Did the New Jersey Nets tease their Brooklyn logo?

[Sterling84]

why must so many teams use a basketball in their logo. Honestly, it's been done to death.

That's a league directive, IIRC.

It's probably encouraged, not directed.

The Spurs and Blazers don't use basketballs at all, and the Bobcats, Bulls, Nuggets, Warriors, Rockets, Grizzlies, Bucks, and Timberwolves don't use a basketball in their primary logos

I don't get why. Does the NBA fear teams are so little known that the public might not know they are a basketball team? Look at how many teams in the other leagues use their sport's ball in the logo. Even the MLS, as little known as their teams are, don't do this as much as the NBA.

NFL

1 out of 32

MLB

1 out of 30

MLS

6 out of 19

NBA

19 out of 30

By my count the NBA only has two teams that DON'T use a basketball somewhere in their suite of marks or court graphics. The Rockets and Spurs. Once you add in secondaries and center court.....it's almost a default.

[deliver2david]

By my count the NBA only has two teams that DON'T use a basketball somewhere in their suite of marks or court graphics. The Rockets and Spurs. Once you add in secondaries and center court.....it's almost a default.

Do the Blazers use a basketball any more? I know they had the flaming basketball alternate logo at one point but I don't think they use it any more.

[Firefly]

By my count the NBA only has two teams that DON'T use a basketball somewhere in their suite of marks or court graphics. The Rockets and Spurs. Once you add in secondaries and center court.....it's almost a default.

And of those two, only the Spurs have never had a basketball in their logo. Heck, the Rockets used to have a logo that was only basketball

[deliver2david]

By my count the NBA only has two teams that DON'T use a basketball somewhere in their suite of marks or court graphics. The Rockets and Spurs. Once you add in secondaries and center court.....it's almost a default.

And of those two, only the Spurs have never had a basketball in their logo. Heck, the Rockets used to have a logo that was only basketball

When the Spurs were in the ABA and known as the Dallas Chaparrals, they had one.

[BBTV]

Oh, so it's confirmed what the jersey scripts will be.

I think it fails to evoke the imagery of the subway system because of the way everything is arched. I can see the inspiration now that all those pics have been posted, but I have to work really hard to remind myself that's what the logo / uniforms are based on since all of the signage is strictly horizontal.

Also, I really think even more that they should have changed away from Nets. The word Nets still has a Jersey connotation for me, and it'll take quite a while to associate it with Brooklyn. It'll eventually happen, but I think RWB and NJ when I see that word. Had they gone with Knights or something else, the association would be instant.

Also, I don't care for the "BROOKLYN NEW YORK" circle logo, because it's more of a tourist shirt than a fan shirt. I get they're trying to market the Brooklyn part of their identity, but that's a little too blatant. BROOKLYN NETS would be fine. Maybe work an N and a Y into the circle or even into the B.

[Sterling84]

By my count the NBA only has two teams that DON'T use a basketball somewhere in their suite of marks or court graphics. The Rockets and Spurs. Once you add in secondaries and center court.....it's almost a default.

Do the Blazers use a basketball any more? I know they had the flaming basketball alternate logo at one point but I don't think they use it any more.

shoot. You're right.

[andrewharrington]

While the feel is there, the authenticity is not. There's a big difference between creating an actual reproduction of a rollsign font (how it should have been done) and typing out the lettering in Akzidenz Grotesk Condensed and adding a round stroke (how it was actually done).

Keep in mind that the subways didn't use a uniform font type, for example the station signage have a similar black-and-white look but inconsistent fonts. The Nets have said that they base the look on all forms of old subway signage, not just rollsigns.

The general trend is there, and I think the Nets have succeeded in going for that feel, which I believe is the goal of all this. Its obviously not an attempt to be authentic.

I do agree that the execution of the logos was amateurish at best. But the logos are only one aspect to this. The goal was to build a new identity, give a new personality to the team and sell merchandise, I think they succeeded on that end.

I disagree with gusto. It is clearly an attempt to be authentic. They called the font 'RollSign' in one of the press releases, for crying out loud. It's a font that I can freely type with anytime I want, not in any way custom. You can't just put a round-corner stroke on a font, rename it, and call it custom. The Akzidenz family has a different feel (subtly) than those old subway signs, most of which were hand-painted. Not that it has to look wonky and hand-done, but the forms don't say the same things. A cleaned up version of any of those lettering styles would have been killer. They missed the mark on it, even though their intentions were good. All that research they did, why not create a custom font or two based on the actual lettering, instead of stretching and squashing the same German font to fit the different applications?

That INTERBOROUGH text is great.

[McCall]

Oh, so it's confirmed what the jersey scripts will be.

I think it fails to evoke the imagery of the subway system because of the way everything is arched. I can see the inspiration now that all those pics have been posted, but I have to work really hard to remind myself that's what the logo / uniforms are based on since all of the signage is strictly horizontal.

Also, I really think even more that they should have changed away from Nets. The word Nets still has a Jersey connotation for me, and it'll take quite a while to associate it with Brooklyn. It'll eventually happen, but I think RWB and NJ when I see that word. Had they gone with Knights or something else, the association would be instant.

Also, I don't care for the "BROOKLYN NEW YORK" circle logo, because it's more of a tourist shirt than a fan shirt. I get they're trying to market the Brooklyn part of their identity, but that's a little too blatant. BROOKLYN NETS would be fine. Maybe work an N and a Y into the circle or even into the B.

Very quick and rough work here, but I only had a brief time at the end of my lunch break. I think you can get the idea of it.

[whitedawg22]

NFL is 2/32 ( Jets and Bucs).

I'd count the NFL as 4/32, since the Dolphins and Browns use helmets in/as their logos.

