Client Work
A logo that earns a second look.
These are the stories behind the work — the challenges, the thinking, and the results that happen when design is rooted in strategy.
Logo Design · Brand Identity · Competition Winner
Gate River Run 15K
50th Anniversary Logo · Jacksonville, Florida
#1
out of hundreds of entries
2
committee-requested revisions
50
years of race history honored
The Client
The Gate River Run 15K is the largest 15K road race in the United States, drawing more than 20,000 runners to Jacksonville, Florida every March. It also serves as the official USA Track & Field National 15K Championship — meaning the same course that neighborhood joggers and charity walkers navigate is also where the fastest 15K runners in the country compete.
In 2027, the race celebrates its 50th anniversary — a milestone that called for a commemorative logo worthy of five decades of community, grit, and tradition. The race organization opened a public design competition to find it.
The Challenge
Designing a 50th anniversary logo for an iconic race is not a neutral creative exercise. The logo needed to honor the history of the event, feel distinctly Jacksonville, work across every application from race bibs to embroidered apparel to large-format signage, and stand out among hundreds of competition entries — without relying on generic "running race" visual tropes.
The additional constraint: the final mark had to work within a strict six-color limit and be embroider-able at small scale. Most designers treat embroidery as an afterthought. As a print designer with 15+ years of experience, it was a design constraint from the very first mark made.
The Solution
Act 1 — The Original Concept
The concept emerged from a single Google search. Looking at Jacksonville's Hart Bridge — the "Green Monster" that runners both dread and revere — I saw the road winding toward it immediately as a 5. The soaring arch closed into a 0. The number 50 was hidden in plain sight, built into the most iconic landmark of the course itself.
The Jacksonville skyline sits inside the arch, reflected in the St. Johns River below. The original palette leaned into a vintage aesthetic — deep teal, olive gold, and cream — grounding the mark in the race's timelessness. A vintage badge structure, deliberate typography, and production-ready linework rounded out the submission.
The design was also personal. The logo was conceived in honor of John Waller — one of only 17 remaining Gate River Run streakers, and the designer's father-in-law — who completed one race from a wheelchair after breaking his femur. That story informed every decision, from the concept to the craft.
Act 2 — The Revision Round
The committee selected the design as a finalist and requested three specific changes before making their final decision:
1. Typeface update: "GATE" was updated to a clean block sans serif to align with the Gate's existing brand identity.
2. Date revision: "2027" was replaced with "1978–2027" to honor the full 50-year span of the race's history.
3. Skyline accuracy: The original skyline silhouette was refined to incorporate recognizable Jacksonville landmarks, most notably the distinctive point of the Bank of America Tower and the blocky Wells Fargo Center, making the cityscape unmistakably Jacksonville rather than a generic downtown.
Each revision was an opportunity — not just to satisfy a checklist, but to make the mark stronger. The typeface change brought more authority. The date range added historical weight. The skyline update gave the logo a sense of place that the original concept had only implied.
Act 3 — The Final Mark
After the revision round, the committee requested one additional round of changes before announcing the winner: a brighter, more energetic color palette with more visual pop, a more legible "5" in the 50, and the replacement of the runner silhouette with the original 1978 Gate River Run logo mark — now sitting between the dates at the bottom of the badge.
The final palette shifted from the original vintage tones to a bold, contemporary combination: navy, lime green, aqua, orange, gold, and white. The result is a mark that reads immediately from a distance — on a race bib, an embroidered jacket, a finish line banner — while still holding the conceptual depth and structural integrity of the original design.
The 1978 logo mark nestled between "1978" and "2027" ties the anniversary directly to the race's origin, honoring where it started while celebrating how far it has come.
The Results
The logo was selected as the winner of the 50th Anniversary Gate River Run logo competition. The judging committee cited three reasons for the selection:
- Submitting original design without total reliance on AI
- Including all required design elements specified by the committee [rule-following]
- Submitting properly separated vector artwork
The final logo will appear across all 50th anniversary applications — apparel, medals, race bibs, signage, digital media, and merchandise — reaching more than 20,000 runners, spectators, and sponsors annually.
Our committee especially liked your concept of what the runner actually envisioned as they approached the Hart Bridge. We also liked the way you built the 50th into your logo.
— Doug A., Gate River Run Selection Committee
The Takeaway
The best logos don't just identify — they tell a story worth remembering.
This mark works because the concept is inseparable from the place, the history, and the people it honors. Designing with production constraints in mind from the start — not as an afterthought — is what separates a logo that looks good from a logo that works everywhere.
The revision process didn't dilute the original vision. It sharpened it. That's what happens when a designer understands not just how to make something beautiful, but how to make something that serves its purpose across every surface it will ever touch.
And sometimes the most memorable work comes from the projects that are personal.
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