"The Warriors Return" – Golden State Warriors Rebrand | Revised prim. and sec. logos 6/24/15

[GeauxColonels]

I almost feel bad mentioning this it's that nitpicky, but the headdress is bothering me. Specifcally, the yellow showing through the feathers. I see they are meant to be notches in the feathers, but because they are scattered within the headdress, they seem accidental. I would either color in those specks of "trapped" yellow with blue, or let the yellow show through even more.

Yep, this would be the one thing to nitpick but I think it ends up to be very distracting.

[Jabel777]

Wow. This is great. I actually love their current logo set, but these logos are even better! I do agree about the specks of yellow in the headdress. Can't wait for the uniforms!

[jaker52]

This is pretty nice I have no complaints.

[Shadojoker]

These are absolutely beautiful

[redlegs420]

This is my Golden State Warriors rebrand. Since the team will move back to San Francisco for the 2018-19 season, I decided to add a third color: International Orange – the official color of the Golden Gate Bridge. I also thought about changing the team's name, but after reading through various forums on the internet, a majority of San Francisco locals, Californians or average sports maniacs would prefer keeping the name Golden State instead of San Francisco. Many people argued that Golden State Warriors would sound better and more fluidly. Many people also have been used to the name Golden State, while others argued that "we already have the San Francisco 49ers and the San Francisco Giants", so they wouldn't need a third sports team using the city's name. Royal blue is richer and darker than the current color and golden-yellow is a little more golden, more reddish.

The centerpiece of the logo package is the rendition of a proud Native American warrior used in the primary mark, but also as a partial logo. Around his neck is a basketball-shaped charm and he is wearing a headband with a "W" on it. I chose a roundel, because firstly I love roundels and secondly the NBA loves them too. I also modernized the famous and quite popular "THE CITY" logo from 1969. This secondary mark contains a more detailed rendition of the Golden Gate Bridge. The 1988 primary mark, the basketball with the Californian state next to it, is also updated serving as another alternate logo. However, the "Warriors" flag logo is new. It's the team's name partly surrounded by a multi-colored "W" pattern ("W" for Warriors).

Basketball uniforms will follow in the next days or weeks, as well as a court design.

C&C is appreciated. Thanks for visiting my thread!

Primary logo

Secondary logo

Alternate logo

Alternate logo

Partial logo

Wordmark (regular and condensed)

Beautiful...just beautiful. Well done!

[SplashBoogie]

Man...I'm not a fan of NA being used as a logo but I'd be lying if I didn't say this is a damn fine rebrand.

I like the addition of the Golden Gate orange. It adds some needed balance between the bright royal blue and gold.

Definitely an upgrade.

[Morgan33]

Light years ahead of the generic trash they wear now. I agree the addition of orange puts this identity over the top.

[DenverKing]

Long time lurker here... I don't comment too often but I feel like I need to share my thoughts on this.

This rebrand is good. Really good. But not great, for a couple of reasons:

1. The bits of yellow in the headress are distracting, as others have mentioned.

2. The bridge logo is a little too detailed and has no orange in it. I'd suggest simplifying a bit and accenting the bridge with orange.

3. It may just be me, but the shape of the headress looks a little oblong... More like an oval than a circle. Maybe make the feathers taller and a bit less wide so the warrior fits more evenly within the roundel?

4. The primary logo has quite a bit of orange while it's exclusively an accent in the other logos. Can we see how the roundel looks with a blue or yellow inner circle instead of orange?

5. I think the flag logo is unnecessary.

On top of those things though, I think the logos as a group don't tie in to each other well enough, so right now they look better on their own than together. You've got a warrior in the primary, the bridge in the secondary, and the state outline/basketball in the alternate. They're all great elements alone but don't relate to each other in any way. Is there any way Native American elements could be incorporated into the bridge logo, like maybe a spear as one or both of the beams? Or another alternate logo could be made that includes feathers in some way? I dunno... Just spitballing here.

Don't get me wrong... The logos are great (outside of the issues above), I just feel they should be more cohesive as a group if this is to be a real rebrand. But really good either way!

