OKC Thunder and Miami Marlins

[TruColor]

Well guys, it could have been worse...here's one of the prototype versions of the Thunder logo - complete with a slightly lighter Navy, and a good healthy dose of Metallic Silver shoehorned in there:

[devilboy1995]

MY EYES! THEY BURN! MAKE THE HORROR STOP!

[JayMac]

Like I said, it is probably the worst in sports.That being said, how do you visually represent thunder? lol

[bosrs1]

I sure as hell wasn't expecting THIS when the logo was unveiled in 2008.

That entire logo is a mess.

Yep. Crappy logo from a team that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

[phutmasterflex]

Like I said, it is probably the worst in sports.That being said, how do you visually represent thunder? lol

Which one of the reasons why I was confused when they decided to name the team Thunder. You can't see it. And putting in lightning bolts doesn't make it any better. Maybe a stormy cloud???

[officeglenn]

To the OP's question, I think both the Marlins' and the Thunder's identities are indicative of a cyclical shift away from dark, drab, "intimidating" colours that we saw in the late 90s and 00s to brighter palettes -- though hopefully not swinging as far back as the teal/purple combos that were all the rage circa 1994. The simplicity/genericness/abstractness of them, though, may just be one-off cases; I could just as easily imagine a rather complex logo in the same colours coming down the pipe.

[Island_Style]

I think Miami will drop the yellow soon enough. Kind of pointless.

I agree. But I guess having yellow in the scheme makes them a little more original.

The yellow is there as a representation of the sun in the M. The orange is the morning (or evening, if you're in the water facing west towards the shore) sky and blue, the water. All this to go with the "leaping" marlin on the logo. The only way yellow will be dropped is if they change the logo almost completely.

Please. No one looks at the logo and sees that without explanation. Take out the yellow and slap on some blue. Call it sky if it makes you feel better.

Have to redo the whole logo.....ha ha ha.

[Old School Fool]

I'm also rooting against OKC in this finals, because I think it'd be a disgrace to the history of the game to have photos of players in those horrible road uniforms (or even the home uniforms that just say THUNDER) holding the O'Brien trophy immortalized forever.

I hate OKC too, but they're a good team regardless so I don't think they'd be a disgrace to the game. If anything they would be a feel good story for Oklahoma City. Their fans earned themselves an NBA team (albeit in a crappy way) and it'd be great to see a new team win the Finals. Aesthetics mean jack when it comes to actual play on the court.

[Mr. Aware Eagle]

Does anyone else think that both the Thunder and Marlins suffer from too-many-colors-syndrome? I feel like if they could settle on two or even three colors, they could build stronger identities.

[Fox]

Well guys, it could have been worse...here's one of the prototype versions of the Thunder logo - complete with a slightly lighter Navy, and a good healthy dose of Metallic Silver shoehorned in there:

Interesting... do you happen to have any of the other prototypes considered?

[McCall]

I think Miami will drop the yellow soon enough. Kind of pointless.

I agree. But I guess having yellow in the scheme makes them a little more original.

The yellow is there as a representation of the sun in the M. The orange is the morning (or evening, if you're in the water facing west towards the shore) sky and blue, the water. All this to go with the "leaping" marlin on the logo. The only way yellow will be dropped is if they change the logo almost completely.

Please. No one looks at the logo and sees that without explanation. Take out the yellow and slap on some blue. Call it sky if it makes you feel better.

Have to redo the whole logo.....ha ha ha.

And you have no sense of the composition of the logo. What you think or what you think everybody else thinks does not make it any less of the meaning that it is. There is reasoning for each of the colors and their placement. You may not think it looks good, but the reasoning is not debatable. So your actually advocating for random coloring rather than composed coloring.

[BBTV]

I'm also rooting against OKC in this finals, because I think it'd be a disgrace to the history of the game to have photos of players in those horrible road uniforms (or even the home uniforms that just say THUNDER) holding the O'Brien trophy immortalized forever.

I hate OKC too, but they're a good team regardless so I don't think they'd be a disgrace to the game. If anything they would be a feel good story for Oklahoma City. Their fans earned themselves an NBA team (albeit in a crappy way) and it'd be great to see a new team win the Finals. Aesthetics mean jack when it comes to actual play on the court.

Well I don't care much for the play on the court, as I'm more of a fan of the aesthetics than the athletics. Maybe it's just because I'm a little older than a lot of the people on the board (34), but I don't like seeing Oklahoma City mentioned in the same breath as Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, etc. Granted there are other non-traditional big-league cities (San Antonio and Portland for example) that are immortalized in NBA lore, but at least they look like professional teams.

I get that the NBA and NHL exist in smaller markets than MLB and NFL, and in some cases, that creates some charming stories. I just don't see that here.

Either way, on the Sports Logos part of this board, my opinions will be 90% based on aesthetics.

[SCL]

OKC's unis are great but they badly need a new logo.

[oldschoolvikings]

OKC look like crap, but I wouldn't root for the Heat no matter who they're playing. (OK, maybe I'd root for them against the Lakers.)

[GFB]

There's some irony in the fact that the NBA franchise does not understand the concept of using a color scheme that can work together without them all being designated "primary" colors.

