Los Angeles Clippers Rebrand

[LaGrandeOrange]

As far as the level of improvement on the old logo, this is probably one of the best rebrands ever. As a whole, it's a decent set- the NBA lacks for logos with a true identity outside of Text And Basketball, so by not doing that they've already succeeded. I echo the sentiments all over that a slightly more interesting colour scheme (orange and light blue) would make this an actual A+ set.

[tBBP]

Overall, I'm going to give this thing 9.275/10. What this visual identity does is give the Clippers an actual tangible brand identity for the first time since, well, since they were the Buffalo Braves. A ship? a nautical compass?? And a dang loop hook??? Come on here, now!

 

I don't love the darkening of the blue, but if they were insistent on including the Pacific Blue, I can see why they did it. (Truth be told, they probably also did it for apparel merchandising, too...it's much easier to pair navy-ish sports gear with everyday casual clothing than it is royal blue or other brighter colors.) I'm also not totally on board with the navy-and-white side panels on the red alternate jerseys...but I do love the idea of putting nautical flags down the sides of those panels. Got a little 2023 Memphis Grizzlies City edition vibe going on there. Oh, and since we're talking about City Edition, I'm willing to bet my next two paychecks that the first City Edition we see under the new brand will be on a pacific blue base--or at least include heavy dosages of it.

 

To all who also see the Twins in this: I agree. I see the resemblance, too. I also see the continuing trend of minimalism and sans-keystroke scripts/numbering continuing on. That said, I love that they prioritized their longstanding Clippers script and cleaned it up, pretty much like how the Sacramento Kings cleaned up their old script and put it on their new uniforms. (That coincidence is also not lost on me...might we begin seeing more chest scripts pop up in the NBA?) I can't peg the new supporting font, looks like Rotis (but it isn't), but it does give off a nautical feel, which seems to be the main overall theme of all this.

 

Some of the supporting elements of this brand identity are also quite nice. I'm sure it was completely accidental, but the way the N in "LOS ANGELES" is positioned at true north as on a compass dial on the full logo is some slick genius, as is putting the lat/long of their arena on the court baseline. It's distinctive without being overdone (like the 5280 thing is starting to become in Denver). I didn't see the ship by itself, and I can see why some aren't a big fan of it, but I do think adding implied basketball lines in there was a pretty clever way to pull off the "must have basketball in global logo" requirement.

 

Finally, I am extra glad an actual sports design branding agency handled this. Doubleday and Cartwright have done some pretty good work over the years. I'm also glad to see Matthew Wolff was involved--dude has been making the rounds in recent years in the sports design game. Part of me views him as the modern-day Joe Bosack in that his style is beginning to permeate throughout multiple levels of pro sport.

 

All in all, 9.275/10 as I said earlier. This is really one of the freshest new brands I've seen come out in a good couple years--and one of the best in the NBA, period.

[PurpleRain]

47 minutes ago, swilson160 said:

LOL

 

https://defector.com/steve-ballmer-hopes-new-uniforms-and-logos-can-change-the-fundamental-clipperness-of-the-whole-situation

 

"So he did the safe thing—largely stayed with the demographically safe red and blue (with a touch of black at the edges),"

 

Black at the edges?

[Pharos04]

This is a great rebrand! I’ll echo the same sentiments as been voiced where powder blue and orange could’ve been a better alternative to help the Clippers stand out. I saw the N-North and also think it’s genius. I also love the new LA logo on the belt.
 

the ship I can make out the sails but the comparison to a cruise ship is very valid and should’ve been refined more to emphasize the Clipper aspect rather than just “boat”.

 

this is a solid improvement all around. After the last rebrand leaned heavily into the black it was worrisome where they would go. But this was an amazing surprise and think overall it’s a solid package.

[Germanshepherd]

I do largely like this a lot.

 

The old logo package wasn't insurmountable by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm happy the new one clears it and finally puts nauticalness back in the forefront.

 

Twins comparisons are absolutely warranted, but given that they wear it better than the Twins, who shouldn't be wearing that at all, I'll allow it.

 

Some yays

 

- Nice to see a Clippers wordmark that's not an anchor on the uniform quality

- They look very professional, if they win a championship in these it'd look way more right than their last few sets.

- Nice to see Los Angeles repped in full after the team basically officially became LA.

- They absolutely nailed the waistband designs on all three

 

Some gripes

 

- The compass shouldn't be in the main logo, it looks like a scope.