I also thought it'd be cool to put the state outline with the star on top of the basketball medallion in the primary, basically combining the primary and the alternate... That way the alternate logo you have now could be another partial logo. But that might be too much, haha.

[the_grateful_ted]

Flat out gorgeous the orange red you chose fits beautifully into their old color scheme. 5 stars it deserved all the hype.

Only thing is maybe put the orange in the secondary logo, just for consistency sake.

[YelichGraphics]

DenverKing, some of the stuff you said is crazy brilliant. With your comments on that logo, it could make it perfect. Im sorry but i had to point that out. that deserves to be one of the top comments this month or year.

Love the concept Red Sox

[Berlin Wall]

Now that's how you rebrand! This is just pure awsomeness.

[El Scorcho]

Wow! Absolutely brilliant!

[Midway]

Nice to see a real "rebrand" in the concepts forum. I don't think anyone here would be opposed to some uniform mockups to go with this incredible vision you have.

[JESSEDIEBOLT]

Extremely awesome!! Wish more people would go this in depth with their concepts.

Maybe I missed it but have you said at all if you'll be designing uniforms?

[Go Red Sox!]

Thanks a lot for all your comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Two or three users asked if I'm also going to create uniforms: Yes, there will be uniforms in a couple of days or weeks, followed by a court concept. Can't exactly say when, but it's going to happen.

This rebrand is absolutely fantastic. The rendering of the head is beautiful, and I love the hidden W in the headdress. The state logo and the city logo are great. On the primary logo I don't think that the lines between golden state and warriors are necessary, and I don't know the applications where the Warriors logo could be used. Really great work ( even though I would prefer them to be San Francisco)

Thank you! I decided to use these lines because I found the empty space within the circle a little too much for my liking and I didn't want to space the letters too much.

Excellent rebrand, Go...

The colours, font, logos are all bang-on.

Really nice work here.

I guess you have to be careful with the PC thing, but it's done in such a positive manner, that I can't see there being a problem.

I don't know...maybe the bridge could be a little less detailed?...a little bolder, so the details aren't lost in a smaller format?

But I'm being super-nit-picky, because this is fantastic!!

Looking forward to the unis.

Thanks a lot, Sparky. Much appreciated. I wanted to avoid any negative, disparaging, let alone racist touches when rendering the Warrior. I'm glad it worked well.

I agree about the bridge. I'm trying to thicken the whole thing a little bit more. Not 100% sure how to minimize detail, but I'm trying to find a way. I think that trying to make the whole bridge bolder is the most important aspect.

I'm surprised how well these colors mix. One recommendation: remove the four specks of gold that are surrounded by blue in the headress, they are a little distracting. Like I said, this is an incredible rebrand!

I will do that. It's unnecessary to keep them and they are also kind of distracting. I will only remove the four yellow specks that are completely surrounded by blue and leave the others untouched. I just removed all the notches just for the sake of testing, but it looked horrible. The feathers look like overlapping petals.

I almost feel bad mentioning this it's that nitpicky, but the headdress is bothering me. Specifcally, the yellow showing through the feathers. I see they are meant to be notches in the feathers, but because they are scattered within the headdress, they seem accidental. I would either color in those specks of "trapped" yellow with blue, or let the yellow show through even more.

I will remove the most annoying four specks in the middle and that should crack the problem. I can't remove all the notches because of the aforementioned reasons.

[Go Red Sox!]

The chief looks fantastic. His face looks (for lack of a better word) badass. Wow! Excellent stuff as always from you. The "partial logo" is definitely my favorite.

I'm not completely sold on the red-orange but I think it works. One of your reasons for having it though was that it was the color of the Golden Gate Bridge. However, on your secondary logo (the only logo that doesn't have the orange) the bridge is still yellow? I was thinking you might try making the bridge's highlights and shadows orange and yellow instead of yellow and blue.

Thanks a lot! Much appreciated. The reason why I didn't color the bridge orange is because I wanted to achieve as much contrast as possible. Blue on yellow would have worked too (like in the old logo), but I preferred yellow on blue. Coloring the bridge orange would have resulted in losing way too much contrast.

