NBA Playoffs and Finals Concept

[FinsUp1214]

Hey all!

 

This is a pretty straightforward concept; I think the NBA Playoffs and Finals branding is pretty stale and lifeless, and wanted to do something about it.

 

The goal was to make something a bit more fun but not too crazy, fitting for and representative of a large scale event but not too conservative either, and to give each aspect of the playoffs it’s own particular feel but still cohesive within the whole identity. I also wanted to go for timelessness, something that could last a long while, so I went with what I like to call “bold and colorful straightforwardness” which was, I admit, partly inspired by what I’ve learned recently reading Pretty Much Everything by Aaron Draplin (an EXCELLENT read and resource for designers and design fans, BTW). 

 

Let’s get it started!

 

Finals Primary

 

 

The red of course is for the Western Conference, blue for the Eastern Conference. The trophy roundel would serve as the jersey patch, as you’ll see down the line.

 

Playoffs/Conference Finals Branding, Finals Wordmark

 

 

The typography remains consistent throughout (Coolvetica, edited here and there); the Playoffs logo would be used for the first two rounds before the Conference Finals branding would take over, then onto the Finals. The arrows and typography in the Conference Finals logos are color coded to conference.

 

And finally...

 

Jersey Patch and Social Media

 

 

Picked Bucks/Blazers just for fun! Anyways, the roundel is the jersey patch and this example shows the scale (in my perfect world, there’s no ads!  ). The other content here is the branding that I would imagine and propose being applied by the NBA social media for posts reporting game results and other content. 

 

I intend to to add more parts of the identity soon, as I’m looking to use this project for my personal portfolio and want to include as much as I can to it. I’d love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for viewing and reading!

[Denver_The_Sinaloa]

now this puts a smile on my face. simple enjoyable branding for the NBA

[_DietDrPepper_]

Lines are heavy, everything looks kinda like app icons, and I’m not the biggest fan of the font or the gradient on the arrows. I’m sorry but honestly, the cursive logo needs to be brought back, the 2010 era branding was perfect, professional, and classy. I think this is a step in the wrong direction. While the work itself isn’t bad, it’s just not what the NBA really needs. I do like the rounded however, it needs some clean up but it’s the most promising thing out of the set you made 

[FinsUp1214]

Thank you for the comments! I have a slight update to the primary, I trimmed the line weights down and rearranged the netting a little. I also added more gold to the trophy base as well. Here goes, what do you all think? Any better?:

 

 

@BellaSpurs, I appreciate your thoughts and respect your opinion! I have a respectful disagreement with you on the classic cursive branding, mostly because as a teen when it was re-introduced it struck me as a very stuffy and far too elegant logo; just sorta seemed like something better suited for a wedding invitation or an exclusive rich people restaurant to young me!  I figure youth and younger generations are a big audience and marketing target for the league, and I recall as a youth being pretty disinterested in and put off by that branding, so that experience leads me to want the league to get a good distance from that. I hope that explains a little better where I’m coming from, why I’m distancing from that (and especially it’s bland and lifeless successor), and why I feel the league actually does need something a bit less serious (but not crazy either, of course, haha). Again though, thank you for sharing and I appreciate your thoughts! What do you feel I could do to make what I’m going for better? Is there any other cleanup you feel the roundel may need? And I’m still open to other suggestions for anything else also!

 

Any other comments and critique out there is greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

[_DietDrPepper_]

That roundel looks much better! Maybe rounded the bottom to match the circle around it, that might throw the angle off however. I would, for the rest of the set, try to separate from the "app feel" if that makes sense, for example, the black square around the arrow and nba logo can be removed on the white background. And separating the P and F from the nba logos could help.

[StrongXStyle]

The Larry O'brien looks nice. It reminds me of the 97 finals patch.

I like how the Western and Eastern Conference Finals word marks makes the WCF and ECF horizontally.  

[Krz]

On 5/20/2019 at 7:23 PM, FinsUp1214 said:

 

it struck me as a very stuffy and far too elegant logo; just sorta seemed like something better suited for a wedding invitation or an exclusive rich people restaurant 

Agreed, I really like your take on it.  What would it look like without the red and blue, just the trophy, similar to this,