Why Brooklyn Nets’ new branding is a hip hop flop; and 5 Aussie teams that nailed the brief

The NBA’s newest franchise, the relocated Brooklyn Nets unveiled their new logo and colours, reputedly designed by hip hop mega mogul and minority Nets owner Jay-Z, last week.

They’ve got billionaire backing, star swagger and a swanky new arena. Unfortunately they also have the formerly New Jersey Nets’ playing roster that went 22-44 win-loss in 2011-12. That inspires about as much excitement as their meager new visual identity.

To my eye the new Nets logo falls flat. It’s definitely from the ‘less is more’ school. But sometimes less is not really enough.

The NBA has balls – lots of them

For a league where ‘Amazing Happens’, the NBA has few amazing team logos.

The Brooklyn Nets’ logo is a basketball in a blank shield. Not only is it bare and bereft of imagination, but in a league where almost a third of the teams have a basketball as their primary logo it defeats the whole purpose of branding, which is all about marking differentiation.

Just as in advertising, the best logos are built on big ideas. They don’t have to be fancy, but they do have to have a presence that imprints itself on the imagination. Think of the Dallas Cowboys’ bold Lone Star, the Green Bay Packers’ giant G or the Yankees’ elegantly entwined NY. Yes, onfield success has immortalised these marks, but they were made of the right stuff to begin with. Is the Nets’ generic B in a basketball outline big enough to one day inspire a similar reverent awe? Don’t bet on it.

White Hipsters Can’t Jump

Probably the greatest failing of any logo is for it to be dated the instant it’s created. The new Brooklyn Nets badge smacks of ‘Hipster Branding’, a twee design trend that echoes the less shouty, more innocent, commercial art of yesteryear.

At best such logos are austere. At worst they’re a retro rehash, a style suited for designers who can’t really draw. Heavily reliant on generic ‘found’ clip art doo-dads, naked straight lines and vintage pre-packaged font kits, it’s a style that often confuses laziness for minimalism. Sure, this too-cool-for-school look might sum up Brooklyn’s arty enclaves, but shouldn’t an NBA team exude energy, not arty understatement?

“Where Brooklyn at?”

It’s no surprises that the Nets would go for an all-black-everything look. The Black Album is one of part-owner Jay-Z’s finest works, and the team is clearly making as much play as they can from this association. Like all of New York’s boroughs Brooklyn is steeped in hip hop folk law, and the first round of Brooklyn Nets team gear from adidas makes plenty of hackneyed shout-outs to this heritage.

The Nets’ #HelloBrooklyn Twitter hashtag is borrowed from Paul’s Boutique, the legendary 1989 album by Brooklyn natives (and die-hard Knicks fans) the Beastie Boys. Clearly the Nets are casting themselves as the urban upstarts of the NBA.

Black is also the colour of the Oakland Raiders, hip hop’s first team. Synonymous with West Coast gangster rap, Raiders jackets and caps by the pioneering licensed apparel brand Starter were a staple on MTV during the late 80s and early 90s.

Under owner Al Davis the Raiders were a ruthless rag-tag band of outlaws, and their intimidating mystique went to a whole new level when Raiders gear became the de facto uniform of groundbreaking LA rap group NWA (Niggaz With Attitude). No doubt the Brooklyn Nets’ secondary logo of a B in a black shield is a nod to the Raiders crest, with the franchise hoping to be embraced by the hip hop industry in much the same way as the Silver and Black.

In 1990 hip hop was a subversive fringe dweller, and it turned the Raiders logo into the badge of the outsider. In a way the Brooklyn Nets are the reverse-Raiders. Hip hop is now subsumed into the entertainment industry, with Forbes magazine listing Jay-Z’s net worth at $460 million.

Today hip hop is delivered down from the boardroom, not up from the block. Lacking the character of the gritty Raiders logo, the clean cut, corporatised Nets logo probably sums up exactly where hip hop is at in 2012: safe, sterile and flavourless.

Unlike corporate logos, fans literally live in their favourite sports logos. We dress up in them. They’re on our cars, our house keys, our phones and desktops. Sometimes they’re even in our haircuts. We want our team’s logo to be exciting and inspiring because it represents us. Sports logos do their job only when they are loved, and I can’t see much to love in the Nets’ creatively emaciated new visual brand.

Top 5 Australian sports logos

Aussie sports have a way to go yet before they can stack up against the best from the US. Not many have that magnetic quality that makes American team logos icons of world sports; that big idea that makes a brand really stick to the imagination. But there are some good eggs in the basket, and here’s five recent designs that really caught my eye.

1 Hawthorn Hawks

It’s hard to think of a sports logo redesign that was as instantly embraced by supporters as Cato Purnell Partners’ Hawks rebranding.

Strong and authoritative, I know of at least one AFL club that held this as the benchmark when undertaking their own somewhat less spectacular logo overhaul. Expect to see this one stay around for a while.

