Sports & team logos
Main logo: Meadowvale Hawks hockey team
Project: Sports logo design treatment for a Toronto area hockey team.
More: Sports logo gallery

Sport logos encompass a wide range of sports, specialties and disciplines and over the years, our studio has developed logos for almost every sport imaginable. In our extensive portfolio you will find a wide range - baseball, basketball, football, hockey, watersports, motorsports and martial arts to name but a few. We've also worked on identities for cheerleading squads, fitness & exercise clubs and other related companies. Perhaps even more important than that for a company, a sports logo is central to the team, both in rallying player and fan support, as well as marketing and advertising events and team merchandise. There are very few set-in-stone rules when it comes to the design, other than encompassing the 'spirit' and the sport itself.

Understanding the application of a sports-themed logo is critical to the success of the design project itself. If the design is to be used to represent a sports related company, then we can generally stick to the usual design rules and applications. However, if the design is to be used to represent an actual sports team, then we need to approach the project from a different angle. Sports team logos need to invoke fan enthusiasm and loyalty, as well as be technically practical for application on the usual team paraphernalia - team jerseys and the like. They also need to be adaptable for marketing and advertising applications - sponsorship and advertising deals mean that these kind of identities are among the most heavily used in the industry. Sports teams are particularly fond of character and mascot themed designs, but designers are sometimes limited in the scope of technical approaches they can take - sports team logos need to reproduce on a wide range of materials, some of which are not too forgiving with technically complex designs. Sports teams using characters as part of their logo also have to keep an eye on originality - there's only so many ways a designer can render a specific character, and it's highly likely that a similar character exists out there somewhere. There have been a spate of recent copyright and trademark disputes where various sports teams fight over ducks, sharks and bulldogs they claim are being used unfairly by someone else.

Sports logos - things to think about

When it comes to developing a sports themed logo, colour is a very practical concern. More often than not, the team colours have already been decided, and the designer will have to incorporate those colours into the design. If the designer is lucky enough to get in on the 'bottom floor' - that is, the logo is the starting point, they have to choose colours wisely. These colours will be used on uniforms, sports paraphernalia and other marketing trinkets and will have to stand on their own, with or without the presence of the team logo itself. Another thing to keep in mind is the cultural sensitivity of any characters that are used. There's been a movement against established sports icons and mascots that utilize cultural or ethnic stereotypes, often resulting in the dismantling of popular sports icons, and the rebranding of teams with tamer, more politically correct artwork. Best bet is to avoid any cultural references completely.

Sport logo gallery

Midwest High School Hockey League. Simple logo treatment for a high school league. Using a simple hockey puck background graphic to accent fairly straight forward text work illustrates how detail light designs can work nicely.	ABWF Fishing. For this Texas based fishing organization, our designers combined two sports themes - fishing & rodeo - to develop a fun design that's still serious enough to represent a decent sized sports group.	Duck Surfboards. Simple duck graphics were worked into a yin-yang theme for this water sports design. The logo needed to be simple as to allow its main purpose - vinyl decals that were applied to the custom surf boards offered.
Colonial League Baseball. Design for an 'A' list semi-pro baseball league. Logo needed to be semi-illustrative in nature, yet simple enough to embroider on baseball jersey patches and tags.	Jim Rathmann Auto Sports Management. Very simple linear illustration combined with italic font work make this design fairly self-explanitory. Two colour treatment assures wide range of use.	Blue Sky Sports Center. Logo for a sports center focusing on soccer. Simple text and soccer ball treatment was set up as a horizontal aspect ration for ease of use on signs and banners.
Toritos Baseball. This logo, for an 'A' list baseball team in Puerto Rico features a bull mascot, a bull (the team name actually means 'Bulls') and a simple two colour theme that lends itself to reproduction using the teams colours.	Official Ralli. Martial arts logo uses an almost cartoon-like treatment to illustrate the sport. Shield format, with a typical square aspect ratio, allowed the logo to be developed into a T-shirt design as well as typical marketing uses.	Cherry Creek Elite Cheerleading Squad & Sports Center. Logo for a 15,000 sq ft. Cheerleading training complex and the 'home' squad. Cherry Elite also fields cheerleading squads in state and national level competitions. Design was to imply tiger claws.

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