How to Design a Sports Team Logo

A sports team logo is so much more than a pretty picture to stick onto kits. Think of it like a coat of arms or a country’s national flag – you want it to build a sense of community and for fans and players alike to wear it as a badge of honor. Read on for trends, tips, and information about how to create your own sports team logo, including sports logo design.

Many teams are opting to tone down their logos so that they work well across multiple platforms (i.e. web, print and social media). Take the American Football team the Buffalo Bills, for example, whose logo has evolved over the years to feature much cleaner lines. The team’s name has also been removed now that the club is more established, as fans will recognize the logo without the need for text.

This is nothing new, but it’s still a strong trend today. Basketball team the Indiana Pacers use this technique, and its popularity could be explained by the fact that it enables sports team logos to work well against both light and dark backgrounds. It also adds stylistically to the design, even if the main symbols or emblems are not particularly eye-catching.

This is another trend that is expected to continue growing over the coming years. By calling on elements from your club’s past or your team’s location, you can help to build a strong bond with fans. Take Liverpool Football Club, for example, which features the city’s symbol of the liver bird in its coat of arms. You only have to think of the popular chant ‘Liverbird Upon My Chest’ to realize how influential logos are to fans.

The world of sport is diverse, so it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to sports team logo design. Having said that, read on for some commonly used tropes:

Many teams tend to incorporate the iconic ball, like Mexican professional football team Club León. Crests are also very widely used.

Characters, animals, or symbols that relate to the team’s name or location are often included. You can see this in action with the UK’s Manchester Stallions, where their namesake animal is proudly featured.

Many clubs reference the fast-paced nature of the game by including a sense of movement in their logo design. The Los Angeles Lakers make the most of this trick within their typography.

Just like the vast array of sports out there, there are loads of different ways you can create your own sports team logo, even if you don’t have any graphic design experience. Read on for some routes that are quick and affordable, without compromising on quality.

Placeit is a great option, especially if you have little or no design experience, as you can scroll through a huge variety of templates that you can edit in a few minutes, before downloading straight to your browser. There are custom sports logo design templates for loads of different sports, too, including badminton, lacrosse, martial arts, swimming, and wrestling. It’s a seriously simple sports logo maker – just follow these 5 steps:

This is another sports logo creator option that allows you to download templates and customize them according to the message you want to get across. However, you do need to have access to Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator to make changes to the files and, for that reason, Envato Market is a better option if you have some prior design experience. If you have a subscription to Envato Elements you can download limitless graphics at no additional cost. This is a good option for a sports club if you want to try multiple logos, create sports websites or if you need other design assets regularly such as flyers and social media images.

We hope you found this how to helpful to bring your sports team brand to life! You can learn more about how to create your own sports logo with our Logo Design Guide.

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