The new cyclone cardinal athletic logo called Cy is a trademarked symbol owned by the university and created by a professional sports symbol design firm.

Cory Lubbert, or anyone else, cannot copy or use ANY part of the symbol so that it is still recognizable as the symbol (as was done with the red twister tail, fist, and lettering.)

Creative people, such as graphic designers and illustrators, spent months working on the re-design of the logo.

Yes, there is actually a world-wide multi-billion dollar business of sports identity, merchandise, and marketing design. Private companies like Nike or Champion — you can see the Champion logo on Mr. Lubbert’s chest in the photo of him and his symbol — and big schools like ISU or UI want to protect the quality, representation and use of their designs.

Disney Corporation protects Mickey Mouse with great fervor not because he is Mickey, but because of all the money he makes!

Profits made from the Cy character and other sports graphics help keep tuition low, allows sports programs to grow and improve, and makes the university better known by exposure of the ISU name and symbol.

Degrading or altering the symbol puts that money-making potential at risk. If you saw the Mercedes Benz symbol on every car in town, it would no longer be the special car that it is.

If I saw a Cy named Norman with a yellow helmet, I might not respect the teams as much or buy a Cy sweat shirt.

Perhaps this happened with the many ISU twister logos from the past.

You see that one everywhere now and it means nothing. This is why the university had a new symbol designed and wisely protects it.

By the way, our students in the Graphic Design program are excellent symbol designers. They might just design the symbol or logotype you’ll be wearing on your chest one day.

Joseph Coates

Assistant Professor

Graphic Design