The ‘H’ takes a week off as Rainbows go retro

The "H" is everywhere, but not on University of Hawaii football uniforms this Saturday.

My nephew Joey’s truck in the parking lot of his townhouse in Newport News, Va., is not just distinctive for its bright red color. It’s also got the UH sports logo on a side window. It’s all over the mainland. High school teams in Utah and Texas have "borrowed" it.

Kurt Osaki tops my Virginia story, telling me he has seen the "H" as far away as in Europe and Japan.

"I’m probably very conscious of it," he says.

That’s because Osaki, the 48-year-old graphics ace and restaurant owner from Kapaa, designed the logo that UH sports adopted in 2000.

I figure this must have been very profitable for him.

"Everybody thinks I get royalties. The university owns it, 100 percent. It was a contract job, $30,000 total," says Osaki, a UH grad who has also done logo work for a half dozen NFL teams. "This was a labor of love and more about pride."

Much of the attention when the Rainbow Warriors host San Diego State in football Saturday will be on UH’s retro uniforms.

The "H" gets a week off … interesting, since the Aztecs’ relatively new logo is similar in design; that’s because Osaki did that one, too, nine years ago when San Diego State decided it needed a makeover similar to UH’s.

SDSU is a lot like UH. Beach, military, commuter school, problems keeping the local talent home, conch shells … and a nickname controversy. People claiming to represent the extinct Aztec civilization protested against the way the school was portraying the legacy. Enter Osaki, who used his experience in developing the "H" to design something that all — well, OK, most — could find acceptable.

RETRO UNIS (provided by Under Armor) are a no-lose proposition for a no-win team that needs something that is at once an attraction and a distraction. Throwback gear generates revenue and interest. To the second point, UH officials were excited Thursday about response to a video featuring Saturday’s uni.

Associate athletic director John McNamara said the timing of this being the game featuring the rainbow logo on the heels of the state legalizing same-sex marriage is "purely coincidental."

Of course that is true, since planning for this started a year ago.

Of course it won’t be perceived that way by cynics here and folks on the mainland who don’t know the timeline.

I’m prepared to call it a happy accident if the timing attracts more fans.

Athletic Director Ben Jay said Thursday afternoon he’d received 10 positive emails about the retro look and one negative, from a "Warrior name lover. Hates Rainbow Warrior name."

The man who designed the logo that was part of pushing out the Rainbow from UH football 13 years ago says it’s OK to bring it back, as long as "there’s a plan."

Two competing iconic symbols goes against the branding principal of consistency. But as Oregon has proven, your brand can be built on the consistent chaos.

Kurt Osaki wistfully thinks back to the ubiquity of the "H" in 2007, when the Warriors went 12-0 in the regular season. A branding success.

Then, back to reality.

"Part of that equation is winning," he says.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.