How to Create a Logo for a Sports Team
Designing a logo for a sports team can be a challenge. A sports team logo should not only convey the essence of the sport the team is involved in, but the spirit of the team and its fans as well. The challenge is capturing these elements in a visually appealing way that will be recognizable immediately and inspire pride in the team and its fans. With a little effort and forethought, you can design a sports logo that any team would be proud to display on the field or its uniforms.
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Instructions
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Sketch ideas on paper. This is where the design process begins. Take into account the sport the team logo is for. It's not necessary to incorporate an element from that sport into the logo, but doing so should be taken into consideration before you decide to leave it out. If you're doing a logo for a baseball team, for instance, you may want to build the logo around a bat or baseball. If the team is well-known, one of these elements may not be necessary.
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Aim for simplicity. If it isn't necessary to use the team's full name in the logo, don't do it. This may not be something you'd leave out if the team isn't well-known, but for a well-known team, the name may not be necessary. Try to keep the logo clean. If you do include the full name of the team, keep the graphic content simple. The message your sports logo conveys should be simple and powerful. A baseball logo might be as simple as the outline of a baseball player swinging a bat with the team's initials in an arc over the player. Since sports logos will be reproduced in many different ways, keeping the layout clean will help keep it recognizable when the finished logo gets reduced for hats, pens, key chains and other merchandise.
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Use team colors for the logo. Team colors are the most important element of a logo. The Georgia Bulldogs and the Green Bay Packers sport the same exact G as their logo. The difference, and what makes each logo distinct, is the colors. Red and black are the colors for the Georgia Bulldogs and green and yellow are the colors for the Green Bay Packers. The G doesn't matter; the colors do. Sports logos change through the years, sometimes to take make them more modern, but the colors and at least one significant element remain the same.
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Draw a final version of your logo and photograph it or scan it. Open the image in a graphic editing program to put finishing touches on it. Pay attention to the size and aspect ratio of the image, as well as the image format you save the photo as. GIF or TIF image formats are lossless. JPEGs lose quality with each successive save or when resized. An image that is a lot taller than it is wide may look awkward. Find an aspect ratio that makes the logo as close to even on all sides as possible.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit logo image by Biro from Fotolia.com