- The ship isn't very Clippery

- The no-outline color-on-color scripts will likely get lost (but thankfully they behaved themselves with the numbers)

- NOB on the white jersey should be navy not red

- Would rather see the nautical flag side panels on navy/white than the thin line

- Would rather it be powder than navy

 

[sky1324]

Absolutely fantastic. Easily one of the best sets in the NBA. It's very Twins, but I think the Twins have the best set in MLB so that's a good thing. I agree with some of the things said, the wordmarks should be white on the colored jerseys instead of the numbers, more powder blue would be great, the compass is probably one element too many in the primary, but on the whole, this is such a massive upgrade that I'm more than willing to overlook the minor errors. Fantastic work from Doubleday and Cartwight & Wolff.

[bushy]

I honestly really like these ! 
 

Only thing I dislike is how hard it is to read the colored jerseys. Wish they had a white outline on them. 
 

If I’m being picky, I’d use more baby blue. If I’m being super critical, I’d go San Diego colors. 
 

But I really love the classic design and use of nautical theming. Good work.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

I'm surprised they are revealing it now. I didn't expect it until summer.

[LMU]

What's this?  The Clippers rebranding to acknowledge that they're named after a ship?

 

[DJT]

11 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

I'm surprised they are revealing it now. I didn't expect it until summer.

They were probably afraid of leaks / wanted to build hype for their pop up / next season.

 

But like most others are saying this is very well done by the Clippers. I love the jerseys more than I love the new logo. But both are improvements.

[bowld]

11 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

I'm surprised they are revealing it now. I didn't expect it until summer.

Likely going to use some of the new Logos and/or court at Intuit Dome so decided to get ahead of the coming leaks

[pepis21]

Overall is a huge upgrade over current look. Logo is great even if has Naval ship instead of Clipper. Uniforms are great (but current aren't bad either) although maybe I'd add an outlines especially on away and third wordmarks and change buckle belt logos color on home and away to add more contrast.

[tajmccall]

3 hours ago, Lights Out said:

 

Well, that explains why it looks like the Twins' rebrand - it's the same designer.

 

Wolff seems to have a particular style. I also noticed that several of the soccer team logos he's designed have Art Deco-style typography that's very much in the same vein as the Clippers' new text font.

I'd say its more 'Retro Minimalist' But its very clean and a very timeless look layered over some modern minimalist sensibilities. 

Its nothing new, but its a refined nod to old, while feeling fresh and updated for today.   I'm here for it. 

[tajmccall]

Cool lockup of the clippers logos.  

I think the Carnival Cruise ship in the crosshairs isn't a great mark, but the rest of it is very strong. You can minimize that global logo pretty easily, like most NBA teams do. 

 

Sidebar - anybody else find if odd that the NBA has requirements that the GLOBAL icon is the one that relies on the most English/words. Seems to me a Global icon should be the most symbolic and easiest to digest is your brand.  Seems like a giant waste to insist every team shoehorn their (often long) team / city names onto a logo.  The NFL and Soccer have no issue with this and their logos. 

[TrueYankee26]

We can finally throw this logo in the trash where it belongs

 

[bowld]

4 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

We can finally throw this logo in the trash where it belongs

 

 

I REALLY want to know who thought this was a good idea. Right up there with OKC as the worst logo of all time 

[McCall]

8 minutes ago, bowld said:

 

I REALLY want to know who thought this was a good idea. Right up there with OKC as the worst logo of all time 

[TrueYankee26]

5 minutes ago, bowld said:

 

I REALLY want to know who thought this was a good idea. Right up there with OKC as the worst logo of all time 

I could give the Clippers the excuse of them needing a rebrand because the previous identity is associated with Donald Sterling and they were desperate to get away from that which I do not blame them for that.

 

OKC Thunder have no excuses, they could have put a charging buffalo or something that would have made their identity memorable but failed miserably

[Old School Fool]

I totally forgot the Clippers wore navy in the early 80's.

 

 

 

 

[OnWis97]

First, I don't follow the day-to-day like I used to so maybe I'm wrong but did this just come out of the blue? 24 hours ago, did almost nobody know about this?

Like most, I celebrate the death of the ClipArts.  I think there's a lot to like here. I like that they brought the nautical theme in and that they did so without going over the top. The wordmarks are sufficient and the flag side paneling works .

 

I think the blue is a bit too dark. Given their recent use of black I actually thought the wordmark on the white jersey was black... but I think it's blue. Given the lack of outlines that's currently trendy, I suppose they had to go fairly dark for the contrast against the red not to play with the eyes.

 

As a Twins fan, I have two thoughts on the Twins comparison:
1. I think the Clippers did better on the white jersey using a blue wordmark and red number than the Twins because the red on the Twins jersey just sticks out like a sore thumb. (Either that or the darkened shades for the Clips work better).

 

2. I'm not a fan of this minimalist (or whatever) trend of keeping colors separate. But I think I'm in the minority. I've always like outlined letters and numbers and I've always like two colors to be touching but it seems like it's trendy to keep them completely separated.