The San Diego Met Panther
In Fall 2014, a school-wide competition was held to choose an official mascot for San Diego Met High School. As part of the school's marketing and re-branding effort, 11th and 12th grade students worked in small teams to design and propose mascots, and all students and staff were invited to vote for their favorite.
Many wonderful and creative mascots were proposed, including the Mammoth, the Macaw, and the Octopus.
Whenthe votes were tallied, three candidates emerged as front-runners: the Titan, the Panther, and the Pug.
A run-off vote was conducted with those three, and the Panther won the day. At the same time, the school voted for new school colors: black and gold.
Creating the Met Panther
Now that the mascot was chosen, Met administration invited students to submit concept art to design the final mascot. Based on creativity and artistic skill, senior Gavin Lang was chosen as the official mascot artist.
Gavin's first Panther was an attempt to convey the strength of the mascot.
Aftermuch discussion and feedback between Gavin and Met staff, Gavin produced a slew of sketches of the Panther with many different posesand expressions.
Concept Sketches
These and many others formed the basis of how the Pantherwould be rendered. The new mascot proved incredibly versatile, adopting many different expressions, ranging fromfierce, to happy, to suave.
An Alternative View
This version was born as a more youthful and light-hearted alternative. Unfortunately, it was far too detailed to be a finaldesign for the Panther.
Final Logo!
After many sketches and ideas, the Met Panther came to life. There was a ton of planning that went into the Panther's design, to make sure that it truly met the standards of the school. Finally,the official logo of the Panther was made. It was decided that it needed to bestrong, but not mean. After piles of sketches and loads of editing, theofficial Met Panther was ready to be posted on shirts, ads, and brochures.
Life Beyond the Logo
Since then,the Panther has been used as a core piece of the Met's marketing and outreach, showing up on the school website, videos, t-shirts, brochures, flyers, posters, and more. Gavin depicted the Panther in 7 posters, each representing one of the 7 P's (Personal Qualities) that Met students and staff live by.
About the Artist
Gavin Lang, Met Class of 2015, designed the Met Panther during the 2014-2015 school year. In the beginning stages of the project, it was very difficult to come up with a clean and unique logo, so many sketches were made. After a basic design was selected, that's when the fun began, and in no time the Met had a brand new mascot. Gavin currently attends Platt College, which teaches graphic design in multiple fields.