Last Updated: 07/24/2024
The National Basketball Association (NBA) logo is a symbol of a storied legacy, the pursuit of excellence, and unyielding perseverance.
The NBA's logo design, instantly recognizable around the globe, is simple yet impactful. It is crafted only with US flag colors, the contours of one of its most iconic players, Jerry West, and a simple league acronym.
Let us illuminate the history of this logo, the story behind its design elements, and how it reflects the league's core values and contributes to the championship's enduring appeal.
The NBA Logo’s Iconic Silhouette Highlights What Sets the League Apart From the Rest
The NBA is the USA’s topmost professional basketball league and, along with the NFL and MLB, the single most popular sports association in the country.
Its logo was designed in 1969 by Alan Siegel, the founder of the branding consultancy firm Siegel+Gale. The recognizable silhouette is modeled after Jerry West, a legendary Los Angeles Lakers player and hall-of-famer.
Siegel was also in charge of designing the MLB logo only a year prior, from which the NBA logo borrows similar color and graphic design cues. In fact, the specific color scheme is what expert graphic designers would deem as "evergreen.”
Since the 1970s, the NBA has become increasingly popular internationally. This is largely due to its constantly changing lineup of basketball superstars, with Jerry West being a prominent figure in its early rise.
Implementing West's silhouette, accompanied by red and blue colors in the background mirroring the American flag, makes the NBA logo one of the most recognizable images in sports.
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The Effectiveness of the NBA’s Logo Helped the League Ward Off Fierce Competition
When it was founded in 1946 and named the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the league was only the third basketball organization in the country.
The two in the top spots, the American Basketball League (ABL) and the National Basketball League (NBL) were the formidable competition. The BAA then merged with the NBL to form the NBA, which was facing more opposition from the upstart American Basketball Association (ABA).
Siegel’s NBA logo helped rebrand the league in a way that also saw it come out on top of the ABA. It was effective in capturing the fandom of the US audience — many of whom weren’t partial to following national basketball yet, let alone more than one league for a single sport.
Eventually, the NBA absorbed the ABA in 1976, growing much more reminiscent of the league we know today. As a result, its popularity also saw a spike and led to it becoming the only professional basketball league in the country — partly thanks to its eye-catching logo design.
The Dynamism of the Way A Basketball Moves Is Prevalent in the NBA’s Logo
The NBA’s logo is remarkably simple. Instead of the complex lettering and wording that makes its name, it takes a simpler approach with the colors and contours we already discussed. However, the player outline brings more than meets the eye — an air of movement. West's silhouette is in a full dribble motion, pacing across the court and going for the basket.
The white NBA lettering is in the bottom left corner of the logo, against the blue pre-silhouette background. As West’s figure veers and swivels to the right, the extra space coming from his body’s position makes this a suitable place for the league’s acronym.
Along with the typeface update, the logo also got new, more saturated, and darker shades of blue and red circa 2017-18 — a change “that embodies the game and its athletes,” according to the NBA’s official website.
In 2018, the NBA's official website also underwent a major web design overhaul to enhance user experience and better connect with fans worldwide. Speaking of, discover our list of today's top web design companies.
The NBA’s On-Brand Logo Design Keeps Its Star-Studded Status in the Spotlight To Emphasize the League’s Prestige
The perspective and proportion of the NBA logo make it suitable for multiple media and channels. It works just as well in the digital sphere as it does emblazoned on merchandise and jerseys. It also has the value of being highly recognizable, as fans of the game everywhere associate it with a very particular (and superior) game of basketball.
Professional logo design companies tend to play with nostalgia a lot. NBA brings back the glory of years gone by, the present days, and years to come. It's timeless! The logo, now in use for more than half of a century, has had enough time to create a connection between itself and the spectacular game, in the minds of consumers.
The NBA belongs to a range of professional sports leagues that have generated an impressive number of athletic legends over the years. Using one such legend to sum up the most attractive traits of the game in a logo is not something most sports leagues do. This is also what makes the NBA logo unique.
Recently, there have been rallies and cries to update the NBA logo with the silhouette of a modern, more familiar superstar, the tragically deceased Kobe Bryant. West has never hidden his disdain for the fact that he is the logo, while the public demands that Bryant is honored with the logo update. The stage seems all set, but where the NBA logo will head next remains to be seen.
Overall, the National Basketball Association’s logo is timeless, memorable, versatile, and completely on-brand — all the necessary traits of an effective design for sports brand logos. For more simplistic, minimalist yet effective logo designs, check out Bionic.
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