Design Details: Communicating the Brand at Bleymaier Football Complex at Boise State

As a continuation of our Design Details series, Tracy Tapp discusses Boise State University’s Bleymaier Football Complex, focusing on the locker room of the $20 million facility.

Boise State Football is one of the most unique and well-defined brands we’ve worked with. It’s gritty and industrial. Blue collar and relentless. Nowhere is the brand more evident than in their new locker room at the Bleymaier Football Complex. Their mantra – “get to work” laid an interesting groundwork for a compelling brand story that could be woven seamlessly into the architecture, interior design, environmental graphics and signage.

To capture the brand, the design team worked with the players directly – identifying individuals who embodied  Boise State football – and included them in our meetings, collaborating to understand what it meant to live the Boise State football brand. The process created a distinct sense of ownership and pride among athletes, and  allowed us, as designers, to create a space within the training facility that would reflect what it means to be a Bronco.

The grit and blue collar attitude of Boise State football is reflected in each locker room detail.   Materiality played a critical role in telling this brand story to both recruits and current athletes, creating a subconscious connection to the program’s identity and core values. Several key elements created the authentically  branded locker room:

• Lockers
  We designed custom millwork lockers that not only look tough, but are built for the wear and tear they will encounter.  Solid brushed stainless steel door frames with metal mesh inserts conceal uniforms, street clothes & personal affects while providing ventilation and also represent the toughness of the brand with the raw material.  A metallic Boise blue upholstered seat flips up for additional vented storage.  The helmet is prominently featured on an open shelf, dramatically highlighted with accent lighting.
• Carpet
  Custom printed spike-resistant broadloom carpet was designed to emulate weathered black steel.
• Lighting
  We chose to paint the exposed structure black and provided brushed metal and orange lacquer pendant lights to reinforce a raw, masculine and industrial feel, while floating ceiling clouds provided acoustic control.
• Branding & graphics
  Branding and graphics played a critical role in the locker room, woven in seamlessly with interior elements. Large-scale images of players and moments in Boise State history are identified within the space, while values of the program, like “toughness,”  are highlighted with illuminated lettering on aluminum panels.
• The Hammer
  The Hammer has become one of the symbolic icons of Boise State football.  It represents a blue collar attitude and tradition of hard work and sacrifice built by players past and present.  To honor this, we designed a prominent display within the locker room illuminating the iconic hammer, including its meaning. It is an honor for a player to carry onto the field and signifies the competitive spirit and team’s desire to “keep swinging” until they conquer their opponents.

What makes the locker room at Boise State so unique is the genuine attention to the football department’s brand reflected in each material, light fixture and graphic.  Through defining Boise State’s goals and motivations, history and aspirations, we successfully communicated their unique and powerful brand story through design.

Each month, a different interior designer from Populous will discuss one design feature and the impact it has had on a space. Stay tuned and join the conversation using #DesignDetails. Suggestions on a feature? Comment below and let us know!