Kevin Durant & Russell Westbrook. Ibaka & Harden. Maynor, Sefolosha, Collison, Perkins...
The Thunder have the personnel to electrify the NBA for the next decade.
Fans have already embraced the young team’s branding, but here’s another take, for fun and my own practice.
Primary Logo
The logo concept here is simple, following the league-standard choice of including a basketball.
Wrapping around the ball is lightning, most famous for its role as the atmospheric electrostatic discharge preceding thunder.
Colors
Thunderstorm
Gold
Odin’s Beard
Secondary Logo
Thor, Norse god of thunder, lightning, and strength, weilded a hammer.
This hammer, Mjölnir, is conveniently T-shaped.
With “T” being the first letter in "Thunder," well, you see where I’m headed.
The lightning wrap makes an appearance as well, for cohesion...
and garnish.
Home Uniform
Simplicity is the aim here. The jersey, in hindsight a little too reminiscent of the Phoenix Suns’, is all sharp lines and single colors.
The shorts continue those lines, then add a strike of lightning along each side. You’ll see the lightning as Durant streaks to the basket, then you’ll hear the thunder of the crowd as that game-winning jumper swishes through.
Science Side Note
If you count the number of seconds between seeing lightning and hearing thunder, then divide this number by 5,
that provides the storm's distance from you in miles. A 10-second wait? That’s 2 miles away, you should get indoors.
Original image of Kevin Durant © AP Photo/Alonzo Adams.
Away Uniform
The Thunder strike their opponent’s arena in bright, almost electric uniforms.
Arena Trivia
The Chesapeake Energy Arena holds a capacity of 18,203 fans during Thunder games.
Serge Ibaka, left, provides the epitomization of the term "game face." Original image © Reuters/Rick Wilking.
Alternate Uniform
There you have it.
This is just design practice from a fan,
with no offense intended against the current logo and jerseys of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
I hope you’ll get a kick out of the result, even if it does look too much like the Lakers.
A special thanks goes out to the vastly talented
Ian Bakar
and his impressive NBA rebranding and expansion projects for the inspiration.
** This project is in no way endorsed by or affiliated with
the NBA
the OKC Thunder,
Kevin Durant,
or Serge Ibaka.
