Sports Logo Design
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Creating Sports Logos
Sports Logo Design
What makes a sports logo design successful? This question is at the very heart of branding. Your logo must appeal to players, fans, and just about everyone else involved with the team, club, or business in question. They must show the unique spirit and drive that make the organization stand out from the others. For this reason, designing a Logo Design, particularly in the ultra-competitive areas of London and the UK, is quite a tall order. However, there are a few basic elements that contribute to the effectiveness of your brand mark.
Whether it is a winter sports event, sports leagues or sports teams, we must ensure the logo designs are consistent with the core values of the brand.
Colour. If your organization is a team or club that already has chosen colors, this part of developing your identity will be simple. However, if you are starting from scratch, the sky is the limit. Many teams incorporate bold colors such as red, orange, and yellow in their logos. These colors are not just attention getters, but also easy to pick out on a sports field.
Image. Again, if your organization is a team or a club with a mascot, you have a ready-made image that can be inserted in your identity. However, even the most beloved mascots sometimes have to be reworked in order to maintain relevance and keep their modern edge. If you have a sports-related business with no mascot, consider using images of balls, protective equipment, or other images commonly associated with your pastime in your logos. If your sport has to do with water, the color blue along with wave-like shapes can send your message.
Shape. The shield is a very common shape in this industry because it comes across as very traditional but also has a definite war-like connotation. Because every day on the field can be a battle, this is an appropriate shape. Another common shape is the circle. Not only do circles make people feel included and befriended, they are the same shape as the balls used in most sports. More complicated shapes exist, but you use them at your peril because they are not as to understand.
Font. There’s a reason most organizations use bold, thick lettering in their logos: it creates a commanding and aggressive presence. With shadowing and other optical tricks, these letters can be made so they appear to be moving or coming out of the image. This creates a logo that catches the eye and holds it, which thereby increases memory and recognition among customers, fans, and the community at large.
Do you own or manage any kind of sports organization? If so, having a professional identity created by an experienced professional may give you that edge you have been seeking. Don’t let your competitors have the upper hand; let a logo designer create a meaningful logo that rallies your team and intimidates the competition. Sometimes a new logo can be a turning point for businesses and teams alike.
Role Of Sports Logo Design
Have you ever wondered why every business establishment spends millions of dollars in sponsoring one or the other sport or game? You probably not! Every major or minor company, whether it be a manufacturer of a consumer product or a service provider, inevitably supports a sports team mascot or club, a mere local, state level, national level or international level team or club, depending on its financial stand!
According to www.livemint.com, sports sponsorship is on the most buoyant areas of marketing in recent years. The autos (motor car manufacturers) and financial services (banks, insurance companies, etc.) are the two of the biggest sectors of financial support for sport, spending millions of dollars on the sports events they sponsor.
Baden sports is encouraging the public to participate in a donation drive – for every $20 donated by the public, Baden, a leading sports ball makers, will provide five balls to the US Army Service who will give the balls to the serviceman and women to hand out in Iraqi neighborhoods and villages. According to Baden’s CEO, Mr Michael J. Schindler, “Iraqi kids love soccer and US soldiers love giving out the balls. It is one of those little things that might end up making a big difference!”
Why? And what ‘big difference’ does this act of ‘sponsoring sports’ make?
As an advertisement says (sorry, I don’t remember the site owner’s name) ‘We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities’. And ‘strong communities’ make a strong nation! Sport and game events came into existence as physical exercises to build strong youth that eventually participated in battles.
Almost all the sports and games were based on the survival and fighting needs. It was realized long ago that giving rigorous military training to those soldiers recruited just before a war began, it would be better to have a tough, strong young generation with great endurance. And so the sports and games became a part of life at teen-ages and continued up to the age when the new generation took up their positions in the society. Naturally such an endeavor needed an efficient planning, skilled organizers, and above all, a continuous supply of money, some stable patronage. Who could have organized it better other than the rulers who actually needed a strong and loyal youth to defend their country and the regal more than anybody else!
Though the shape of war and battles and the methods of actual fighting have changed over the years due to the developments in the field of weaponry (using guns and bombs in place of swords and bow and arrows), the physical exercises in the name of sports and games have stayed alive with the people. The survival techniques which saved the lives of soldiers have become popular entertainment activities. The once blood-chilling war dances and war cries that inspired home soldiers and frightened enemy soldiers have become novel entertaining shows for the amusement of the ever-growing tourists! People liked to watch their young exhibiting their skills in warfare in those days; and people like to watch their home teams show their utmost skills and winning spirit in the competitions these days!!
However, the fundamental purpose of these activities have hardly changed: ‘winning and losing’ is still there; as the rulers of the yesteryear based their political strategies on the strength of their armies, so are the business monarchs of the present era basing their business strategies on the talent of the teams they sponsor!!!
In other words, to promote a product, the producer needs to make it known to as many people as possible – the more the people are attracted to the product, the more the product sells, and the more the product sells, the more profit the producer gets. After all, the logic behind selling a product is to get profit.
How do sports make it possible?
