Clemson Tigers is the name of an athletic program from Clemson University, a public education institution, located in South Carolina, the United States. The program is composed of 19 men’s and women’s teams, which compete in the first division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Clemson Tigers program was founded with the establishment of Clemson University, at the end of the 1880s, and the Tiger has always been a part of its identity. The name and the mascot of the athletic program were brought in by Walter Merritt Riggs, a football coach, who worked for the College.
Today the Clemson Tigers program consists of nineteen teams, where men and women compete in such sports disciplines as Football, Soccer, Tennis, Baseball, Basketball, and a few others. The Tigers play in the First Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, as members of the ACC, Atlantic Coast Conference.
What are Clemson Tigers?
Clemson Tigers is a collegiate athletic program at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA. The Tigers is the common name for 19 men’s and women’s teams, which compete in various sports disciplines, including Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Track and Field, and several others.
In terms of visual identity, the athletic program at Clemson University has always been loyal to its mascot, the Tiger. Throughout the years, this strong and dangerous animal has been drawn in different styles and palettes but never left the badge of the Clemson Tigers.
The first Clemson Tigers logo, introduced in 1928, has stayed with the athletic program for only six years. It was a head of a tiger, drawn in orange and black against a white background, without any additional lettering. The head was executed in a pretty naive and detailed way and looked very bright and confident.
The Tigers’ badge, used by the teams of the program in the 1950s-1960s, was based on a completely different concept: the enlarged red capital “C” in a geometric sans-serif font, was outlined in blue and placed over a white background, with a cartoonish tiger in the same color palette, drawn inside the letter, sitting relaxed on its bottom horizontal bar. This was a very funny and memorable brand, which stayed with the teams of the program for more than a decade.
The redesign of the Clemson Tigers logo, held in 1965, has introduced a new version of the badge, with the enlarged orange and white head of a tiger, placed on a white background and accompanied by a medium-weight orange uppercase lettering in a geometric serif font.
In 1979 the Clemson Tigers logo gets another redesign. The head of a tiger was now executed in dark orange, white, black, and purple, and looked super stylish and sleek. The image was complemented by heavy uppercase “Clemson” lettering in a bold geometric sans-serif font, with the lines set in solid black. This was the last version of the badge with a head of a tiger on it.
The iconic Clemson Tigers badge, the Paw Hammer, was introduced in 1977. This version of the logo was designed by the Henderson Advertising agency. The new logo featured an orange trace of the tiger’s paw, drawn against a white background. The minimalistic design has contours uneven, which adds more vitality and realism to the image, and balances the laconic composition.
The primary badge of the Clemson Tigers athletic program has no lettering on it, however, when it is needed, the teams of the program use wordmarks, set in a custom geometric serif font, which was designed exclusively for the Tigers, and is called Paw Hammer.
As for the color palette of the Clemson Tigers’ visual identity, it is based on an intense and juicy shade of orange, the color, which is the first to be associated with the tiger, but also with such qualities as determination, energy, and speed.