Cedars, October 2018

October 2018 11 CAMPUS by Callahan Jones I n May of 2009, Cedarville University unveiled a new logo for their athletic department, featuring a fierce and lean wasp as the centerpiece. Eight years after taking up this redesigned Yellow Jackets mantle, the school now has a mascot to match. “Ever since we updated the logo, there’s been a road- map to fully integrate it around the school,” said Chad Jack- son, creative director for Creative Services at Cedarville. “We wanted the logo on the gym floor in Callan, but we had to wait to do that until it was time to resurface that floor. Stinger is another one of the things on that roadmap.” This new Stinger was designed by collaboration between Street Characters, a company that designs and handcrafts mascots, and the school’s Creative Services department. “We communicated to Street Characters what we want- ed to communicate and then they came back to us with initial sketches,” Jackson said. “Then it was a process of it- eration. They’d send us a design, we’d send them feedback and ideas, and then soon they’d get back to us with the next round of sketches.” Jackson said the second sketch, known as design B, was actually quite close to the end product. However, the final sketch was in the realm of J, the 10th iteration. “Past a certain point, we were focusing on small de- tails,” Jackson said. “How muscular should he be, how big should his smile be. We’ve found it funny that so many stu- dents latched onto how Stinger has muscles now. It was just another small detail; he could have been even more muscu- lar if we wanted him to be.” Designing the new Stinger also presented some chal- lenges for the school. Since Stinger is the face of the athletic department, and in some ways of the entire student body, his design needed to reflect the Christian values that Cedar- ville holds. “We were asking ourselves questions like, ‘How do you combine the spirit of competition with the values of the gos- pel?’,” Jackson said. “We wanted Stinger to communicate both of these things. He needed to be friendly yet intimidat- ing, so it was a unique challenge.” Beyond the much-needed design update, the new Stinger is also full of practical upgrades. The school had the previous Stinger costume for years. According to Stephanie Zonars, assistant athletic director for marketing and spon- sorships at Cedarville, it was lacking in multiple ways. “Our old costume was actually a refurbish of the pre- vious costume we had before we changed the logo,” Zonars said. “I think they just sewed some blue onto it and cleaned it up. It’s been eight years since that point. It had seen better days and wasn’t as safe as it could be for the performer.” There was only one Stinger costume for two perform- ers, often leaving one performer to wear a sweaty outfit after the first was done with it. It didn’t have proper arms and legs, forcing the performer to wear a blue spandex suit to fill in the gaps. The performer had to wear their own tennis shoes. It lacked the padding and the comfort-related fea- tures that many modern mascot costumes have. On top of this, this old mascot looked nothing at all like the intimi- dating yellow jacket present in the school’s logo. The new suit comes with many new features to help the performer through a long time wearing the suit. “Stinger now has proper ventilation and padding,” said Zonars. “It also has straps throughout the outfit to help keep the outfit close to the performers body and make it more comfortable to wear. He has arms and legs and his own shoes. All around, it’s much better.” One of the most important changes isn’t as apparent as most of the others are: The school actually bought two Stingers. “Having two costumes allows for us to have one for each performer,” Zonars said. “There’s less wear on each costume and our second performer won’t have to worry about getting into a sweaty Stinger.” Overall, the new Stinger outfit is better than the old one in both visual design and in practicality and safety for the performers who use it. “I think this costume represents what Cedarville is all about very well,” Zonars said. “Excellence in effort.” Callahan Jones is a senior journalism major and the Digi- tal and Design editor for Cedars. In his free time, he enjoys making coffee, being overly critical about music and play- ing games with friends. Photo by Scott Huck The new Stinger athletics mascot greets Dr. Thomas White in chapel. New Stinger Takes Center Stage