Thomas O’Grady, the NBA’s first-ever Creative Services Director, remembers getting a mysterious beckoning to NBA Commissioner David Stern’s office. When he walked into the New York office in 2001, after having worked with Stern for more than a decade of the eventual 13 years he would be at the NBA
Category: Studio Stories
Studio Stories: Modernizing the Brewers Ball-in-Glove Logo
The ball-in-glove Milwaukee Brewers logo is back. Officially. But this time it’s been reinvented and modernized enough to let it live as the team’s primary mark without being changed enough to lose the essence of the original 1978 design. Getting there, though, that wasn’t simple. “It was very tricky, man,”
Studio Stories: Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee Logo Sails into Prominence
The Super Bowl will sail into Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on February 7, 2021, doing so with a host committee logo full of local ties and community nods. “We feel like there is a lot of thought behind it, a lot of brainstorming behind it,” says Rob Higgins, Tampa Bay
Studio Stories: Naming and Designing the Original Toronto Raptors
It was the mid-1990s. Purple was trendy, and a new expansion NBA team in Toronto needed to break through the hockey-thick culture to attract youth. There was nothing better than an oversized green raptor on a purple uniform. Well, until that raptor turned red. The Toronto Raptors started play in
Studio Stories: An Inside Look at the Creation of the Reds 15 Throwback Uniforms
Inside the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum the chief curator, Chris Eckes, Reds staff, folks from MLB and designers from uniform provider Majestic poured over decades-old uniforms. With measuring tapes out, they took precise dimensions of everything from logo sizes to collar widths. They matched colours, looked at
Studio Stories: The 2019 and 2020 Final Four Logos
Whatever the theme, the NCAA embraces city identity in crafting a new mark and brand identity for the Final Four each and every year. For 2019, it’s angularity in the NCAA’s celebration of nature in the Final Four logo. For 2020, look for the rising of the Phoenix to provide
Studio Stories: Creating the 2019 NBA All-Star Game Logo
While the NBA logo sits to the left, plenty of teal and purple fill the remainder of the NBA’s All-Star 2019 logo. Plenty of teal, really. The stacked design of the logo with the wordmark “All-Star” in purple and “2019” in teal on the top line sitting atop the “Charlotte”
Studio Stories: Creating the T-Wolves Prince Uniform
The Minnesota Timberwolves figured they had a hit when it came to Prince-inspired uniforms. They didn’t expect the popularity would garner such attention and devotion, but more than two years before the purple threading hit the lights of Target Center in Minneapolis, they knew it’d be a hit. “Internally we
Studio Stories: NHL Winter Classic Not Just About Heritage
Trophies matter. Maybe in hockey more than any other sport, where the “hoist” of the trophy evokes so much emotion, so much desire. When it came time for the 2019 Winter Classic uniform design, Adidas Hockey partnered with the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins to take a break from looking
Studio Stories: Hawks City Uniform Embraces Gold for 50th
For the Atlanta Hawks, 50 equates to gold. From its 50th anniversary logo, first-ever secondary court design or the debut of Atlanta’s City Edition NBA uniform, Atlanta embraces all things gold. And, well, black. “Knowing this is our golden celebration,” says Melissa Proctor, Hawks chief marketing officer, “we wanted to
Studio Stories: Discussing, Re-Imagining City Unis with NBA ex-Lead Designer
Oh, the joy of creating an NBA uniform untethered to the whims of the team, Nike or the league. As NBA teams across the association release a wave of City Edition uniforms, a former NBA uniform designer and his team at Gameplan Creative took to their drawing room to reimagine
Studio Stories: Alliance of American Football Takes Name to Heart
An entirely new league with eight fresh football teams requires a certain sense of togetherness in order for success. As the Alliance of American Football aims for its inaugural year kickoff in February 2019, the logo set of all eight teams embraces that aligned approach. The league put together a