MOD offers unparalleled volleyball training for boys and girls ages K-18 with programs based in north suburban Chicago.
Amateur Athletics
Jodi Navta and Luke Previs
In 2020, two of Illinois Youth Volleyball’s most iconic clubs — Division 1 Volleyball Club and Wildcat Juniors Volleyball Club — were merging in order to provide a better choice for athletes and families of all levels. Our job was to find the common threads and bring out the best in the combination of these two organizations.
We were tasked with naming, visual identity, website design, and brand narrative.
Two of Illinois Youth Volleyball’s most iconic clubs — Division 1 Volleyball Club and Wildcat Juniors Volleyball Club — were merging in order to provide a better choice for athletes and families of all levels.
Division 1 (D1) was built on the foundation that they could connect high-level athletes to D1 schools across the country — all while paying special attention to the families and culture of the club.
Wildcat Juniors (WCJ), a boutique club with smaller teams, was founded on the premise that training and team development would facilitate a well-rounded, evenly paced development of youth athletes and prepare them for life and sports equally.
The common thread: developing well-rounded athletes. D1 and WCJs came together in the fall of 2020 with a mission to offer a new approach to training, culture, and student athlete development.
Through research and a naming framework, MOD Volleyball was born.
Working smarter beats just working harder. We built messaging to reflect the combined strengths of both clubs and came up with MOD Volleyball.
MOD’s program is built around three pillars:
MOD is open to everyone, but built for players who have passion and want to compete. MOD is guided by a coaching staff who have played at the highest levels of the game. The MOD method sets players up for life-long success, helps athlete seize opportunity, and harnesses their drive to play at the level right for them.
It’s time for a modern approach to volleyball. Welcome to MOD
With every naming exploration, comes its visual counterpart. Creating MOD in its final form took many iterations and explorations of all name concepts and brand attributes. We involve our client in all of our creative decisions — giving them options and showing them our exploration is a crucial part to developing a logo and visual identity.
With MOD chosen, the identity was narrowed down to a simple but effective lettermark. Within this mark is both the M and subtle V for volleyball. Combined in a sturdy and compressed form that represents the strength of the club. This form is highly scaleable, allowing for freedom in a multitude of applications necessary for a sports brand.
To strengthen the scaleability of the mark, we built out a logo system for vertical and horizontal use cases as well as a system of symbol lockups and frames to fit different use cases.
From the beginning, we wanted the MOD color palette to differentiate as much as the name and brand. But we also had to work within the constraints of a color set that was available for the team jerseys. The surrounding teams in MOD's division were a sea of red and blue, so we landed on a moody dark blue called Blustery Teal. We paired that with a gold, aligning with our concepts around MOD's high-end champion appeal.
As the name implies, Rigid Square is a geometric sans serif with rigid corners and a strong, sturdy form factor. We used this typeface as the base for the logo mark and added some alterations for full ownership of the mark. It is also the primary typeface for all marketing and design applications.
For a secondary typeface, we wanted something that could be a little more of a workhorse for the brand. To fill in the gaps for body copy and more functional type treatments where Rigid Square needed help.
The MOD team asked us to build out the brand for multiple touchpoints. The logo system we built was very flexible and allowed us to play with a variety of designs. We landed on simple applications for both the home and away jerseys that showcase the color palette for a really different look from their competition.
We also helped the MOD team with a graphics package for their website, social platforms, and signage applications.
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