The PGA Championship’s logo typically has done more to highlight the host golf course than the event itself, officials say, so they’ve decided to make a change.
The PGA of America this week will unveil a new logo for its marquee event, the final major championship each year. The new logo will provide a more standardized look for the PGA year to year, beginning in 2013 with the event at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y.
“When you look at the previous logos, the primary focus was the course mark with the PGA Championship in the outer band and smaller print,” said Kevin Carter, the PGA of America’s senior director of business development. “The new logo design puts the event front and center, and makes the PGA the story. … It will do more to establish the identity of the tournament and give it more of a lasting impression.”
The new mark was designed by PS212, New York, a new agency founded by David Gaglione.
Gaglione has an extensive history with the PGA of America, dating to 2008 when he worked for San Francisco-based Landor and redesigned the PGA of America’s primary logo.
His work on a new PGA Championship mark began six months ago. David Charles, the PGA’s senior director of championships, said the collaborative process included input from the golf courses that will host upcoming tournaments, as well as a team inside the PGA of America led by Carter and Charles.
What Gaglione came away with is a mark that can be used three ways. The main PGA Championship mark stands alone to represent the tournament itself. Two other marks incorporate the host club’s name and the club’s logo.
“The goal was to create something that would be flexible for use in the market,” Charles said.
Gaglione created marks that will serve the PGA Championship from 2013 through the 2018 centennial event at Bellerive in St. Louis. The 100th playing of the PGA Championship will have its own distinctive logo.
Merchandise will use both the PGA Championship mark and the logo that carries the name of the golf course. Those marks also will be used extensively throughout the tournaments’ branding efforts, especially the early stages of communication and public relations initiatives that often start a year or two in advance of the tournament.