2 GWS Giants

There was some small-minded ridicule amongst rival fans when the Giants unveiled their big G. Uncompromisingly simple, it’s a stark departure from the more illustrative logos commonly held be Aussie sporting teams. As with other aspects of the club’s setup, they seem to have looked to the US college system for inspiration with this letter- based design. I love it. Bold and dynamic, it’s got enough assertiveness to be a real icon in the years to come once GWS’ onfield results catch up to their enormous potential.

3 Parramatta Eels

After an ugly misfire, Parramatta have gone back to basics with this retro revival. Safe to say, there can’t be too many better looking eel logos in world sports. I particularly love how balanced the shield is, and for mine the clean Futura Bold type of the outer ring never seems to date.

4 Canterbury Bulldogs

This is the template that sports teams will turn to when trying to better incorporate their history into their logo. A massive improvement on their old bubble-dog design, this shield beautifully incorporates every facet of Canterbury’s visual identity. My only gripe is that the ‘Bulldogs’ script is perhaps a wee bit bland, but overall it’s a fine logo that’s full of class and dignity.

5 Wollongong Hawks

Full marks to the Wollongong Hawks and the design team at WISDOM for last season’s really contemporary rebranding. The rendering of the Hawk’s head is full of character, and the subtle fades and colour transitions are world class. Just one thing – drop ‘NRE’ from the title – Nothing devalues a team more than overtly making them the property of a sponsor.

Th main piece first appeared on Anthony’s website. The breakout on 5 Australian logos was written for SBI.

Been there

I fail to see why the author of this article is critical of the Nets’ logo, but seems to think the unimaginative one of GWS is wonderful.
- http://www.costasportslogos.com/ costasports@twitter
  
  The Nets logo is bland and generic. It doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from the plethora of other NBA logos that also feature a basketball.
  
  The Giants logo may be simple, but it is distinctive and dramatic. It is unlike any other logo in the Australian sport. That’s what makes it so effective.
http://anzballaz.com ANZBallaz.com

“Nothing devalues a team more than overtly making them the property of a sponsor”

I say good on them for making the most of their opportunities. In a league that does it tough financially, to criticise one for maximising their dollar, you have your priorities out of order.

It’s not like the Wollongong Hawks have a sponsors logo dominating their own, it’s negligible while putting money in the clubs pocket.

I find the Nets logo more dramatic than the GWS logo. That is the definition of bland. The Nets logo, while unimaginative, fits with the franchises identity.

The Hawthorn logo is equally unimaginative. “Hey what should our logo be?” “Well we’re called the Hawks, so let’s create an emblem of a Hawk.”

Likewise with the Eel and the Bulldog. It’s a logo. The logo doesn’t sell the team, the team sells the logo. It has been hugely popular with the basketball fan base and has people desperate to get their hands on branded merchandise. But I guess money doesn’t talk in professional sport?
- http://www.costasportslogos.com/ Anthony Costa
  
  There’s a difference between simplicity and blandness. Let’s agree to disagree about the merits of the giants/Nets logos.
  
  Maybe some teams need to sell their name to sponsors in order to be financially viable. Just because it’s a necessary concession doesn’t mean it’s good branding.
  
  You’re right – branded merchandise is big business. But the team doesn’t always sell the logo. Raiders merch is consistently amongst the best selling in the NFL despite the team stinking up the field for the better part of two decades. Good branding helps sell itself.
AnitaBulan@twitter

The logo is inspired by the old subway and street signs in Brooklyn. They were all black and white until recently. Also, it draws heavily from the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel signage. It’s colors have nothing to do with hip hop. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/TBTA_BROOKLYN_BATTERY_TUNNEL.svg/288px-TBTA_BROOKLYN_BATTERY_TUNNEL.svg.png
http://www.costasportslogos.com/ Anthony Costa

That’s the story they trotted out in the press release. Sure, Brooklyn had black and white subway signs. But there was black and white signage in other boroughs too. And the MTA signage across the whole of NY is still black and white. Yes the round Battery sign was black and white, but did you think ‘Hey, that’s the old Battery sign’ when you first saw the logo? I’m not suggesting that this old signage wasn’t used as reference. What I’m saying is that the Nets are heavily leveraging Brooklyn’s hip hop’s heritage and their ties to Roc-a-Fella Records with their identity. That’s where the cool factor comes from. The logo was designed with this in mind. Yes, Brooklyn once had black and white street signs. But the colours definitely overlap with hip hop’s visual history. To say they have “nothing” to do with hip hop misses the mark.
AnitaBulan@twitter

Without wanting to get into a tit-for-tat situation, Brooklyn was the only borough to have black and white signs. That was the point: every borough had different colors to differentiate.
And yes, I did think of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel sign! That’s why I mentioned it! I did not see a media release, nor did I see it mentioned in the press anywhere here. The only thing Jay Z kept repeating was the subway sign influence.
The Nets’ market in Brooklyn is not just the hip-hop world. Brooklyn is not just about hip hop.
http://www.costasportslogos.com/ Anthony Costa

That’s right, all New York boroughs had their own unique colour coded street signs up until the mid 80s. But it’s clear from the team’s launch and their merchandise that hip hop is a large part of their identity. The colours fit this story (they also happen to be the colours of Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella record label).

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