THOUGHTS / OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER LOGO REDESIGN

I am a huge basketball fan. I started playing when I was kid with the aspirations of being a NBA Star and the first Nicaraguan born player… however reality quickly set in and I moved in another direction. When I heard that we (Oklahoma) was going to be getting the Sonics (Thunder now) – I was ecstatic.

Being a designer, I ran through a few ideas for a logo for the newly minted team. There were rumors we were going to be called the Outlaws, Thunderbirds and Thunder. I felt like we could have a really great mascot and team logo with those names… so I got even more excited. After a bit of radio silence I stumbled upon one of the rumored logos and well, it stunk. It said nothing about basketball, Oklahoma and it seemed to lack some heart. I hoped that it was just a temporary design, something to tied us over or even a fake just to throw people off. Unfortunately, it was not and we ended up with this:

I have no idea what it means or what it is. I read the statement that came along with it and it just does not make any sense. Some people call it the “pick” – as in guitar pick. I call it a waste. A waste of a fantastic opportunity to show that Oklahoma has arrived. There was a lot of talk of becoming a “Big League City” around here and well, we ended up with a minor league logo. I do not blame the agency, designer or even the committee that approved the logo. I blame the design industry, especially here in Oklahoma. Why? Well, we have not done our job – we have not educated the public as to what good design is, does, and means. I understand that sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and take the paycheck. However, this instance should have been different. The agency or designer… someone should have taken the step of saying this just is not good enough. I do want to make it clear that I understand how committees work and that I do not know what went on between the agency and client; so anything I say is opinion/speculation – so the agency and designer may have brought up some concerns they had.

Overnight we became the laughing stock of not only sports fans, but designers. Epic fail.

Why this post? Well, I have been playing around and will start a series of fun logos that I think would work. My first attempt is this little diddy:

I chose to make a simple bison/buffalo head. The shape or outline of the bison/buffalo’s head is a flint. This is nod to our rich Native American history. It also fits in nicely with other NBA team logos.

I sampled the colors from the current logo. The logo is also tied into Rumble, the Thunder’s popular mascot. I am currently looking for fonts that will work with the design… I may just have to create a custom one though.

I will continue to work and add some ideas when I get time. This will continue until they redesign the logo, if they do not redesign it, at least we have Rumble.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to forward them to walter@waltercolindres.com.