Opinion BY Armin

Rise of the Pelicans

Originally an NBA expansion team in the 1988-89 season in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Hornets moved to New Orleans in the 2001-02 season, with a two-season break spent in Oklahoma City after hurricane Katrina, returning to New Orleans in 2007. In December of 2012 it was announced that the Hornets would change their name to the Pelicans and last week the New Orleans Pelicans unveiled their new identity designed by RARE, self-described as “one of the most esteemed branding agencies in the country.” (First time I hear of them).

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 16

Today’s Likes are all fake, not real, speculative, just-for-the-heck-of-it projects. Some designers question why other designers do this: Wouldn’t the time and energy be better spent designing something probono for a nonprofit? Yes, probably. But how else is one going to satisfy the longing for designing for our dream clients? I love fake design projects: They are the equivalent of hitting the gym and lifting weights to get stronger, leaner, meaner — it may not always be pretty, but eventually leads to results.

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Opinion BY Armin

The Brooklyn Nets: I Call Technical Foul

Last week was the final game of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, who finished with a 22-44 record to end the season at the bottom of its Atlantic division in the Eastern conference — a far cry from its more successful days in the early 2000s when it reached the finals two seasons in a row or its two ABA championships in the 1970s. For the 2012 – 13 season the team will move to a new home while retaining its name, the Brooklyn Nets. A press conference yesterday where the team logo and merchandise were unveiled at a local sports in front of the billion-dollar Barclays Center was the culmination of almost eight years of ownership negotiations, urban planning, and pissing off Brooklyn residents when developer and part owner Bruce Ratner scurried away people from their homes in order to make room for the ambitious Atlantic Yards project. With a terribly sad team — the Nets most well-known player is probably Kris Humphries, aka Kim Kardashian’s ex husband — the Brooklyn Nets have an uphill battle to win the hearts of the proud and skeptical local crowd which they are doing with a very minimalist, almost anti-NBA new look reportedly designed by Nets part owner Jay Z.

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In Brief BY Armin

In Brief: April Miscellany

To almost end the month, here are some quick stories to tide you over the weekend.

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Opinion BY Armin

Wizards go Retro, Dodge Bullet

Known as the Washington Wizards since 1997, this Eastern Conference NBA team goes back to 1961 when it was known as the Chicago Packers, moving to Baltimore in 1963 and changing its name to the Bullets (I guess they never saw The Wire coming), then moving to Washington in 1974. As the Bullets the team won the championship in 1978 and as the Wizards they are best known for hosting Michael Jordan’s twenty-third un-retirement. Yesterday, the Wizards unveiled new uniforms and secondary logos that hark back to their look of decades past. The uniforms and marks have been designed in collaboration with their apparel provider, adidas.

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