First introduced by Tony Fein, a veteran who served in Iraq and linebacker on the Ole’Miss Football team, the ‘Fins Up’ gesture was quickly adopted by the team and school as rallying cry for the Ole’Miss Rebels, their tenacity, and pursuit of victory.
In early 2018, the University of Mississippi, often known as Ole’Miss, contacted Rare Design with the challenge of crafting a new system of logos representing their new mascot: The Landshark. Nearly ten years after the story began, and after continued support from the Ole’Miss athletics community, administration decided to adopt the Landshark as their official mascot.
With the character traits of a landshark inspired by Tony Fein, the Ole' Miss linebacker who started the legend, the challenge for our team was to represent a fictitious creature in a manner that connected it with Ole’Miss, its state wide fan base, and integrated it seamlessly with the existing brand system of the athletic department.
While on the team at Rare, I had the great opportunity to help design three of the mascot logos and create the official launch video.
Rodney Richardson | CD/Principal
Jeremy Nelson | Designer
Cody Bass | Designer
Brian Bollig | Designer
Ben Barnes | Designer
Marie Siegfried | Project Manager
Rare Design
Ole Miss Athletics
Story of the Landshark
Sports Branding
Visual Identity
Iconography
Illustration
Motion Design