Evolution of the Miami Heat Logo

[CharlotteIllini88]

Is the rim really necessary in this logo? I've never liked it; it's just floating there in space with no net. It looks like a halo. It used to be a white rim, and now it's a black rim. For these reasons (color, lack of net, floating in space), it doesn't resemble a rim much at all.

Wouldn't the logo work fine with just the ball on fire?

[rmackman]

Is the rim really necessary in this logo? I've never liked it; it's just floating there in space with no net. It looks like a halo. It used to be a white rim, and now it's a black rim. For these reasons (color, lack of net, floating in space), it doesn't resemble a rim much at all.

Wouldn't the logo work fine with just the ball on fire?

I saw an "alternate" or Zephyr logo that looked like the Heat fireball without the rim once. It just looked naked. I'm sure there's an image out there if you look.

[Sport]

My problem with their logo post gradient is the abrupt edge between the red and the yellow.

I'd do something like this to make the flow from red hot to yellow hot transition more smoothly, but without using gradients (which should almost never be used in sports logos).

That's just a quick sketch to get my point across. Also, I preferred the white line to black. Makes the logo feel brighter, hotter, less heavy, all things associated with the concept of heat.

I was thinking about this last night. A better solution to the problem of the abrupt end of red and the beginning of the yellow separated arbitrarily by the rim is just to do this

I think this is as good as you can make the Heat's logo.

[IceCap]

That's smexy, McCarthy.

[rmackman]

My problem with their logo post gradient is the abrupt edge between the red and the yellow.

I'd do something like this to make the flow from red hot to yellow hot transition more smoothly, but without using gradients (which should almost never be used in sports logos).

That's just a quick sketch to get my point across. Also, I preferred the white line to black. Makes the logo feel brighter, hotter, less heavy, all things associated with the concept of heat.

I was thinking about this last night. A better solution to the problem of the abrupt end of red and the beginning of the yellow separated arbitrarily by the rim is just to do this

I think this is as good as you can make the Heat's logo.

Looks cool, but makes the yellow way too prominent. Yellow is only a trim color (although why they have it stand out on the court so much, I have no idea.

[Lee.]

Go Rhodamine Red, darken the yellow to nigh-orange proportions, and you're set

*keep in mind, my monitor sucks*

[TruColor]

Here's how the original logo was built:

A screen of Black, plus a screen on Yellow, plus a screen of Rhodamine Red, equals the finished gradient version.

+ + =

[Sport]

I was thinking about this last night. A better solution to the problem of the abrupt end of red and the beginning of the yellow separated arbitrarily by the rim is just to do this

I think this is as good as you can make the Heat's logo.

Looks cool, but makes the yellow way too prominent. Yellow is only a trim color (although why they have it stand out on the court so much, I have no idea.

It's about as thick in the logo as the stripe on the white jerseys.

Plus the afforementioned court paint. And a lot of teams use logos where a color is featured prominently on the logo but not in the rest of the uniform. The Blackhawks and Steelers are two examples off the top of my head.

[TruColor]

Plus the aforementioned court paint. And a lot of teams use logos where a color is featured prominently on the logo but not in the rest of the uniform. The Blackhawks and Steelers are two examples off the top of my head.

It drives me nuts how often I see publications or networks use Yellow as a secondary color for the Arizona Cardinals.

Fox Sports for example, uses Red and Yellow for the Cardinals' first-down graphics.

Red and White or Red and Black. No Yellow.

[Gothamite]

At some point, that has to be on the Cardinals. They need to ensure networks adhere to their standards.

[Mitch B]

I know most people don't like gradients, but the Heat logo is one that really lends itself to having a gradient IMO.

My understanding is that traditionalists have typically avoided the use of gradient colors in logos. Why is that?

[TruColor]

I know most people don't like gradients, but the Heat logo is one that really lends itself to having a gradient IMO.

My understanding is that traditionalists have typically avoided the use of gradient colors in logos. Why is that?

One of the biggest reasons has to do with how gradients translate to embroidery.

It almost always looks like crap.

[Mitch B]

I know most people don't like gradients, but the Heat logo is one that really lends itself to having a gradient IMO.

My understanding is that traditionalists have typically avoided the use of gradient colors in logos. Why is that?

One of the biggest reasons has to do with how gradients translate to embroidery.

It almost always looks like crap.

Thanks. I was thinking it is probably difficult to reproduce in certain mediums.

[chakfu]

Is the rim really necessary in this logo? I've never liked it; it's just floating there in space with no net. It looks like a halo. It used to be a white rim, and now it's a black rim. For these reasons (color, lack of net, floating in space), it doesn't resemble a rim much at all.

Wouldn't the logo work fine with just the ball on fire?

The net was burnt off.

[jaha32]

I have always liked this logo, even though it is not perfect, and think it is much better with the rim (maybe because it reminds me of NBA JAM when you get "on fire" and burn the net off). In the first graphic posted, I like the middle one best, although the gradient version is one of the few gradient logos that actually works. Having the lines white works better than the current black lines, probably because lines that are light colors always tend to look thicker than dark lines, so the white lines pop better in my opinion. In the white-lined versions, the lines also get thicker near the back by the flames which makes it look more like the ball is melting into the flame as opposed to the one now where the black lines stay the same width throughout.

It is also one of the few NBA logos where the wordmark stands alone from the rest of the logo itself which makes it somewhat unique. The Pacers and Bulls are others that come to mind.