Syracuse Orange Logo

Syracuse Orange Logo PNG

The Syracuse logo is a classic one, like many other college teams. It is a giant geometric letter “S” with diagonal corners, which makes the symbol look like a polyhedron.

Meaning and History

Teams at this university have an anthropomorphic orange as their mascot, so the full name of the athletic department is Syracuse Orange. Naturally, it is also considered their primary color; thus, representatives of all local teams compete in colorful orange uniforms. The same color is present in the overall identity.

Members of this athletic department are well recognized by the orange S on their uniforms. But it has not always been their logo. The mark has only been a full-fledged visual identity since 2006, though its prototype was first used two years earlier, in 2004. Syracuse teams have seven different logos.

What is Syracuse?

Syracuse, or more specifically, Syracuse Orange, is the athletic department of Syracuse University of New York State. It has 20 men’s and women’s teams: basketball, boxing, lacrosse, track and field, field hockey, soccer, rowing, and many other sports. They represent the Atlantic Coast Conference and compete in NCAA Division I.

1967 – 1988

The Syracuse Orange logo, introduced in 1967, featured an Indian in white with a black outline. This sign was the most unconventional in the history of SU athletes’ identities and the funniest one ever created for that university chapter. The fact is that the Native American representative was depicted in a cartoonish style. He had white moccasins, a tomahawk with an orange blade, the same color pants, and two long feathers that stuck out of his black hair.

The man was positioned sideways. With one foot, he stepped on a text block that contained the name of the intercollegiate teams. The capital letters stood out clearly against the light background because they, too, were dark orange. The shadows on the lettering and the clothes were done in dark blue. The Indian’s gaze was menacing, and his mouth was open in a battle cry.

1988 – 1998

For the next ten years, the logo was very serious. The reason was that the athletic department abandoned the cartoon image and chose a radically different style. The mark became practical, graphic, and strict. To emphasize this, designers used a vertical rectangle, where they placed all the important information: the full name of the university (one line at the top, another at the bottom), the year of its appearance, and the personal emblem of the teams. It consisted of two wide ribbons folded together, remotely resembling the letter “S,” with a square in the center. A miniature dot separated each digit in the date. The base colors were orange and white. Blue was removed from the palette.

1998 – 2004

Experiments with iconography led to the appearance of an unusual emblem. The authors wanted to play with the sports program’s name nicely and translated the word “Orange” into a graphic format. They drew the top part of the orange without peel and created an association with the top of the globe crossed with meridians. This was the effect of the global significance of SU’s intercollegiate teams. Below was the university’s full name, regrouped into two lines: “Syracuse” was written in large antique, “University” in small grotesque. All letters were capitalized and in blue.

2004 – 2006

This logo ushered in a new era in the visual identity of Syracuse athletes because of a dramatic shift in graphics. The result was the intertwined “SU” sign. And it was no accident, as the teams were named Orange in 2004. To achieve a stylish symbolism, the university’s management turned to Nike for help. She is the author of this version. Specialists combined the “S” and the “U” in a monogram, so the second letter was unsuccessfully split into two parts: only a small segment of the “U” was visible in the “S.” The other half of the symbol looked more like a capital “J.” The primary color of the logo was orange.

2006 – 2009

In 2006 the block “S” appeared. The large letter had a geometric shape with cut corners, which increased its number of faces. A thin band of dark blue around the edges encircled it. Above it, the word “Syracuse” was placed in an arch. It had the same design as the single glyph: strict geometry and a contrasting border.

2009 – 2015

The designers updated the visual identity of the Syracuse athletes, retaining only the single “S.” The letter was enlarged.

2015 – today

The current version of the logo is a replica of the previous version. The only change concerned the color: orange became darker by several tones. Otherwise, the design remains the same.

Font and Colors

Almost all of Syracuse University’s visual identity is color-related. Orange is used in most elements, both graphic and textual. It especially resonates with the athletic department’s identity, as it is part of the full name of the athletic teams. At first, the style was cartoonish and artistic. Then came the characteristics of geometric design, which became predominant.

The block “S” is in custom lettering and has more to do with the pattern than the alphabet. The first three logos used grotesque, although the third one already had antiqua. It was close to fonts like Garamond Nova Pro Condensed Regular and Garamond Modern FS Regular. Grotesque has similarities to Limerick Serial Xbold and Futura Classical Bold. Syracuse’s signature logo palette consists of three base colors, including orange #F76900, white #FFFFFFFF and blue #000E54.

Syracuse Orange color codes