Raptors Rebrand Theory

[godkingleonidas]

Lost in all of this......I guess we're still going to named after an animated character from a nineties' kids movie. Oh well. Nice hat. Go Raptors.

Your avatar is the sequel to said movie. Your nickname is j(urassic)claw.

[godkingleonidas]

anyone think they didn't really mean to release it today? that twitter post may actually have been an accident. it's usually a young intern in charge of social media - wouldn't be impossible

on the other hand, I think the "OMG its a basketball in a circle, therefore it looks like the Nets" is a little overblown.

You noticed they use BKN's font, right?

[Jclaw]

Your avatar is the sequel to said movie. Your nickname is j(urassic)claw.

Don't get me wrong. I've gotten used to the name. It just seemed silly when it was chosen and they had talked about a possible name change way back when they started talking about a rebrand. Would have been a bit weird to do it now. As for the "animated character" stuff.....you know the raptor in the movie wasn't real right? . Jk. It may be computer animation but it's still animation. Once upon a time there were real raptors walking around but this team name would never had existed without Spielberg's killer dinos.

[MixxAOR]

I'm just glad we will still have "We the North" because I'm not buying anything with that logo

[stooley]

You noticed they use BKN's font, right?

they actually didn't. the font isn't the same. it is similar though - the Os aren't the same shape.

the wording is in the same position too

[Raptor Jesus]

Got it

[iblastoff]

You noticed they use BKN's font, right?

Uhh it's not the same font at all, unless you think all sans serif letters look the same. Type racist!

[planetmars]

The whole Nets thing is hilarious.. typical Raptors. Remember when the fans wore red in a playoff series against the Nets only to see that the Nets road uniforms were red as well..

As for the logo itself, only thing I'm not a fan of is the rip marks.. which I assume is what most people don't like. I like the idea behind it, just didn't think it was well formed. They look like chilly peppers.

It gives them an excuse to rebrand again in a few years I guess.

[iblastoff]

overall now that i see it without the outer circle, i don't mind it at all. its something adults can actually wear without looking like they're in kindergarden.

and people need to get over this whole OMG IT LOOKS LIKE THE NETS, OUR RIVALS!!!! they're not our fucking rivals. we had a single playoff round against them in which we lost and now they're just a leftover broken team.

[Bendit]

The whole Nets thing is hilarious.. typical Raptors. Remember when the fans wore red in a playoff series against the Nets only to see that the Nets road uniforms were red as well..

As for the logo itself, only thing I'm not a fan of is the rip marks.. which I assume is what most people don't like. I like the idea behind it, just didn't think it was well formed. They look like chilly peppers.

It gives them an excuse to rebrand again in a few years I guess.

That red mixup at the game was an embarrassment of singularly high proportions...god! Agree with the claw & rip marks (not convincing at all/nebulous).

Chlli peppers are good! Hot, nasty and repellent for most.... motto for the Raps ?

[The Great One]

I think it's a whole lot better without the outer circle. I like the red and black version. Just look at the vine that Raptor Jesus posted.

[octothorp]

To me, the problem is that they tried to follow the existing lines on the basketball with the rip marks, which is okay on the top two, but produces this really dramatic curve on the bottom; it looks less like the claw savagely ripped something, and more like it was tracing lines. That said, I actually like this a lot better than the previous version (three claws above the basketball), which never had good balance to me: too much empty space inside the logo. This is a much tighter design.

I like the choice of type; the classic 'athletic' font where all curves are changed to angles. (I was once told that this type of font was originally used for name and numbering on sports jerseys because the angular font was much faster to sew than a font with a lot of curves). And no, it's nothing like the hipster font that Brooklyn uses; it blows my mind that anyone would even suggest these are similar fonts.

There's nothing amazing here, but it's not dreadful either. I get that they're trying to still reference dinosaurs but get as far away from cartoony as they can, hence something flat, one-colour, angular, simple. And I think they found a good concept for that, but there's something a little 'off' in the execution. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole uniforms.

[Scraptor]

I wonder if Bonus Jonas or one of you design types could try something. The claws on the new logo are confusing because they are jagged, like they've been worn down, until you realize it's actually damage to the ball. I wonder if claws would be more noticeable/recognizable if the claws were sharper or longer. ie. if they actually looked like claws and not banana peppers. I get now that the ball is supposed to be damaged/torn by a claw but maybe an actual claw would look better.

It's too late obviously but just curious to see how it would look.

Turbozone posted a really great criticism of the logo:

Ask yourself what you thought when you first saw it. You don't need a design background to know if it is ugly to you or not.

Logo presentations are sensitive. Whether it's brilliant or horrible, it's almost always met with loud noises from both those who love it and those who dislike it.

Then inevitably, many people convince themselves they like it either because they want to go against the grain or genuinely they just support and love the Raptors so much they have the logos back and start making legal-esque cases for it's benefits.

If you have to argue the merits of a design thoroughly and explain why it's good, it's probably not very good.

When a logo is good, people get talking about why it's good, not pointing out why it isn't bad.

You're allowed to hate this logo if you want. It doesn't mean you hate the Raptors.

Saying they're a "Professional Design Firm" should not give them a pass. As if a corporation has never screwed up a task before. Design firms have insights into branding guides, what's necessary for clothing distribution and other mundane details relevant to the industry; ultimately however, the core of design work remains constant at any level. It starts with an idea, then a draft then a digital build. There are several rounds of revisions and then a final design is agreed upon.

This one was either an unfortunate byproduct of groupthink, a selection from a too-old out-of-touch creative director in a senior role no one wants to challenge, overconfidence from the "WetheNorth" success leading to lazy work, lack of creative vision among the staff or just an inevitable statistical "miss" by Sid Lee who, lest we are blinded by Apple monitors and lattes, are just a group of humans after all capable of error.

To me, this design is generally flimsy, weaker than the last, the claw mark is poorly communicated, limp and not clear; and aesthetically unpleasant to the eye. It is neither elegantly simple nor brash and exciting. Instead it walks the middle line between both, getting the benefits of neither. There is no exciting admiration of opening a new design frontier nor calm quiet confidence that comes with a simple sleek look.

In its current state, this is one of the worst logos I've ever seen in sports, and unbefitting a team of our calibre.

I sincerely hope this is reconsidered.

Pretty much nails it for me.

[JimiCliff]

I wonder if Bonus Jonas or one of you design types could try something. The claws on the new logo are confusing because they are jagged, like they've been worn down, until you realize it's actually damage to the ball. I wonder if claws would be more noticeable/recognizable if the claws were sharper or longer. ie. if they actually looked like claws and not banana peppers. I get now that the ball is supposed to be damaged/torn by a claw but maybe an actual claw would look better.

It's too late obviously but just curious to see how it would look.

Turbozone posted a really great criticism of the logo:



Pretty much nails it for me.

Nails it for me too. Unfortunately, I can't fathom that they would reconsider/revise/remake it; it's come too far.

We just have to resign ourselves to the fact that being a Raptors fan mean having to live with questionable branding/graphic design. It's been like that since day 1.

[Uncle_Si]

Wow, some pretty passionate hate for the logo. I don't mind it, excited to see what the new unis look like.

All this hate is hilarious because all the haters are still going to rock it.