As a designer, I've picked on the visual design of CBA for years, but never have chance to do something, till Monkey Ben finds a few designers and raise the idea of redesign. It is not for money or acceptance, but only some interest we have. We have designers work for sports brands and related industry, as well as illustrators and doodle artists. We all love the idea, as we all love basketball.
To be honest, CBA LOGOs in early stage is kind of classic. Though the overall integrated marketing is not as mature as now, each team has its own feature. However, as the league is developing, the team names are getting lame, and the visual design is getting less attention. Instead, Sponsors are invading and now the original names are no longer being mentioned, and we only call the sponsors name. It is not like a professional basketball league, but a corporate league. Amateur design appears in the logo, some of them are even plagiarizing other logos. Many team owners don't want to build up team culture. When the sponsors are changed, the names and logos are changed. They don't realize that the team itself is a brand. In NBA, teams seldom change their names even the owners are changed. Because, buying a team is not just the entity, but also the brand and history. The name and logo is the represent of team brand and history. It is really important.
As team names and logos are changing when sponsors are different, teams have no culture to reserve and inherit. Meanwhile, NBA really concerns about the history and culture of teams. No corporate name appear in the team name. A team is either named by some local feature, or inherited from many years ago. It will give fans more sense of belonging. Why does hornet want to be in Charlotte after a few changes? Because fans have feelings and sense of belonging toward the team. Hence, how can our fans have sense of belonging to team names that change a lot? Naming of teams show rigescent of mind and lack of creativity. Names can be summarized as Lion, tiger, dragon and leopard. It is repetitive and always about animals. Why can't we use some elements from local culture where the team is? Houston has rocket center, hence it is Houston rocket. 76ers is to memorize the declaration of independence. And there are Detroit Piston, San Antonio Spurs, and etc. They are all named after local culture elements.
To be honest, CBA LOGOs in early stage is kind of classic. Though the overall integrated marketing is not as mature as now, each team has its own feature. However, as the league is developing, the team names are getting lame, and the visual design is getting less attention. Instead, Sponsors are invading and now the original names are no longer being mentioned, and we only call the sponsors name. It is not like a professional basketball league, but a corporate league. Amateur design appears in the logo, some of them are even plagiarizing other logos. Many team owners don't want to build up team culture. When the sponsors are changed, the names and logos are changed. They don't realize that the team itself is a brand. In NBA, teams seldom change their names even the owners are changed. Because, buying a team is not just the entity, but also the brand and history. The name and logo is the represent of team brand and history. It is really important.
As team names and logos are changing when sponsors are different, teams have no culture to reserve and inherit. Meanwhile, NBA really concerns about the history and culture of teams. No corporate name appear in the team name. A team is either named by some local feature, or inherited from many years ago. It will give fans more sense of belonging. Why does hornet want to be in Charlotte after a few changes? Because fans have feelings and sense of belonging toward the team. Hence, how can our fans have sense of belonging to team names that change a lot? Naming of teams show rigescent of mind and lack of creativity. Names can be summarized as Lion, tiger, dragon and leopard. It is repetitive and always about animals. Why can't we use some elements from local culture where the team is? Houston has rocket center, hence it is Houston rocket. 76ers is to memorize the declaration of independence. And there are Detroit Piston, San Antonio Spurs, and etc. They are all named after local culture elements.
We cannot rename the existing teams due to the region concern and sponsors. So we only redesign from graphic aspect. As there are a few repetitive names, we try to use various graphics to create the visual difference. LOGOs are not just animals, it can be local buildings or formalization of words. Each visual design for a team is a whole package of design, not just a logo. Besides the main logo, there is a sub-logo, and design of wording and coloring, as well as the application in different carriers, which is the concept that current CBA teams don't have. We all do this in our spare time, with limited time and energy, we only finished the main logo first. Though it is done according to our ideal mind and it is not really perfect, however, we can ensure that everything in these logo are created by us gradually and carefully. We hope our slight power can affect domestic professional sports more or less, and make some contribution to lead it to better future.
