NBA logos are kind of a crapshoot. There are some really great ones – the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors – and some pretty terrible ones, like the Oklahoma City Thunder, which is basically an attempt at an NBA D-League logo. Artist Addison Foote decided to redesign every NBA logo. But this was not a months-long labor. Instead, Foote took 30 days to redesign 30 logos. As he described his mission on his Behance page:
I wanted to try coming up with a few identity concepts for some NBA teams. After I had finished the first few fairly quickly, I asked myself “What if I finished a logo for all 30 teams in just 30 days?!” I didn’t think I could do it in time, but I knew the challenge would only help me become a better designer, so I went for it. It took me all 30 days, but I did it!
The results, overall, are pretty impressive. Foote was smart and didn’t try to reinvent the wheel on the great ones. He merely updated the Bulls to modernize it a bit, but for the most part let it be.
The San Antonio Spurs also have a classic logo, one that’s pretty hard to improve upon, mostly because of how simply elegant it is — like the Spurs themselves. Rather than try to improve it outright, Foote re-imagined it to include the Alamo.
Perhaps the best of the bunch is his work with the New Orleans Pelicans logo. The Pelicans did a pretty good job getting their new logo right the first time, but it is a bit busy. Foote cleaned it up, and gave it a bit of a classic feel.
Go ahead and check out the entire gallery. Foote has way more hits than misses, and some NBA teams, perhaps the Los Angeles Clippers or the Thunder, could take a few hints.
