Major Sports League Logos
Having a passion for the sports industry, I took a deep dive into the logos of the 4 largest major sports leagues in the United States: National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). After analyzing how all of these league logos have changed over the years, I noticed a couple of trends.
Let's begin with the MLB who updated its logo in 2019.
Here you can clearly see how this logo does a great job using whitespace and the law of closure to create a silhouette of a baseball player. Being familiar with all of the major spots league logos, this logo reminded me of the NBA logo.
The focal point of the NBA logo is also the use of whitespace and the law of closure to create a silhouette of a basketball player. However, it is interesting to point out that the silhouette of the basketball player in the logo is actually based on the NBA Hall of Famer, Jerry West. On the other hand, the MLB logo is just the silhouette of a generic baseball player. You might also notice the color palette of these two logos is extremely similar. This isn't just a coincidence as the NFL logo also contains the colors red, white, and blue.
This color trend does not surprise me as the colors red, white, and blue are the same colors that represent the U.S., where these leagues were founded. But, it is interesting how the MLB, NBA, and NFL logos are choosing to use slightly darker shades of these 3 colors in their most updated logos. Additionally, the trend of using whitespace continues with the NFL logo. However, the NFL logo uses whitespace differently than the MLB and NBA logos. Instead of using whitespace to create silhouettes, the NFL uses it to create starts and a football.
Similar to the NFL logo, the NHL logo contains a shield.
The NHL logo is the oldest logo out of the major sports league logos as it hasn't been updated since 2006. This might be why it looks the most different. It hasn't yet hopped on the whitespace bandwagon. Also, the logo only shares the color white, which is hard to see as it is used in a gray gradient.
Give a second look at the 4 logos above. Other than the similarities and trends I have pointed out, I would also like to predict future trends for these logos. I believe we will see a trend where the NBA, NFL, and NHL follow the MLB's lead where there is no text found in the logo. With no text, the logos will have a more timeless feel. I also think that once this change is made, these sports league logos will not be updated frequently as the logos are symbolic and cost a lot of money to change.
Interested in learning more about sports logos? I highly recommend taking a look at https://www.sportslogos.net/. Can you find some more trends?












