The College of The Florida Keys

With a college curiculum steeped in many aspects of marine, it makes good sense to have a marine based mascot. They came to me with the idea of a fictional sea turtle to avoid any technical arguments down the line. Got it. Sea Turtle. Not a real species. Let's go!

Two variations made it to the second round each of which leaned toward speed and motion. From here I refine and figure out vector lines to fill with color and further graphic adjustment.

Color was a huge consideration from the beginning as we wanted to continue using the CFK cyan & orange. Introducing a dark navy for contrast has become part of the overal CFK brand. I wanted to carry the circle component over from the logomark to further tie in brand recognition, while also adding to Tugas sense of movement and dynamic posture.

Tugas was ready to go, from confident grin to lightnig bolt undercariage breaking through it's circlular confines CFK had their new mascot. After considering a few font options we landed on the classic block lettering of Rillo Heavy to anchor the design.

Alternate logos for versitility and muliti-use environments are part of my branding packages.

While the Tugas mascot continues to be used across a multitude of media and platform, Tugapalooza was the first breakout roll for CFK's speedy new sea turtle mascot. This graphic has been used every year at the event.

I can't downplay the joy it brings me to see a character that began as a sketch, move through crowds, interacting and making people smile. This is not a normal thing for me to witness, even after 30+ years of creating logos and graphic media.