This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Metaphorical anecdote coming in three, two, one.

Years ago we were asked to do a redesign for a school.

A school that will remain anonymous.

It was for their sports program. They needed a new mascot.

That's Christopher Simmons.

My name is Christopher Simmons.

I am the principal and creative director of the design firm Mine in San Francisco.

He also teaches identity design at the California College of the Arts.

We created several alternatives.

A few new mascots.

To show that to the steering committee, they had their favorite, but they were

unsure and they wanted buy-in from the student body and alums.

Seemed reasonable, but also treacherous territory.

So they got like 600 something responses and overwhelmingly, by right and vote,

the original logo was the favorite.

Not surprising.

Change is often the hardest of all possible options.

And people would argue, well, you know, that's everyone feels maybe we shouldn't change it.

But there was a real problem with the old mascot.

The problem was they were using their original logo illegally.

It was actually the University of Notre Dame's logo.

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