The Golden State Warriors have unveiled a new logo for their franchise that reminds everyone of the good ‘ole days of the NBA. The days before David Stern was able to influence everything in the league to benefit his bank accounts. As Jorge Menes would say, “There’s not enough deodorant for that conversation, so let’s move on.”
Coincidentally, this re-brand is taking place right before the NBA Draft. Hmm… I’m not surprised. I’m sure they’ll sell a ton of merchandise now that their logo isn’t a nonceptual blue man.
PROS:
1) Throwback-ish look - I love the reference to the old school San Francisco Warriors’ 1960’s vibe. Apparently the franchise has been selling a lot of “Hardwood Classics” merchandise that features the old school logo, so it’s only prudent that they moved to a throwback look without directly copying it. Often times, I find myself enjoying what is sometimes referred to as a fauxback; reconceptualizations of old jams.
2) Team Colors - A franchise builds heritage by having consistent team colors. The Warriors’ decision to revert to a simpler color palette shows they’re ready to succeed again. Stephen Curry will feel fresh-to-death in his new uniforms. The most recent iteration of the Warriors had orange as one of their colors. What!?!? Why would you do that? Who designed that? Who signed off on that? Orange/Navy Blue/Yellow = Low sales. Sorry, but no one is buying that garbage.
3) New Perspective - I love that they choose to focus on just a section of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge Bay Bridge by cropping into it and featuring it from a heroic angle. Everyone already knows what the bridge looks like, so there’s no need to show the whole thing. The bridge is excellently rendered in Illustrator, and you can tell. Props.
CONS:
1) Nudge that shit, bro - It makes absolutely no sense for the blue outline to be inconsistently thin at the top and thicker at the bottom. Someone forgot to use the arrow-up key on their Macbook. Let’s go people! We have tools to align these things! This slight detail (intentional or unintentional) makes me queezy if I stare at the logo for too long.
2) Copperplate. Really? - Out of all the possible typefaces in the world they chose Copperplate?!? I’ve seen this typeface used on everything from a lawyer’s business card to T.I.’s King. Everyone has it and it doesn’t help distinguish one brand from another. This is a PRO BASKETBALL franchise! They should be able to hire someone to create a custom/proprietary typeface. I don’t care if the deadline for this project was less than a day, I would’ve NEVER EVER put this typeface in front of a client. As a designer, you owe it to your client to suggest positive directions and guide them with your reasoning. And if you don’t know type, then you don’t know jack. I can just picture some suit at the Warriors walking in and saying, “My wife typed out a bunch of versions of ‘Golden State Warriors’ on her Compaq Presario and I really like THIS ONE!” while pointing at a sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ computer paper. I’m not a fan of this decision and I look forward to the 2011/2012 season when they revisit this and make an appropriate type tweak.
3) Lil’ Type / Big Type - This is going purely on gut here, but I can’t stand that GOLDEN STATE is so much smaller than WARRIORS. It makes the whole composition very bottom-heavy. Look at the spirit of the 1960’s logo, it’s so lively and optimistic. It directs the eye up and out. The new type treatment makes my eye glaze over the Golden Gate Bridge and focus on WARRIORS; which will probably be situated right around every player’s belly-button. Get ready for weird and off-balanced jerseys. I guess they’re assuming that the logo is “hot enough” and that it will move units regardless of type.
Overall Score:
I can’t hate too much. They made a strong decision to reference a popular design that has done well in the past and I’m a fan of that decision. Therefore, this logo gets 3.5 stars. If they had paid a little more attention to the details it would’ve easily gotten a 5.
