Say Goodbye to ‘Cal Berkeley’ Idea, Say Hello to Big Yellow ‘B’

The Cal-vs.-UC Berkeley debate took an odd branding turn last year. Now Cal news items will include the letter B inside a blue background

Do you remember the Cal branding recommendation to unite the “Cal” sports identity with the “UC Berkeley” academic identity by switching to a new term of “Cal Berkeley” for Golden Bears athletic teams? Well, that idea got laughed out of existent, thank goodness, as noted in a Cal report this week.

However, Cal now has a new branding emblem for many of its statements and reports – a big yellow capital letter B within a blue background.  That logo will appear in the upper left corner of twitter, Instagram and Facebook items the school posts. An example of the big yellow B is shown in the photo atop the story in a square background, and a twitter post at the end of this report shows the B with a round background.

So while people are weighing in with their reaction to the big yellow B – as explained in a report by SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle) – let’s go back to the “Cal Berkeley” fiasco.

We reported in September that the school wanted to combine the “Cal” and “UC Berkeley” identities into one sports title for branding purposes.  It made sense because a lot of people outside the West Coast don’t know that Cal and UC Berkeley are the same university. But the Cal athletic program’s association with the word “Cal” was so ingrained that it was a laughable attempt to try to replace “Cal” with “Cal Berkeley” for Golden Bears sports.

In its report this week, UC Berkeley basically said “never mind” regarding that “Cal Berkeley” recommendation, although the semantics were this:

In response to the task force’s recommendations, the campus undertook a project to update the Berkeley and Cal brand identity. While the recommendation to shift the athletics identity to Cal Berkeley will not be adopted, the other changes recommended by the task force are reflected in this visual identity update.

Nothing regarding the identity of Cal athletics will change.  The script “Cal” prevalent on Golden Bears football helmets and other Cal paraphernalia will not change.  There is a slight change to the “Berkeley” logo for other issues, but that has no affect on Cal sports, since nobody refers to a Cal sport as “Berkeley.”

The script Cal will still be on Golden Bears helmet, as seen here:

Locked in 👁️#GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/OJHTGRhE5T

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) April 11, 2024

And all the traditional references to Cal sports will remain the same. Cal’s brand guidelines note that Cal, Golden Bears, Cal Athletics, California Athletics, Golden Bears Athletics are still acceptable brand names with the same lettering styles.  In the lower right corner of that document you will see these small letters: CAL BERKELEY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

All of which leaves us with the big yellow B to contemplate.  Will it fly? Or will it die an ugly death like “Cal Berkeley”?

Here is another example of the big yellow B to consider:

Mykolas Alekna is the first Cal track & field athlete to set a world record since 1972. 🥇 Alekna, competing unattached...

Posted by UC Berkeley on Wednesday, April 17, 2024

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