You need to have a sports logo regardless of what sport you practice, teach, or promote. There’s no better way to show off your team’s unique qualities than with an eye-catching logo.

Local sports teams, sports clubs, and school sports don’t have the luxury of squandering millions of dollars on logos, but major sports clubs can afford to. Using these tips might help you choose the perfect logo for your sports team.

Ahead, we’ve put together 31 of the finest sports logos and explained why we think they’re so special.

We’ll begin by examining some of the top sports logos in the top leagues to see how they’re doing correctly, and then we’ll discuss how you can adapt these ideas to your own club.

Getting to know the basics

To predict how a logo will be seen in the future is difficult due to ongoing changes in the industry and trends. Learning from successful firms may help you improve your own business and build stronger ties with your target market.

Let’s begin by defining some of the most commonly used terms.

What is a brand?

When it comes to the merchandise, events, and activities that make up a team’s overall offering, a brand has both a logical and emotional meaning. More than just the physical features of a team or its products are required to develop a brand.

If you use a trademark or logo, you’re likely to elicit both mental and physical responses from your audience.

Other teams may simply copy a product, but a brand’s distinctiveness sets it apart from the competition. 

What is branding?

A company, product, or service’s image is crafted and shaped in the customer’s mind in this manner. Businesses employ this tactic in an effort to make their brand more readily recognizable and memorable to clients, in turn encouraging them to stick with their goods over that of their rivals.

When it comes to branding these days, it’s much more than just the aesthetic of a company’s products or services. This has been symbolized by the “gut feeling” response that a firm may inflict on its customers.

“Brand” is a catch-all phrase for what people perceive of your firm as a whole. The activities you do to reach your objective are what really actually matter to developing a brand.

What is a logo?

A logo may achieve a lot more than you would think. An eye-catching and memorable graphic depicting your sports team’s concept and the geographical area it serves is essential. Additionally, you’ll want to incorporate the logo into your apparel, website, and social media accounts.

The logo you choose sets the tone for how your team is seen by the public. The logo has become more and more significant as customers learn more about teams online or through mobile applications. This item depicts the visual manifestation of your brand, creativity, and overall success.

Why is a logo important for your sports team?

For the reasons outlined below, choosing the right logo for your sports team is essential.

A logo is a visual representation of a company’s identity.

A chance like this comes around just once in a lifetime.

Keeping in mind that a club logo is the key point of contact with the audience, supporters, the press, and everyone else in the general public, it’s important to remember that. As a result of your logo’s poor design, you’ve just lost a potential customer. This will pique the interest of the viewers, who will be eager to learn further about your group.

As a first impression, make use of your logo to communicate your authority in a certain field. You’ll be recognized as an industry leader as soon as they view your team’s logo.

A logo helps to establish the uniqueness of your club.

Evoking the right emotions in your target audience is the most important part of a successful brand.

Even though a team’s logo is only a minor part of its total brand, it serves as the foundation for its story. You need a distinctive logo to convey the story of your team.

Your logo and other branding materials should incorporate these elements in order to build a true and credible brand reputation.

It distinguishes you from your rivals in the market.

What better way to show off your team’s superiority than with a logo?

A well-chosen logo or font may convey anything from the club’s history to its goals.

You may use the logo to communicate your ideas and demonstrate your superiority over the competitors.

Features of a logo

Colors

Colors may be used to communicate your company’s distinctness. Keep an eye out for how people who will be utilizing your brand view it.

As a company owner, you may want to think about a logo color theme that is consistent with your brand’s identity. Sports teams, for example, may use bright colors such as red and yellow or dark or somber themes to establish dominance.

Font

You may convey your club or team’s distinctive identity through the use of fonts, either alone or in conjunction with an image. A typeface with a serif has a much more professional appearance than one without one. The outcome is a handmade feel to the script typefaces.

Fonts range from beautiful calligraphy to a more informal approach to lettering. The opulent appearance of a typeface sets it apart from the competition.

Scalability

It doesn’t matter how large or small your brand is; your target audience must be able to easily identify it. When you expand or reduce the size of your logo, using a design grid might assist you to avoid stretching or deforming it.

Competitor-Awareness

Make sure your logo is memorable if you like being taken seriously if you’re just getting started in logo design. It’s a great way to learn how to stand out from the competition by studying the designs of other teams. 

At the conclusion of this post, you’ll get a comprehensive list of the finest logos to inspire you.

5 tips to create a successful sports logo

Don’t be afraid to look aggressive

As a sports logo trend, using a mascot depicted in an exaggeratedly violent manner is commonplace. This is usually a dangerous animal, such as a bear or a huge cat, at the top of the food chain.

