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From Mercer to the mountain top: Former Bear designs 2022 UGA National Championship logo

Chad Morehead was the first student to ever be enrolled in Mercer's graphic design program.

ATHENS, Ga. — You see it just about everywhere you go -- on t-shirts, hoodies, hats and coffee mugs. It's the logo representing the Georgia Bulldogs' second consecutive national championship, won last month in Los Angeles.
And it's all designed by a graduate of Mercer University.

In 2012, Chad Morehead was a second-string wide receiver for the Mercer Bears. He was also, at the time, the first student to ever be enrolled in Mercer's brand-new graphics design program.

So when it came time to step back on the field, Chad stepped forward into a new role – Director of Creative Services.

"It was so new that nobody understood what the field was at the time," Morehead said. "Our coaches were like, 'who do we know that does this?' I was just kind of right place right time."

Speaking of good timing, in 2019, he landed the same job at the University of Georgia and, not even two years later, was designing one of the most recognizable images the state has ever seen.
And then came another.


"Definitely a lot more pressure," Morehead said. "I think it was a lot more internal pressure, like, 'ok, how can we make this look better than what we did the previous year?' So it went through several versions."

Chad and his team tested everything from famous buildings around Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Mountains seen off in the distance behind the city -- the logo that would've been, had it not been shot down.

"We sent it in for approval, and everybody was like, 'we don't really get it. When you think of LA, you don't really think of mountains,' which is true, and then you fly in, and it's this huge mountain range behind Los Angeles."

By the time the Dawgs had beat Georgia Tech at the end of the regular season, the 2022 National Championship logo was already done.

So in a year full of 'pinch me' moments for Chad, what's been the best?

"Having it on a Coke bottle, that's a marquee thing. Like, alright, that's pretty neat."

Chad Morehead: from Mercer to the mountaintop of college football.

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