How does it work?

[rmered]

It appears the AFL (Australian Football League) have a designer of choice.

Cato Purnell designed the most recent AFL team logo:

Cato Purnell website

With two expansion teams planned, I contacted some people I know to try and get a foot in the door for some designers more talented than I from these forums.

I was advised I had no chance, and that all design gets done by the same place, and that they were happy with their work in the 1990s and have used them on every job since.

Is this normal?

Let's say the NFL, or NBA decided one of the teams logos was old and should be updated, would they approach companies and get ideas, or would they just pick a design company and hope for the best?

Which, to me, appears what the AFL are doing here.

[kc51design]

Then I'll try to score a job with Cato Purnell.

[pcgd]

I don't think its always ONE place here in the states, but there are defiantly a select number of designers that work for each the NFL, MLB, and NBA. Most of the leagues have in house design departments as well that work on identities and stuff. The official outfitters (Reebok, Adidas, etc.) also work with the leagues on identities on some projects. I'd say its rare that any of them have only one designer that they go to for everything.

But its a pretty hard field to get your foot in the door as one of their "go to" designers for identities, no matter the league.

In the minor leagues and college you'll find a more varied list of designers, but even they have their "go to" companies that seem to do most of the identities.

As the leagues want a more cohesive look across the board, this practice will only continue, and will perhaps become even more streamlined in the future. I can see both sides of this. Its good when a league looks like it was thought out and all looks somewhat similar (see Golden League and the NFL to some extent). But it takes away some of the uniqueness of each team as well as the opportunity for more designers to work on logos.

[rmered]

I don't think its always ONE place here in the states, but there are defiantly a select number of designers that work for each the NFL, MLB, and NBA. Most of the leagues have in house design departments as well that work on identities and stuff. The official outfitters (Reebok, Adidas, etc.) also work with the leagues on identities on some projects. I'd say its rare that any of them have only one designer that they go to for everything.

But its a pretty hard field to get your foot in the door as one of their "go to" designers for identities, no matter the league.

In the minor leagues and college you'll find a more varied list of designers, but even they have their "go to" companies that seem to do most of the identities.

As the leagues want a more cohesive look across the board, this practice will only continue, and will perhaps become even more streamlined in the future. I can see both sides of this. Its good when a league looks like it was thought out and all looks somewhat similar (see Golden League and the NFL to some extent). But it takes away some of the uniqueness of each team as well as the opportunity for more designers to work on logos.

Thanks for that.

I guess I wasn't thinking about there actually being benefits from it, such as, as you say, cohesion and parity.

Just smacked of under the table deals to me.

So if the New England Patriots, for an example, ever decided Elvis has been with us long enough, he's looking kinda 90s, then the NFL properties and the club would usually have some design firm in mind before ever giving a contract to come up with a replacement?

Without seeing what anyone else could even come up with.

Now, I know the Colts Secondary thing wasn't well managed, but surely the concept of getting ideas from many places would be better than those from one company.

Or would designers baulk at that idea, wanting the cash up front before doing any work?