THE NEW TRAIL
A PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS REBRANDING
CREATED BY CONRAD BURRY
Welcome
This is a chronicle of a rebranding project for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. The project is meant to explore the many facets of a brand and reveal how its integrity is maintained through the creation of a new design system.
STEP 1 DEFINE
PROJECT BRIEF Position & Promise The Trail Blazers are an up-and-coming team full of young talent with a great potential for winning, and a rebrand is needed to enliven the team and to bring attention to the positive outlook for the upcoming seasons. Target Audiences Primary audience of the Trail Blazers is any person interested in sports and entertainment, specifically basketball. A target within this group would be families as well as the current generation of 20 and 30-yearolds. Secondary audience would be comprised of corporations looking to advertise their companies through the mode of the basketball team and its games and/or events. Services / Products In addition to 41 home basketball games in Portland, OR, the team sponsors community events and also provides a vehicle for the advertisement of companies who financially sponsor the team. The Big Idea The driving motive behind this idea for a rebrand is: “The New Trail.� Tone & Personality The rebranding will show the audience a youthful and progressive Trail Blazers team that is in command of its destiny for success in Portland. Applications Primary & Secondary logo Wordmarks & Court Design Home, Road, and Alternate Road Jerseys Corporate Letterhead, Envelope, & Business Card Website Design & Organization
STEP 1 DEFINE
THE COMPETITION Portland Trail Blazers The team is not completely hitting the mark with the branding goals they have set forth. A progressive theme is achieved with the logo, mark and aesthetics of the website, but there exists a disconnect between this theme and the personna of the city of Portland. Further, the brand pays no attention to the visual identity of the team’s nickname in an engaging matter. Cleveland Cavaliers The brand feeling for the Cavs stems from their star player, LeBron James. He is unselfish and dominating on the court and the team captures that essence in the brand of the organization. The marketing techniques help to sell the ideals LeBron shows on the court. The only disconnect with the team is the lack of relation to the Cleveland culture. Miami Heat A connection is made between the nickname, design personality, and city to make a successful cohesive unit for the Miami Heat. They use this platform to sell the team based on its great fit within the culture of Miami. New Orleans Hornets Formerly the Charlotte Hornets, the team’s latest rebrand helps to connect the team to the city and better incorporate into the overall culture of the famous city.
STEP 1 DEFINE
CURRENT SYSTEM This is the current design system for the Portland Trail Blazers:
primary mark
stacked wordmark
partial mark
horizontal wordmarks
STEP 1 DEFINE
home uniform
alternate road uniform
STEP 1 DEFINE
road uniform
court design
A NEW MARK
Portland’s current mark has been in existence in some similar shape or form since the franchise began in 1970. Their logotype is described as “an abstract form of a 5-on-5 basketball game.” With the new logotype, I wanted the visualization of the mark to connect better with the team’s nickname, which is derived from the pioneers of the old Oregon Trail. Nonetheless, I wanted to retain some of the history of the current logo’s aesthetic, and give the logotype a new spin on a classic idea.
My initial idea for the mark was to create an icon for a wagon wheel:
PORTLAND
TRAIL BLAZERS
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
My next step was to better incorporate the current mark into the form:
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
FINAL MARK
My final decision for a logotype came from combining the current mark’s aesthetic with an abstracted icon of a wagon wheel. The final mark displays a streamlined approach to the team’s nickname and retains the integrity of the original mark.
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
COLOR PALETTE
The choices for my color palette came from my desire to retain the integrity of the current Blazers franchise. Namely, I wanted to keep black as the main color for the team, and slightly edit the other colors in the scheme. I chose a red-orange as a secondary color to differ from the current red, as well as become the only black-orange combination franchise in the NBA. Further, I chose an accent color of gold to reflect the natural landscape and general eco-friendly attitude of Portland.
Black 6 C
485 C
617 C
White
C M Y K
30 0 0 100
0 90 100 0
25 25 67 0
0 0 0 0
R G B
22 31 38
207 67 42
191 177 115
255 255 255
PMS
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
TYPEFACE PALETTE
With the typography of this project, I wanted to capture a sense of the streamlined attitude of the logotype as well as the forward-thinking personna of Portland. Further, I wanted to relay a feel for the humanist side of basketball by using more organic letterforms found in Myriad and Meta.
FF Tokyo (modified)
Myriad (regular, italic, italic bold) AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
Meta (bold) AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwX xYyZz
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
CORPORATE STATIONERY
front
back
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
Portland Trail Blazers One Center Court, Suite 200 Portland, OR 97227
front
www.blazers.com
back
front
STEP 2 THE SYSTEM
back
WEBSITE REDESIGN
Most NBA websites visually overload the user with colors, words, and numerous graphics. The current Portland Trail Blazers websites is one of the few NBA websites that has a minimal system of aesthetics. Nonetheless, for a redesign of their website, I chose a simple navigation and overall streamlined way of presenting the information to the user. Also, I chose to present the navigation in a vertical manner, different from that of any other NBA website in an attempt to set apart the franchise.
back
screenshot of homepage
STEP 3 INNOVATE
screenshot of Team Store
back
screenshot of News section
STEP 3 INNOVATE
APPLICATION 1 (team uniforms)
The Trail Blazers have had the current “sash� design uniforms for nearly 25 years, and when I set about the redesign of these, I again wanted to retain a sense of the history of the franchise. I created a more sleek look for the design elements on the uniforms, and also included the new wordmarks and numbers that were part of the visual system for my redesign.
home uniform
STEP 3 INNOVATE
road uniform
alternate road uniform
STEP 3 INNOVATE
APPLICATION 2 (court design)
The eco-friendly attitude of the Portland area was a major factor in many of my decisions for this project. With this is mind, I chose the design elements for the basketball court to reflect the naturalistic appeal of the northwest United States. Instead of a focus on painting team colors onto the parts of the court, I chose to have stained colors of wood define the important areas of the playing field. Further, I kept with the straight-forward attitude of the system by limiting the logos and visual distractions placed on the court.
court design
STEP 3 INNOVATE
Final Thoughts
The rebranding of the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise has shown me the true value of a brand. A basketball team is more than a group of players and a logotype; it is a whole franchise working together to effectively market a team through the use of a visual design system in which the basic principles of the organization and its city exist upon. Further, a brand’s integrity remains when complete knowledge of its position in the business world is understood, and steps are made towards the creation of the best possible environment for both the company and its followers.
STEP 4 UNDERSTAND
Printed in United States of America University of Tennessee at Knoxville UCopy Graphic Design Center 201 University Center 1502 West Cumberland Ave. Knoxville, TN 37996-4800 Typefaces: Myriad Regular, Myriad Italic, Myriad Bold Itlaic
THE NEW TRAIL A PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS REBRANDING CREATED BY CONRAD BURRY