While the logo of the basketball team Phoenix Suns has gone through not less than four modifications, it has been consistent in its core visual metaphor: a basketball as the symbol of the sun.
The logo of the basketball club from Phoenix, Arizona, hasn’t changed much throughout the years. And only the first emblem, created for the Suns in 1968, is slightly different from the three following versions, but the style and idea are still the same.
The original Phoenix Suns emblem, designed in 1968, featured a solid red rectangular banner surrounded by the lettering from up and down. The upper line of the inscription was “Phoenix” with all letters but “N” capitalized, and the bottom line, “Suns”, was executed in a bold yet narrowed sans-serif, with its “N” also in the lowercase.
The middle part of the badge featured a bright orange basketball in a white outline, with some triangular white elements contours out of it to the right, resembling the sun rays.
The redesign of 1992 switched the color palette of the logo to purple and orange, where orange had different gradient shades. Now the graphical part of the logo was bigger than the text one, which was now placed under the geometric badge with an orange basketball surrounded by thin long lines from the bottom and triangular elements from the top. The typeface of the lettering was switched to a sleeker and more modern sans-serif with the angles and edges rounded and softened.
In 2000 the badge gained a double gray and black outline, and the lettering was redrawn in white with a delicate shadow, which made the whole badge look voluminous and dynamic, adding crispiness and style to the whole composition. The ball on the emblem got its black details emboldened, and started looking brighter and more confident.
The composition of the logo remained untouched, but the color palette was changed to black and orange in 2013. Now the orange basketball is placed on a black background, with the white lettering placed on the bottom part of the badge. The inscription has changed its typeface to a more progressive and futuristic one, and the use of gradient shades of light gray makes it look contemporary and trendy.
While the brand guidelines claim that the team’s official font is Trade Gothic Bold Condensed, it’s obvious that the Phoenix Suns new logo features a different, unique type. The glyphs in both the words have unusual sharp elements resonating with the sun image as given in the emblem.
The relatively bright colors, yellow (PMS 137) and orange (PMS 159 and PMS 1675), are balanced by black (PMS Black) and gray (PMS Cool Gray 5). The overall impression is rather dark. While the official palette also includes purple (PMS 275), the color cannot be seen anywhere in the primary Phoenix Suns logo.
PURPLE
PANTONE: PMS 275 C
CMYK: (98, 100, 0, 43)
RGB: (29, 17, 96)
HEX COLOR: #1D1160;
ORANGE
PANTONE: PMS 159 C
CMYK: (0, 75, 100, 5)
RGB: (229, 95, 32)
HEX COLOR: #E56020;
BLACK
PANTONE: PMS PROCESS BLACK C
CMYK: (30, 0, 0, 100)
RGB: (6, 25, 34)
HEX COLOR: #000000;
GRAY
PANTONE: PMS 431 C
CMYK: (15, 0, 0, 65)
RGB: (99, 113, 122)
HEX COLOR: #63727A;
YELLOW
PANTONE: PMS 137 C
CMYK: (0, 43, 100, 0)
RGB: (249, 160, 27)
HEX COLOR: #F9AD1B;
DARK ORANGE
PANTONE: PMS 1675 C
CMYK: (0, 67, 100, 28)
RGB: (185, 89, 21)
HEX COLOR: #B95915;
LIGHT GRAY
PANTONE: PMS COOL GRAY 5 C
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 29)
RGB: (190, 192, 194)
HEX COLOR: #BEC0C2;