
Grand Island University

About the Senior Show
For his senior show, Benjamin wanted to highlight his logo work, along with his understanding of sports design. He started his journey with the name Grand Island University Rapids. This was a made-up university on Grand Island. This island is located northeast of Buffalo, New York, surrounded by the Niagara River, bordering both the United States of America and Canada. It is just south of the Niagara Falls. The idea behind the name was first a location that felt close to Ben, as well as a mascot name that had no gender or cultural significance. Thus, the Rapids were born.
In the first images, you'll see Benjamin's sketches as he wanted to show the growth of a university identity through time. The images below the sketches are the vectorized versions with the corresponding colors. Logos are shown in primary color, secondary color, white, grey/neutral color, one color on black, and one color on white. The eras that were designed were the 1900s, 1920s, 1950s, 1990s, 2000s, 2020s, and the University Logo. For the 1900s, Ben leaned into the heavily calligraphy letter marks such as the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Iowa State. For the 20s, Ben leaned into the heavily illustrated logos such as the University of Kansas and the University of Georgia. For the 50s, Ben leaned into the heavily macho mascot found post World Wars, such as North Carolina State and Louisiana State University. For the 90s, Ben leaned into the hard one-color letter marks such as Syracuse University and the University of Cincinnati. For the 2000s, Ben leaned into the heavily shaded logos such as Texas Tech and the University of Alabama. Finally, for the 2020s, Ben leaned into the modernization of throwback logos such as non-collegiate teams, Buffalo Sabres, New York Jets, Sacramento Kings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
For the next step, it was Benjamin's responsibility to transform a space with just the logos he created. In his space, he had a wall dedicated to the images he created for Alfred SAAC, which can be seen here. The other three walls he dedicated to Grand Island University. The first wall was a designed wall piece with an LED-outlined logo and altered photos of athletes in Grand Island University gear. The small wall had a TV with looping logos. The last wall had a Hall of Fame dedicated to fictional athletes with names of people who helped him in his journey, including friends and family. On the last wall, it also included an enlarged logo, two gameday posters, and a table with Grand Island University tees and Programs.