Stu­den­t’s art pro­ject aims to re­brand the Bethel Ath­letic De­part­ment

The work of one stu­dent in this year’s se­nior art ex­hibit may very well leave a last­ing mark on Bethel Col­lege long af­ter he grad­u­ates. Se­nior Matt Kau­zlarich de­signed a new logo for the Pi­lots and es­sen­tially re­branded Bethel’s ath­letic de­part­ment for his se­nior pro­ject.

Kau­zlarich said his goal was to re­brand the Pi­lots. He aimed to in­te­grate tra­di­tional el­e­ments of Bethel ath­let­ics while de­vel­op­ing a fresh look for the sports pro­gram.

“As a Bethel Col­lege ath­lete and with my graphic de­sign past,” said Kau­zlarich, “I was un­happy with Bethel’s logo de­sign.” Kau­zlarich said his rea­sons for de­vel­op­ing a new Pi­lot logo also in­cluded a de­sire to have a logo de­sign case study he could send to other col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties.

Kau­zlarich’s new Pi­lot de­signs in­cor­po­rate an ac­tual pi­lot char­ac­ter wield­ing Bethel’s iconic helm. For the wom­en’s sports teams, he con­structed a lady pi­lot, with flow­ing locks, who is also pic­tured with the helm. He also in­cluded a Pi­lot mas­cot af­fec­tion­ately dubbed “Salty the Squir­rel.”

Kau­zlarich pur­sued graphic de­sign as one of his fa­vorite pas­times for a num­ber of years be­fore com­ing to Bethel as a fresh­man in the spring of 2007.  His ex­ten­sive de­sign port­fo­lio in­cludes work for Nike, Hun­gry Howies, and Henry Ford Hos­pi­tal. In ad­di­tion, Kau­zlarich has de­signed lo­gos for two soc­cer clubs lo­cated near his home­town in Al­mont, Michi­gan. Kau­zlarich is no stranger when it comes to cre­at­ing sports lo­gos.

''In the spring of 2009, I was ap­proached by the own­er­ship of the Quad City Mal­lards of the In­ter­na­tional Hockey League,” said Kau­zlarich. “I was asked to fully re­brand the club from col­ors to lo­gos to uni­form.” Tbe Quad City Mal­lards presently uti­lize the lo­gos Kau­zlarich de­signed.

Thi­ago Pinto, men’s soc­cer coach, said Kau­zlarich’s work was very well re­ceived among those in the ath­letic de­part­ment. Cur­rently, Kau­zlarich is talk­ing with other ath­letic de­part­ment heads about the pos­si­bil­ity of his work be­ing im­ple­mented as the new logo for the Bethel Pi­lots.