It is a fact that The Kentucky Fried Chicken’s sponsorship of Twenty20 cricket has helped it to rise from 73rd position to 18th position in the list of marketing and Speedo’s association with the Beijing Olympics helped it to move from 17th to 6th position.
According to Articlesbase.com, a free online Articles Directory, ‘this industry (sports industry) has a large turnover, a complex infrastructure and an influence on many people’s lives via media and participation. To completely understand the nature of the sports industry, one must know that it is composed of different components.’ So it is obvious that sports business industry has certain influence on the lives of general public.
NFL is so popular that the logos of the teams are seen everywhere: on billiard tables, balls and clocks, bar tables and stools, dart boards, on pub light ‘shades’, beer jugs, coffee cups, …
Let’s look into the popularity of the NFL, National Football League, the largest professional American football league in the world: 42% of Americans consider some level football their sport; the total percentage of Americans who liked or loved NFL football exceeds 60% of the American public; the NFL has the highest per-game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world, drawing over 67,000 spectators per game. You can see football logos and soccer logos everywhere.
A moderate stadium has a capacity of 80 to 100 thousand spectators, and an international match of a popular game draws millions of people when broadcast on TV; and the newspapers, magazines and radio help to draw some considerable number of viewership. Therefore, it is quite obvious that a company selling breakfast cereals or an industry making a million-dollar posh motor vehicle is given a wide and grand publicity, viewers from every walk of life watch it over and over, once the company’s brand name and the logo are in any one corner of the stadium or the TV screen.
As a marketing expert, Tyrone Polastri, in his article ‘Main event marketing: corporations sponsor sports …’, put it “The dollar value a corporation can realize from event sponsorship is particularly difficult to evaluate in the intangible area of public relations, goodwill, image and brand awareness. However, one simple rule that is generally used by the trade is the 10 to 1 rule–for every $1,000 spent, a sponsor is looking to generate $10,000 worth of publicity. Sponsors feel this 10:1 media conversion is a cost-effective value, particularly when taking into account what a $100,000 30-second television ad buys them in comparison to a $100,000 event sponsorship.”
So, sponsoring a sport even certainly makes sense.
After watching sports for a considerable period, people get to like a particular team or a particular player, and when the team or the player is shown using a soft drink of a particular brand, the public in general and the sports enthusiasts in particular, attach themselves to that brand of soft drink, and being an official drink at a major international sports event is not only a status symbol but also an important step-up in the company’s marketing.
Now to the main point of showing a sponsor’s brand name and the logo. Though the stadium where the sports events take place may be very large, the largest with the capacity of 150,000 spectators, the sponsor is given a small spot to advertise the brand, because the main event in a sports stadium is not the trade fair, like it is at an international expo where the products are on display. The spectators gather there to watch their favorite teams or player(s) fight with one another for the top place. So the sponsors have to make do with the limited space they are allotted. A banner measuring 2 feet by10 feet or a poster of the same size kept beside the scoreboard has to represent the entire company including the product(s).
How to make a good impression on the minds of the crowds who are most of the time overwhelmed by the ecstasy or great disappointment depending on their team’s performance?
The best way is to have a short but effective brand name and a clean and clear logo.
Some popular sportspersons with the sponsors’ brand names and logos on their clothes
In some games, the players are free to wear the brand names and the logos of their sponsors on their uniforms, but in some either the players do not like to wear them or the regulations of some sports clubs do not allow their players to wear them.
Marlboro’s, a cigarette manufacturer, the brand name on the F1 racing car
Visa credit card brand name and logo, and Nike logo on the side walls of the track. This photograph demonstrates how a short brand name and a simple and clear logo can be used at track and field events. This finish line picture is very valued because several sports enthusiasts marvel at this clear shot, and so it is shown on TV, internet, and is published in print media. Wherever and whenever you see this picture, you see the visa and Nike brands as well!
It is quite evident that sports business industry is a major entertainer to the public and a great platform for the business establishments. What a prospecting company needs is a long-term marketing strategy and a strong team of a chosen sport.
The effectiveness of the whole operation depends on the brand name and logo of the company, and so, a wise company makes a wise choice in choosing a competent logo designer who can create a logo that deserves attention! At SpellBrand, an international logo and web designers, for small and medium businesses, logos are not just designed; they are created, created with wisdom, vision and purpose!
For Some samples of excellent logos from Logo Design Words please visit sport logos page.
In our next article which is to be posted soon, we will be discussing the various teams and their logos of ball games – football, soccer, basket ball, base ball, et. Until then bye!
Top 10 FIFA World Cup Logos
Soccer may have had a slow start in the United States, but it is gaining popularity almost by the second. This year, millions of Americans tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. While new to most Americans, this event has been taking place to much global fanfare for almost a century. Similar to the Olympic Games, each World Cup has a brand and a logo design to represent its unique spirit to the world. Here are ten of these designs, in order of year rather than personal preference.
Uruguay 1930 Logo
1 Although the field of logo design was still in its infancy in 1930, this logo certainly shows evidence of good design. Highly stylized images and lettering are used to portray a sophisticated and timeless image. The colors are eye-catching and bright, as befitting a sports event.