"We have six colors and we want them all to be superstars!!!!!!!"

[Fox]

OKC's unis are great but they badly need a new logo.

Disagree. I think they both suck. Even on the uniforms, there's no navy or the home scripts but navy on the road, and no orange on the road scripts but orange outline at home. The set has so many problems. They might not be as bad as the logo, but they're generic, dull, and inconsistent.

My ideal solution: Black, yellow, and silver color scheme with lightning representing the "Thunder" in the nickname. Black and yellow is such a great color scheme, and is currently not used in the NBA. It would work so well for the Thunder. Make it happen!

[shaydre1019]

I can't root for the thunder against the heat and won't until they get a new logo. I like the players, like the fans and the environment, can't stand that logo, looks like a fish or something. Just horrible.

That makes absolutely no sense. By that logic, I should root for the Yankees because I like their home uniforms, even the mismatching NY's, but hate everything else about the franchise.

Yeah shaydre, that's taking logo-obsession to ridiculous heights. I mean come on. Are you really gonna let the Thunder's stupid logo ruin your enjoyment of the NBA Finals?

I disagree. If you are otherwise neutral about a team, rooting for or against teams that you feel have great or crappy uniforms is perfectly fine.

I couldn't care less about the Angels or Giants, but rooted for the Angles in that World Series because I really liked their new look. I'm also rooting against OKC in this finals, because I think it'd be a disgrace to the history of the game to have photos of players in those horrible road uniforms (or even the home uniforms that just say THUNDER) holding the O'Brien trophy immortalized forever. I think the Heat is a silly name too, but I think that their logo and uniforms are both pretty nice and at least befitting of a major league team.

I also wouldn't want to give the OKC owners any reason to keep the identity for even a minute longer than they otherwise would. I almost want them to be punished for picking that name and then going with a logo and uniform design like that. So even though I'm generally apathetic about the NBA, and I generally dislike LeBron James, I'll be pulling for Miami (though I probably won't watch too much of it and will have to read about who wins on here.)

Well no I don't root for teams based on logos. But at the same time this isn't even a half decent representation of anything! It's shapes but not even abstract, just a rounded triangle, part of a basketball awkwardly oulined, overlapped by another shape, with two random swooshes in the bal, if you wanna call em that, and the city's abbreviation getting vacuumed into the triangle with the team name above it. It's a joke. I don't understand how people can be upset with the nets rebrand, sure it has it's flaws but to me it represents simplicity at least.

Of course there's more that goes into play with my decision. I'm tired of Lebron haters that seem to ignore the facts, but this post isnt about necessarily about basketball.

Look at that WCF logo, tell me that the thunder logo does not look ridiculous.

When I see the marlins logo I see an m and a marlin and the colors are ottomh for a coastal town, absolutely acceptable, but okc, c'mon!

Sorry if I turned into Stephen A. Smith for a while, my apologies.

And Fwiw I'm a rockets fan.

[Firefly]

I made that "guitar pick skiing" quip. I still hate on this. So many parts are just inexplicable which would be fine if it were in any way pleasing to look at. Jerseys look fine in an apeing the OKC Hornets kinda way. Damn good team, healthy fanbase, horrible logo. They' re like late 90's Jazz.

[sportsfan0518]

Shouldn't this turn thread into some OKC Thunder logo roast or something? Because that is all I am hearing. But listen, I'm not big fan of the logo either but it should not take away from the fact that the team is excellent and is turning into a dynasty. At least their jerseys (especially road) are nice. But seriously, I am not a fan of the NY Giants logo, but that gives me absolutely no right to hate them. I show a great hatred for the Super Bowl XLVI (and XLV) logo, but it still does not take away the happy memories the logo makes me think of. If liked teams because of logos, than I would be sure that nobody would be an OKC frontrunner or fan.

I'm also rooting against OKC in this finals, because I think it'd be a disgrace to the history of the game to have photos of players in those horrible road uniforms (or even the home uniforms that just say THUNDER) holding the O'Brien trophy immortalized forever.

Wouldn't they be in their locker room champions t-shirts during the presentation?

[McCall]

I'm also rooting against OKC in this finals, because I think it'd be a disgrace to the history of the game to have photos of players in those horrible road uniforms (or even the home uniforms that just say THUNDER) holding the O'Brien trophy immortalized forever.

I hate OKC too, but they're a good team regardless so I don't think they'd be a disgrace to the game. If anything they would be a feel good story for Oklahoma City. Their fans earned themselves an NBA team (albeit in a crappy way) and it'd be great to see a new team win the Finals. Aesthetics mean jack when it comes to actual play on the court.

Well I don't care much for the play on the court, as I'm more of a fan of the aesthetics than the athletics. Maybe it's just because I'm a little older than a lot of the people on the board (34), but I don't like seeing Oklahoma City mentioned in the same breath as Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, etc. Granted there are other non-traditional big-league cities (San Antonio and Portland for example) that are immortalized in NBA lore, but at least they look like professional teams.

I get that the NBA and NHL exist in smaller markets than MLB and NFL, and in some cases, that creates some charming stories. I just don't see that here.

Either way, on the Sports Logos part of this board, my opinions will be 90% based on aesthetics.

And the Master of Cynacism strikes again.