Mat Stewart
Mat Stewart
In 2018, I was tasked with creating a new logo for Chicago Bears Training Camp. Since 2002, Training Camp has been held at Olivet Nazarene University’s campus in Bourbannais, Illinois, which is not exactly known for much other than hosting the Bears every summer. To capture the essence of camp, I included the “skyline” of Bourbonnais within the logo which consists of mainly a chapel and a water tower, and I pulled the shape of a shield from the old Training Camp emblem.
After camp had concluded, we had received word that the Bears would be bringing Training Camp back up to our home office of Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois… which meant that a new logo would be needed. In a collaborative effort with my director, John, we came up with the new logo which features the iconic forest that surrounds our campus, as well as the hanger shaped indoor practice field named after NFL Hall-of-Famer, Walter Payton.
To go along with the new logo, I created an art direction for our marketing campaign that was used for all print and digital assets to get the word out that the team was bringing camp back to Lake Forest, where it had been held since 1920, before moving to Bourbonnais. To convey a “gone camping” type of vibe, I centered the new look around the idea of etching words into the side of a tree or wooden bench, and came up with the tagline “Step Into Bears Territory.”
Due to COVID-19, hosting camp at Halas Hall was delayed until 2021. The art direction was upheld and implemented extensively through signage around camp, created by fellow Bears designers, Kelley and Ghada. And though we were limited to only allowing a certain number of guests, the four day event was a success.