Women’s National Basketball Association Logo PNG
Meaning and history
1997 — 2012
From 1997 to 2012 the Women’s National Basketball Association identified itself with an emblem logo. The old WNBA logo has an unusual shape. It is an inclined shield. The shield suggests traditions, while the incline implies movement and speed. The letters in the lettermark are also slanted. The color scheme (red, blue and white) reminds of the American flag.
Since the WNBA was established as the women’s counterpart to the NBA, the old WNBA logo looks very similar to the NBA logo. The only essential difference is that the white silhouette of the basketball player is unmistakably feminine.
2013 — 2019
In 2013 the WNBA redesigned its identity mark. As before, the WNBA new logo features a player in action but it differs radically from the previous NBA-based one. First of all, the blue-white-and-red color scheme gave place to orange and oatmeal, which is the pattern of their game balls. The new colors make the logo look simple, clean and powerful.
Secondly, it is not the original shield any longer, but a vertical rectangle. Thirdly, the silhouette is not dribbling now but is attacking the basket. The intention is to show that players have become more athletic, agile and competitive.
There was even a “who is the WNBA logo woman?” campaign. The league has not made any statements so far. It keeps saying that the logo is a celebration of all the athletes who have ever belonged to the WNBA. Yet, there is a popular opinion that the silhouette is modeled after Sue Bird.
2019 — Today
For the 2019 logo update, they redrew the woman’s silhouette, mirrored it, painted it orange and presented it as the main emblem. It was naturally neighbored by a wordmark – the usual acronym written fully in orange and using wide sans-serif letters.
