Rebranding a classic.
We grew up with Wilson.
You may have had a Wilson baseball mitt growing up, or a Wilson football. Perhaps there is something in your garage right now with the Wilson logo on it.
Company
Speculative work
Wilson Sporting Goods Co.
Sector
Sporting Goods
Disciplines
Brand Strategy and Narrative
Brand Identity
Brand Architecture
Digital and Print Design
Case study
As market share leader in Team Sports, Racquet and Golf the Wilson brand is one of the most recognizable in the world. In research, among sporting goods manufacturing companies Wilson is one of the most admired and trusted brands in the world. However, its perception was higher than its presentation, if you like.
T Brennan Creative often takes on a challenge when there is an opportunity
to update a brand. (Full disclosure this is speculative work, Wilson did not pay
for this re-branding and case study). The challenge was to maintain the equity
within the brand and evolve the look.
The challenge:
Wanting to remain true to their existing brand and build recognition in new categories including fashion and lifestyle it was time to update their famous wordmark identity in support of that.
To evolve and identify with 21st-century trends and audiences.
In some categories, you could argue there was no reason for a brand refresh, such as baseball, football, and racquet sports. However, in other categories existing and new the concern was the current wordmark was considered dated.
The solution:
Evolution, not Revolution. Take the iconic companies' famous wordmark and bring it up to date without harming its tradition and heritage. After many strategic meetings, discovery sessions, and design exercises we discovered a revolutionary new logo just would not work for this iconic brand and a refresh wouldn’t be enough.
The impetus for this project would be to update and refine the famous typographical wordmark for more applications moving forward while representing and maintaining their past rich tradition and history. To carefully evolve the brand elements that are already there and use these
as a foundation for a basis moving forward.
The result:
The new Wilson wordmark remains easily identifiable as Wilson Sporting Goods with its rich heritage and brand recognition intact. At the same time, it is now positioned as a high-end premium lifestyle brand. Having a higher brand perception across every touchpoint.
The redesigned wordmark represents a new vision and strategy.
The brand values of heritage, innovation, performance, and
engineering still remain. While a contemporary, modern,
progressive, and upscale feel have been added.
FASHION APPLICATIONS
TEAM SPORTS APPLICATIONS
RACQUET SPORTS APPLICATIONS
GOLF APPLICATIONS
WORDMARK ARCHITECTURE
FASHION
Now positioned as a high end premium lifestyle brand. Having a higher brand perception across every touch point.
TEAM SPORTS
Reproduction and
application challenges:
This is a wordmark that has to work on every printable application and substrate you can imagine. So the idea of vignettes, gradations or three dimensional effects were not practical solutions. The new wordmark design has to be applicable to hundreds of manufacturing processes.
Offset printing and digital printing , easy. Foil stamping, flexography, silk screening, embroidery, heat press, decal transfers, stamping on pebbled leather or graphite,
... not so easy.
RACQUET SPORTS
GOLF
new_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
WORDMARK ARCHITECTURE
How it was built and
design considerations:
A key component to the new wordmark was consistency and typographical balance.
Serifs
The old wordmark had inconsistencies, some were right angles some rounded corners. The new wordmark has
one serif style.
The letter i
The dot aka the tittle was an oversized oval which was inconsistent with the old wordmark. It was updated with
a rectangular shape, consistent with
the other letter forms.
The letter s
The character was reverted back to a much earlier version of the script logo where the s was open at the bottom, this follows and better represents the italic form.
Ligatures
We brought back the ligature between the letter s and the letter o for more continuity and fluidity.
