Color Harmony: Packaging

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The 2006 NCAA Final Four

Dean Johnson Design

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This extremely competitive, high-intensity series comes down to the

semifi nals, called the Final Four, in which the champions of each

of the four playoff divisions compete against one another for the

prestigious championship spot. In 2006, the Final Four was held at

the RCA Dome in Indianapolis to a crowd of nearly 44,000 eager

basketball fans per game. The home viewership of this tournament

has grown steadily over the years to rival that of any premier sport

championship including the Super Bowl, World Series, and NBA fi nals.

Dean Johnson Design of Indianapolis, Indiana, was hired to design

the identity for this high-profi le event, which posed many challenges.

First, it was to be seen by millions of people across all demographic

barriers and would need to have broad appeal. Secondly, the logo

would be used as the foundation of the identity for the tournament

and would have a wide variety of applications. The logo would need

Each March, the NCAA Men’s

Division I Basketball Champion-

ship dominates the sports

world for a month-long series of

single-elimination playoff games

known as March Madness.

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Design for Special Events

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to work as a full- or one-color image and had to be legible when

shrunk down to 1 inch or blown up to 20 feet. The designers also

had to contend with the fact that the logo would be applied to a

variety of materials and surfaces from embroidery on hats, silk-

screening on T-shirts, vinyl, mesh, window decals, foam core, as well

as on-screen television graphics. A close eye was kept on production

of all of these materials to ensure the colors would stay true across

all mediums. The designers also needed to consider and honor the

event’s locale whenever possible. Finally, they would have to create

the proper hierarchy of information within the logo while still including

all of the necessary information and the newly redesigned NCAA logo.

DJD created a symbol that represented a sense of speed and

motion that was true the game of basketball but was also inspired

by Indiana’s famed Indy 500 car race. It was important that a limited

number of graphic elements, colors, and fonts were used so they

could be applied consistently across the huge variety of applications.

The logo proved so successful that the NCAA decided to use

the Final Four moniker and blue disk in all future Final Four logos

as a means of maintaining consistency and building brand equity.

DJD also created a graphics standard for partners and sponsors

who would use the identity for merchandising, advertising, and

signage that appeared throughout Indianapolis and the arena. This

included designing the basketball court fl oor, arena signage (table

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