But don’t forget about the human, who is among the most terrifying creatures on the planet. Not as prevalent as the furious animal, several teams choose a well-known sort of human, recognized for their combat abilities or just generally considered as frightening. Most of the time, they are historical characters, such as the Spartans or Romans, but they may also be more broad, such as pirates, ninjas, or knights of the Middle Ages.

Of course, the popularity of this trend is tied to the name of your favorite sports team, which is something you can’t control. In the event that you’re stuck with a mascot that doesn’t seem intimidating, you can always use some creative styling to make it look more threatening instead.

Create sharp edges

For designers, it is a given that the naked eye is drawn to straight lines. A certain “feeling” or “vibe” is imparted to some forms as a result of these. Circles, for example, are perceived as fun because the eye circles back and forth over and over again.

Although sharp points might have a startling impression when viewed, the eye is forced to immediately double around and leap in practically the other way when it sees them. This not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of an image but also draws the attention of the viewer.

Focus on typography

There is no substitute for good typography when it comes to conveying the right message with your sports logo. As aesthetic components of logos are sometimes omitted for shirts or merch. Text of your club name will often have to speak for itself. As a result, strong typography is also vital.

Sharp points might be added to your letters in order to maintain a high level of energy and passion. Serifs are typically “spiked” in this manner. Nevertheless, if you look at plenty of sports symbols, you begin to see other typographic tendencies as well.

Determine a symbol

There’s no need for the major league clubs to justify their identities. Fans of the Dallas Cowboys are aware that they are an American sports team. That’s not the case for tiny and local teams, sadly. As a starting point, you must inform the public of the sport you participate in.

An excellent logo concept for smaller teams is to include symbols into the design to convey what profession you play and who you are. Including a baseball or item might be as simple as pointing out the obvious, but you could be as creative as you like.

The importance of a good framing

There is a long history of the concept of framing in logos. As a general rule, frames are used to connect all of the visual and textual components of a logo in order to assist create a cohesive look and also to make the picture more appealing.

In addition, there’s a subtler and much more subliminal connotation. Because of this, the logo is ideal for sports, which are all about community-building. Logos with frames foster a strong, cohesive support base for a club.

Because they are more approachable and hospitable, circles are commonly used in frames in other sectors. However, when it comes to sports logos, you’re looking for something with more aggression and vigor. As a sign of power and endurance, shields are a popular choice, but pyramids may also convey leadership and solidity.

5 sports logos that you can use as inspiration

Nike

The Nike Swoosh was designed by Portland university student Carolyn Davidson around 1971 and is instantly recognizable across the world. A decade after she was paid $35 for her efforts, Nike founder Phillip Knight gave her precious metals swoosh jewelry and shares in the company.

This logo has always been the ultimate expression of the company for over 50 years, and it shows no symptoms of having to be withdrawn any time in the near future.

Adidas

The Adidas trefoil, like the Nike Swoosh, was designed in 1971 and occupies the same type of iconic domain. When Adi Dassler first introduced the three stripes in 1967, the three-leaf form symbolized the major areas of land of the globe: Americas; Europe, and Asia.

Manchester United

In the modern-day, Manchester United may be a multi-billion-dollar company and media conglomerate. There’s little doubt that it’s an institution with a deep history, as evidenced by the logo.

Manchester City Council’s coat of arms served as inspiration for the 1963 design, which has been reworked into the current version in 1998. The Football Club was replaced by “Red Devil” and “Red Devils” in the 1970s.

It serves as a constant reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go before we can really say we’ve come full circle.

New York Yankees

Yankees’ interlocking “NY” emblem dates back to before the Yankees were ever founded. Former police chief Bill Devery was one of the team owners, and he hired the firm of Tiffany & Co in 1877 to create a police plaque to honor McDowell, an officer who had been killed in the line of duty.

Devery realized a few years later that this design might be utilized to communicate team cohesiveness. Thus, the New York Highlanders, as they were known at the time, selected a variant of the logo design as their authorized emblem in 1905.

Although it fluctuated in popularity over time, now it is one of baseball’s and New York City’s most recognizable trademarks, and a global fashion accessory in its own right.

Premier League

Even though sports logos in our collection thus far have been there for years, it doesn’t imply that a fresh design can’t rapidly become a classic. And here’s a perfect illustration of this.

The lion has become a cornerstone of the Premier League’s identity for decades. A new version of the logo was produced in 2016 by DesignStudio with Robin Brand Consultants, a collaboration between the two companies. Because of this, it received near-universal appreciation.

The logo disproved the notion that sports fans are averse to change and prefer to stick to the tried and tested. As long as it’s excellent, apparently, they do.

Now that you’ve finished this article, you may have gotten the idea of how a sports logo works and how to create a good one. There’s only one thing left: actually designing your own.

So, what are you waiting for? Time to put the knowledge into use and good luck!