s desire to keep up with the times. The laconic literal identity of the Central Florida Knights logo focuses on the name and affiliation of the unit and its desire to make the goals and objectives clear.

Meaning and History

The visual identity of the university chapter of the Central Florida Knights consists of eight logos. They are divided into two types: early graphic and late text. Such a sharp transition is due to design innovations in the identity so that the team’s concept, name, and goals are immediately clear to opponents and fans. At the same time, all the emblems are not colored, with a predominance of pastel spectrum tones. These include dark yellow, olive brown, black, and white. The last of these most often serves as a background.

What is Central Florida Knights?

Central Florida Knights (more accurately, UCF Knights) is an athletic department consisting of 16 student teams from the University of Central Florida. It is located in Orlando, Florida, participating in the American Athletic Conference and competing in NCAA Division I (FBS). Starting in 2023, the organization will also be a member of the Sun Belt and Big 12 Conference.

1970 – 1979

The debut logo features knightly armor – a helmet with a folding visor and lush feathers. The head is in profile, decorated with important university attributes: the seal and image of a winged horse from ancient Greek mythology, the abbreviation FTU (Florida Technological University), and the sports teams’ name (Knights). A shining star is visible above Pegasus against a dark background, and its wings are fanned out and cover the entire left side of the round sign. The authors of this variant are FTU representative and graphic artist Dorothy Cannon.

1979 – 1985

When the UCF players entered the Division III NCAA, they started playing very hard. This gave hope to the fans, who began to argue that this style would help athletes fight back strongly against anyone, anywhere. So, because of the arrogance of the teams, the era of Fighting Knights began; that is, there was a rebranding, followed by a redesign of the emblem. A serious knight on a rearing horse appeared on the logo. The concentrated expression on the face and the spear put forward to testify to the warlike intentions of the rider. Below is the name of the sports department, and on the shield is the university’s abbreviation. A thin ring surrounds all elements. At the same time, the logo retained its original monochrome.

1985 – 1993

In the 1980s, a turning point took place in the identity of the Central Florida Knights. She switched to a text logo with a UCF block. The letters in it are geometric, decorated with massive serifs, and outlined along the contour with a thin black stripe. Moreover, they are white, empty, and formed due to the contrast frame. The background is a golden map of the state of Florida, where a five-pointed star is visible. It marks the location of the city of Orlando.

1993 – 2003

This period in the history of the university sports department is interesting because the management tried to combine text and graphics. To achieve the desired effect, the designers took the image of a knight and placed it to the left of the inscription. A warrior in full combat ammunition: in armor, a spear, and a helmet with feathers and a visor. The pike is slightly cocked up, so it pierces the abbreviation “UCF,” located diagonally with a white stripe. Below is the word “Knights.” Unlike the top inscription, it is typed in black letters without serifs.

2003 – 2007

In this logo, the designers replaced the bright golden color with a muted gold color and painted the knight, which used to be an outline, with it. They also made all lettering black and added the word “Golden” to “Knights.” In addition, the authors kept the spear white and converted all characters to uppercase. The only difference between the top and bottom text is now serifs: in the first case, they are present, and in the second, they are not.

2007 – 2012

The redesign was undertaken in connection with the return of the sports department to the old name received at the beginning of the career. The changes are also reflected in the logo. The image of the university mascot Knightro is located not in profile but on full face, so it seems that the warrior is moving directly towards the beholder. The artists removed the long spear and put a wide sword into the hands of the knight, with which he swings at the enemy. Of the many inscriptions, only the abbreviation “UCF” remained. She took place under the right hand of the character. The key colors are metallic gold, white, black and grey.

2012 – 2017

To simplify the visual identity of the Central Florida Knights, the designers proposed a lettered logo. It uses only the abbreviated name of the university, consisting of three letters. The previous decor is taken as the basis for writing the word “UCF” – with a sharp upper end at the “U.” The protruding spike looks like the tip of a sword. It is directed to the left. Similar serifs are present in other characters. The dark gold glyphs are complemented by white stripes inside and outlined around the perimeter with a black line that unites them.

2017 – today

The management of sports teams decided to modernize the logo, for which they tightened it. Therefore, instead of the dark gold Pantone 872, the light gold Pantone 4515 appeared. The designers kept everything else as it was.

Font and Colors

Central Florida Knights color codes