Very nice! The only thing bothering me is that there is no orange in the word mark and secondary logo. I think if you made that change it would be more cohesive.

Thank you! An (partly) orange wordmark could do the trick. I'm thinking about it.

Any thought in incorporating the orange into the bridge logo? Now that I look again it feels a bit out of place with the rest of the lot.

I could color the shadows orange, but I'm not sure if it looks good or forced. I will try that out.

Really nice.

My only concern (if this were a real rebrand) is what sort of Native American is that supposed to be? The only way this would ever be allowed is if it was paying homage to a tribe that is specific to the Bay Area, and only if they were intricately involved in the development. Right now, the Native American of the logo is of the generic "Indian" we (I'm a white guy) stereotypically expect and accept a Native American to be. Sure, the name of the team itself is the uber-generic "Warriors", but I'd maybe take the opportunity to tie it into the Bay Area Native American heritage (if any) more directly.

Thank you! That would be the Ohlone. "The Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley." – Wikipedia.

I did some research before the first draft, but I ended up having no ideas how to incorporate this very Native American people into my concept.

[Go Red Sox!]

Man...I'm not a fan of NA being used as a logo but I'd be lying if I didn't say this is a damn fine rebrand.

I like the addition of the Golden Gate orange. It adds some needed balance between the bright royal blue and gold.

Definitely an upgrade.

Thank you! Much appreciated.

Light years ahead of the generic trash they wear now. I agree the addition of orange puts this identity over the top.

Thanks a lot, Morgo.

Long time lurker here... I don't comment too often but I feel like I need to share my thoughts on this.

This rebrand is good. Really good. But not great, for a couple of reasons:

1. The bits of yellow in the headress are distracting, as others have mentioned.

2. The bridge logo is a little too detailed and has no orange in it. I'd suggest simplifying a bit and accenting the bridge with orange.

3. It may just be me, but the shape of the headress looks a little oblong... More like an oval than a circle. Maybe make the feathers taller and a bit less wide so the warrior fits more evenly within the roundel?

4. The primary logo has quite a bit of orange while it's exclusively an accent in the other logos. Can we see how the roundel looks with a blue or yellow inner circle instead of orange?

5. I think the flag logo is unnecessary.

On top of those things though, I think the logos as a group don't tie in to each other well enough, so right now they look better on their own than together. You've got a warrior in the primary, the bridge in the secondary, and the state outline/basketball in the alternate. They're all great elements alone but don't relate to each other in any way. Is there any way Native American elements could be incorporated into the bridge logo, like maybe a spear as one or both of the beams? Or another alternate logo could be made that includes feathers in some way? I dunno... Just spitballing here.

Don't get me wrong... The logos are great (outside of the issues above), I just feel they should be more cohesive as a group if this is to be a real rebrand. But really good either way!

I also thought it'd be cool to put the state outline with the star on top of the basketball medallion in the primary, basically combining the primary and the alternate... That way the alternate logo you have now could be another partial logo. But that might be too much, haha.

Thank you, DenverKing. I appreciate it.

1. The four, most annoying and distracting specks will be removed.

2. I try to find a way to incorporate orange.

3. I actually had a circular headdress in the beginning and it looked terrible. It looked like petals – even with the notches! So I took an internet photo (which I unfortunately don't have anymore) and used it as kind of a reference.

4. I started with golden-yellow, but decided to go with orange for contrast reasons. I will upload a version with a golden-yellow background.

5. It might become a little more meaningful because of the upcoming uploads in the next days or weeks.

Primary logo with a golden-yellow background:

[cubsfan2015]

When these unis and courts come out,somebody needs to mod this for NBA 2K14 or 15.

[1insaneguy]

Yeah I don't know if that logo with the Warrior head would be pushed back or not. It's a great set however. Definitely fitting of all the adjectives everyone was throwing around.

[newenglandpatriots]

Those are some great combinations! Never thought about a 'Warrior' design for the Warriors