Competitions, defeats, and victories are visible on the emblem of the sports channel. The Longhorn Network logo demonstrates the strength and tenacity of the participating students. Shows a sign and variability of fate: today, some win, others lose, tomorrow – on the contrary.
Longhorn: Brand overview
Founded: | August 26, 2011 |
Founder: | University of Texas at Austin, ESPN Inc., Learfield |
Headquarters: | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
Website: | espn.go.com |
Meaning and History
Longhorn is a joint project between ESPN and the Learfield IMG College marketing company. They have joined forces to help UT Austin realize the athletic potential of its students and showcase their many accomplishments. It broadcasts year-round, and even more so, around the clock. Operating 24/7, the network is available through telecommunications, cable, and satellite providers. In addition, it cooperates with several major streaming services.
Viewers can see exclusive events every day, such as shows with the university’s team coaches, press conferences, guest speakers, and various campus events. The content is geared toward those who are interested in UT Austin life or are simply passionate about sports.
The Longhorn Network was launched in August 2011 and introduced in early April. That’s when fans learned what it was called and its visual symbol. The naming turned out to be predictable: The television project is named after university sports teams. And those, in turn, are named after a long-horned bull that was bred in Texas. It represents strength, power, and endurance.
The animal’s head is depicted on the official emblem of the Texas Longhorns athletics department. This particular graphic was the basis for the Longhorn Network logo. The designers made the silhouette white and moved it to the center of a rectangle divided into two blocks: dark orange (left) and black (right). The brand name written next to it has the same colors. Thanks to the massive sans serif letters, it’s easy to read and immediately striking.
The chain has not changed its logo since 2011. The bull’s head, which is in full face, remains the logo’s centerpiece. It is depicted schematically, without detail. Only the outer contours are outlined: you can see the ears, the nose, and the widely spaced horns. The silhouette is formed by the negative space, an empty area inside the connecting rectangles. The head is visually divided into two parts because the rectangles are painted in different colors. At the same time, both sides are perfectly symmetrical, just like the Texas Longhorns sports team logo.
The impersonal animal demonstrates the brand’s commitment to minimalism. At the same time, the formidable bull is one of the main symbols of the state where the university, whose life is illuminated by the Longhorn Network, is located. The emblem is used for different purposes: it is placed on the screen during the show’s broadcast and printed on various materials, including souvenirs.
Font and Colors
The logo creators decided to experiment with typography and developed custom glyphs for the inscription. At the same time, the font is similar to Akkordeon Ten by Emtype Foundry. In both cases, the letters are bold and massive, elongated vertically. Only a few details differ: in Longhorn Network, for example, the gap inside the “R” has an oval shape, and the bottom of the “G” seems smoother due to the cut on the vertical stroke. The font helps draw viewers’ attention to the television brand name because both words are translated in upper case. And the narrow letter spacing doesn’t impair the readability of the text at all.
The color Burnt Orange (#BF5700) was taken from the official palette of UT Austin’s athletic department. It ties the network and the Texas Longhorns together on an identity level. This shade is used for the left half of the rectangle and the first line of the lettering. Everything else is painted black, except for the white bull’s head, whose silhouette is formed by the negative space. This contrast makes the logo clear and stylish. There are also affinities with university teams: their main colors are orange and white, but in some cases, tiger coloring is used.
Longhorn color codes
Burnt Orange | Hex color: | #bf5700 |
---|---|---|
RGB: | 191 87 0 | |
CMYK: | 0 54 100 25 | |
Pantone: | PMS 166 C |
Black | Hex color: | #000000 |
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RGB: | 0 0 0 | |
CMYK: | 0 0 0 100 | |
Pantone: | PMS Process Black C |