The Bulls’ home court at the United Center is one of the most iconic images in the NBA, dating back to the glory days of the team’s 1990s dynasty. Last year, Grantland’s Zach Lowe ranked it fifth among the 30 court designs in the league, and for good reason. Messing with a classic is always risky, but the Bulls have done a nice job with their new design, which the team unveiled on Wednesday morning.
From their press release:The iconic bull head logo at center court has increased in size by 75 percent and the image of a basketball that was previously behind the logo has been removed. The “CHICAGO BULLS” text on the endlines has been changed to the font used in the official Bulls logo to make the court design more consistent with the Bulls brand, and the same font has been applied to the “Bulls.com” and the “@ChicagoBulls” text on the north apron of the court.
The lines on the court have been changed from red and white to all black to emphasize the bold colors of the Bulls brand.
The four stars from the City of Chicago flag have been added to the south apron of the court to highlight the team’s civic pride and incorporate the “Chicago Basketball” branding campaign.
Here are the two court designs, with the new one on the top and the old one on the bottom:
#Bulls sent rendering of new court design. Red stars (re: Chicago flag) on the side, bigger midcourt logo. Thumbs up. pic.twitter.com/O7wIqBtwGg
— Bradford Doolittle (@bbdoolittle) September 23, 2015
All things considered, this redesign is pretty tasteful. The changes make sense and don’t fundamentally change the feel of the design. Well done.