Chile 1962 Logo
2 What could be a more compelling or relevant image for this event than that of a soccer ball orbiting the globe? The writing in high contrast white is easy to read in large blocky letters that pop in a prominent yet gently rounded font. The result is a logo that has withstood the test of time while maintaining its meaning.
Mexico 1970 Logo
3 What makes this logo a winner? It retains much of the tropical heat of its host country while also representing the global nature of the event itself. Few logos can work in hot pink, but this one is certainly an exception. Part of this is due to the minimalist image of a soccer ball that takes up much of the logo. The writing is formed from several layered lines, which was a trend then. It maintains a certain amount of retro charm, especially when combined with bright colors and lower case writing below.
Argentina 1978 Logo
4 This logo design is a huge digression from the last few, which were really more posters than proper logos. This image features a soccer ball surrounded by layered lines that represent hands holding the ball, in light blue matches the color scheme of the Argentinean flag. The soccer ball is ultra-stylized to match the style of the lines and the writing. The font is rounded and surely was more contemporary in 1978, although it is still a good choice with the rest of the logo design.
Mexico 1986 Logo
5 The World Cup returned to Mexico in 1986, with yet another logo design winner. However, this logo is very different. We see the two hemispheres of the globe behind a red and white soccer ball. The nation and year are written in a layered line font yet again, which ties into the last World Cup held in this nation. The repeated use of rounded elements and circles gives a friendly feeling while echoing the shape of a soccer ball. If you notice, the colors, this time, are those of the Mexican flag.
Italy 1990 Logo
6 The nineties had their own distinct look, and this logo is highly representative of it. The ball is shown in an abstract form that is echoed by the upper case writing’s slight disjointed feeling. The writing is slanted so that it appears to be leading toward the ball. While red and green, the colors of the Italian flag, are predictable choices here, they are arranged to resemble a 3-D image. In all, this logo is simple, echoing the aesthetics of its time while remaining relevant two decades later.
The United States 1994 Logo
7 How can a country that isn’t that into soccer host a World Cup? In 1994, the USA gave it a try. We see a waving image in familiar patriotic colors, with a soccer ball in mid-flight rather than stars. This obviously relates to both the nation and to the sport. Ultra-plain writing in black and red allows all of the emphasis to remain on the image. If you look at this logo and the one before it, you can get a definitely feeling of the unique style of this decade.
France 1998 Logo
8 The French are known for their sense of style, and here they don’t disappoint. We see the colors of the French flag—you will notice that using a nation’s colors for their World Cup design became common in the eighties and never lost momentum. A soccer ball is rising like a sun over a stylized image of a globe, suggesting that the sun rises and sets with this sporting event. The writing is slightly stylized but much more modern and simple than any of the older logos.
Korea/Japan 2002 Logo
9 Although 2002 predates the Web 2.0 trend, this logo design is a little ahead of its time in duplicating this now well-known style. We see a bright and rounded image with all the friendliness of a Web 2.0 logo as well as the shiny, somewhat realistic look. A stylized person holds a soccer ball triumphantly over his head, which is the first time we have seen a human being in these logo designs. However, the interest lies in the details with this logo. Metallic gold adds a feeling of wealth, while the two 0’s are in the shape of an infinity symbol. The writing has a definite Asian feeling due to the shapes of the letters, which ties into the host countries.
Brazil 2014 Logo
10 Here is the newest FIFA World Cup logo. Will it take its place among the other timeless logos on our list? Traditional Brazilian colors dominate the palette. Again we see hands clasped together, not unlike the Argentina 1978 logo but with a modern twist. Although the soccer ball is not seen, it looks as though the hands are holding it. The name of the country is not shown here, due to disagreements over the proper way to spell it, but it is easy to associate this image with its host nation.
FIFA World Cup is a great worldwide tradition and one that is drawing more interest in the United States as well. If the branding efforts and logo designs continue to be excellent, we can see the event gaining, even more, fame all over the world.
Outward Bound: The Top Ten Winter Sports Logos
Winter sports are big money, and there are a lot of choices available to this increasingly savvy group of consumers. This means that the logo of a winter sports company must always be in top forum, using best principles of design to communicate the brand’s strengths and values. Here are a few sports logos that are attractive while imparting a powerful message about the companies they represent.
1. K2 Winter Sports Logo Design
2. Burton Winter Sports Logo Design
3. Spyder Winter Sports Logo Design
4. Volkl Winter Sports Logo Design
5. Dakine Winter Sports Logo Design
6. Descente Winter Sports Logo Design
7. Forum Winter Sports Logo Design
8. Quiksilver Winter Sports Logo Design
9. Roxy Winter Sports Logo Design
10. Betty Rides Winter Sports Logo Design
Whether it is a mountain, a triangle, or another image of strength, all of these winter sports companies use elements of logo design to show their strength and dominance. In addition, other values, such as friendliness or high quality, are communicates as well. A logo can be used to communicate almost anything through color, shape, and image and the role of a sports logo design can never be understated.
