Illini Drumline Background Information
The Illini Drumline has a long and storied tradition of some pretty cool merchandise. From parodies of brands to novel ideas the merch almost always includes the drumline’s mascot of over 40 years, the iconic Party Chicken (many may call it a flamingo, and they would be wrong). While most of my designs haven’t been used (we have a lot of very talented artists on the line that actually know what they’re doing), I’ve still had some fun developing possible designs over the years.
IDL NASA Design Personal Project | 2024 - 2025
As an aerospace engineering major and an avid enthusiast of anything space related, I had to make a space inspired drumline design. This was further inspired by the Marching Illini’s Space Show that I had the honor to perform in during my freshman year. This design set includes both a front and back design for potential use on a t-shirt. The front design options (pictured on the right side) are two variations of NASA’s iconic “Meatball” logo. The only work I did was to replace the “NASA” text with “IDL” (Illini Drumline). I also included I recolored choice with Illini orange and navy blue instead of red and blue.
For the more detailed back design I took inspiration from the images of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon (we’ll just ignore the fact that he was a Purdue graduate). This reference image can be seen below. I recreated Neil’s stance in a more simplified style that would read better on clothing. I then replaced his backpack with the iconic cape from the Marching Illini’s uniform, and replaced the American flag with a flag sporting the Block I. Finally, I added a constellation in the shape of the beloved Party Chicken, with the phrase “The Chicken Has Landed” on the bottom as a fun reference to the actual phrase “The Eagle Has Landed”. More recently, I made a slightly modified version of the design to include a pair of cymbals on the lunar surface, with the thought that the design could be repurposed as a cymbal specific shirt.
IDL Patagonia Designs Personal Project | 2024 - 2025
As mentioned previously, a lot of past drumline merch has been parodies of popular brands. With this in mind, I decided to make a parody design based on the Patagonia logo. I again created both a front and back design, with the front design being shown on the right, and featuring a party chicken. For the back design, I replaced the mountain outline with an outline of the University of Illinois campus. From left to right, I included the round barn, Foellinger Auditorium, and Altgeld Hall. The last one is particularly notable, as the drumline performs at the Alma Mater statue with Altgeld in the background every Friday night before home football games.
Revisiting this design more recently, I decided to make some variations with the intent of possibly using them for a sticker. The first was a very simple addition to the original design, with the only different being added party chickens to the backside design. The second alternative was a completely new design inspired by the Patagonia logo. This one kept the outline theme but instead used the outline of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium and Grange Grove. I chose this location as Grange Grove is another important location for the drumline. Before every game, we perform a public warmup at Grange Grove with the stadium in the background, and if anybody has ever seen a video of us performing on our own it is most likely at Grange Grove. These performances also tend draw larger crowds from the general public. With the outline of the stadium, I took a few creative liberties in including the iconic Memorial Stadium colonnade, backlit with Illini orange as it usually is at night. I also included the spherical lights positioned throughout the grove. Finally, I replaced the Red Grange statue at the center with a party chicken lit by spotlights. I am a fan of how this one turned out, but I think I prefer the simplicity of the original more.
Illinois Pregame Show Set Personal Project | 2024
Another drumline design that I started to develop but never got to a point that I was completely happy with is a retro video game inspired adaptation of the Illinois set that the drumline forms during the pregame show. The Marching Illini’s Pregame Show is iconic, and one of the defining moments occurs when the band forms the outline of the USA, with the drumline forming the outline of the state of Illinois, and a single cymbal player standing at the rough location of Champaign-Urbana. This drill set is a huge moment for the drumline, but it holds an even more special place in my heart. The cymbal section leader is the person who gets the honor of walking out and marking Champaign, and I had the opportunity to be the one to do it in the Fall of 2025. You can see this moment at the time stamp 2:45 in the video linked above. The design more or less speaks for itself. The reference image for the graphic is located below, with the main difference being that the cymbal located at Champaign is already walking back at this point. I created it with the intent to make it a sticker, but never fully completed it.