[IceCap]

NFL is 2/32 ( Jets and Bucs).

I'd count the NFL as 4/32, since the Dolphins and Browns use helmets in/as their logos.

5/32. The Raiders' logo uses an old timey football helmet.

[OnWis97]

Oh, so it's confirmed what the jersey scripts will be.

I think it fails to evoke the imagery of the subway system because of the way everything is arched. I can see the inspiration now that all those pics have been posted, but I have to work really hard to remind myself that's what the logo / uniforms are based on since all of the signage is strictly horizontal.

Also, I really think even more that they should have changed away from Nets. The word Nets still has a Jersey connotation for me, and it'll take quite a while to associate it with Brooklyn. It'll eventually happen, but I think RWB and NJ when I see that word. Had they gone with Knights or something else, the association would be instant.

Also, I don't care for the "BROOKLYN NEW YORK" circle logo, because it's more of a tourist shirt than a fan shirt. I get they're trying to market the Brooklyn part of their identity, but that's a little too blatant. BROOKLYN NETS would be fine. Maybe work an N and a Y into the circle or even into the B.

Except now the Nets are back to the area where fans cheer for the Mets and the Jets. Given that they started in NY and the silly but amusing rhyming, I like it (and I am not old enough to remember the NY Nets)

Edit: I once had a supervisor from Long Island who told me there once was a team in a team tennis league called the "Sets". I think in the 70s.

[Whittier S]

If the sports economy collapses, they can merge as the JMNets.

[OnWis97]

I don't get why. Does the NBA fear teams are so little known that the public might not know they are a basketball team? Look at how many teams in the other leagues use their sport's ball in the logo. Even the MLS, as little known as their teams are, don't do this as much as the NBA.

NFL

1 out of 32

MLB

1 out of 30

MLS

6 out of 19

NBA

19 out of 30

Actually, MLB has 10 out of 30 teams use that ball in their primary logos (Twins, Yankees, Mariners, Rangers, Blue Jays, Rockies, Dodgers, Brewers, Mets, Giants).

Not to mention 3 teams use bats as well, though the Yankees use both a bat and ball.

If you include other baseball equipment (e.g., bases, baseball diamonds, etc.), you pull in the Rays - and arguably the Phillies (if you assume that the background is a baseball field). The Orioles' primary had green grass and base paths up until '08.

Either way, I agree with Hawk. Add to this that NBA teams by rule (correct?) have to include their city and nickname on the primary, it creates a bit of homogeneity thoughout the league. And some teams really squeeze the name into a logo that would be better off without it (original T-Wolves logo, for example).

[BBTV]

Oh, so it's confirmed what the jersey scripts will be.

I think it fails to evoke the imagery of the subway system because of the way everything is arched. I can see the inspiration now that all those pics have been posted, but I have to work really hard to remind myself that's what the logo / uniforms are based on since all of the signage is strictly horizontal.

Also, I really think even more that they should have changed away from Nets. The word Nets still has a Jersey connotation for me, and it'll take quite a while to associate it with Brooklyn. It'll eventually happen, but I think RWB and NJ when I see that word. Had they gone with Knights or something else, the association would be instant.

Also, I don't care for the "BROOKLYN NEW YORK" circle logo, because it's more of a tourist shirt than a fan shirt. I get they're trying to market the Brooklyn part of their identity, but that's a little too blatant. BROOKLYN NETS would be fine. Maybe work an N and a Y into the circle or even into the B.

Very quick and rough work here, but I only had a brief time at the end of my lunch break. I think you can get the idea of it.

Sorta. I think this is where a third color would work well. If the N and Y were silver maybe, they'd look better.

I was also thinking that something could be made with a little N inside the top part of the B, and a little Y in the bottom. Wouldn't go with the whole subway thing though, but as of now, I'm seeing that as a stretch anyway (not the inspiration, but the actual execution.)

[gyrocol]

Edit: I once had a supervisor from Long Island who told me there once was a team in a team tennis league called the "Sets". I think in the 70s.

He's right

[PoppersPop]

Another write-up, but with an alternate take on the logos by Jon Contino

http://www.thefoxisblack.com/2012/05/01/the-brooklyn-nets-dropped-the-ball-on-their-new-logo/

[Gothamite]

Don't like any of those concepts.

And this, from the designer's statement:

I chose to do a slight restyling of the typical Brooklyn sports “B” and apply it here. It’s not just for the Dodgers, it’s been used for almost everything Brooklyn for over a hundred years.

Nonsense.

[keynote]

I think those concepts are graphically interesting, but they're too retro for a modern basketball team. The "ink thickening effect" where the letters meet the seams of the ball is a bit much for modern applications, IMHO. And, while I agree that the fonts are more authentically from that era than the official version, I think they're too trapped in the past. The concept rebrand also de-emphasizes "Brooklyn" a little too much for my taste.

Still, considering that the artist acknowledged that he was being a bit more self-indulgent in this concept than he would be on a professional project, I think it's an excellent take on a faux old-school logo. This would work great for a period film.

[andrewharrington]

Given those were probably done in a few hours, I think they are quite nice. Obviously, you'd probably clean them up so that the branding doesn't look so purposely distressed, and I'm not sure what else the Dodger B was used for, but that would need changing. There's cool elements at play, and the aesthetic is more in line with the spirit of the identity than the faux/neo/retro look that they ended up with.

[Morgan33]

Just saw the new look for the first time on the motherboard and all I can say is wow...

I know creativity in logo design is at an all time low (see Tampa Bay Lightning) but come on! Are they even trying anymore? This reads less like a logo for a professional sports team and more like a checklist of logo cliche's. Wow a basketball! What a distinctive way to set this brand apart . More baffling is that it doesn't even address the biggest problem of the last logo... no net(s)!