Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

A fresh redesign of the Orlando Magic logo

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Apr 10, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; A Orlando Magic cheerleader dances on the court during a stoppage in play against the Toronto Raptors during the second half at Amway Center. The Raptors won 101-99. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 10, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; A Orlando Magic cheerleader dances on the court during a stoppage in play against the Toronto Raptors during the second half at Amway Center. The Raptors won 101-99. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Many people seem to think the Orlando Magic logo, jersey and branding are in need of a remodel. A graphic artist took an interesting approach in doing so.

It has come up a few times this offseason — the Orlando Magic need a new look.

There have been a few designers who have taken a stab at redesigning the Magic’s jerseys. The general consensus, it seems is to have the team go back to something similar to their extremely popular original uniforms.

The more pinstripes, the better.

It has come up though that the Magic logo is boring and plain. There is no argument there.

When the Magic changed their logo entering the Amway Center before the 2011 season, it got rid of the somewhat iconic star that was in the logo and went with a pretty nondescript font over the Magic’s streaking basketball. It was not a huge change, but the logo certainly lost some of its playfulness.

Orlando_magic_logo
Orlando_magic_logo /

Not that the Magic’s logo has ever been truly inspiring or overly complex. The Magic’s original logo probably remains the best (like all things in the Magic’s branding efforts, it seems) with the second logo maybe looking too cartoonish.

Someone much smarter and more artistically minded than me can probably come up with a new idea for a Magic logo.

It being the Internet, there are several budding graphic designers who want their hands at designing a new logo for a sports team (or putting Pokemon in NBA logos).

The latest came to us through Fansided. Graphic designer Addison Foote took to redesigning every logo in the NBA. Some are just sharpening up the current logo (hard to do much of a redesign for classic designs for teams like the Bulls and Lakers) while others are complete overhauls of the logo.

He created an interesting concept for the Magic:

Image by Addison Foote
Image by Addison Foote /

Here is Foote’s explanation for his inspiration to the design:

"I remember looking at the DVD cover of one my favorite movies “The Princess Bride”. I noticed that if you turned the cover upside-down, the text would read the exact same! I thought it was magic! I wanted to try something similar with the Orlando Magic logo. There is no difference between this logo being upside-down or right-side up."

It is an interesting concept. The Suns have used a similar imagery trick on their court for the last few years.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of using that trick with the Magic. The ‘M’ and ‘C’ do not naturally mirror each other in the same way that the ‘Suns’ script does. The logo is kind of hard to read.

It does incorporate one of the growing trends among NBA logos though. The circular logo made popular by the Brooklyn Nets (credit where credit is due, Nets fans get touchy about this subject) has started to proliferate around the league. The 76ers adopted a circular logo similar to the Nets this year and the Bucks’ new logo is also similarly circular.

Many believe this is a prelude to something that can be shrunk easily to make room for ads on NBA uniforms. Whether that is true or not, it is a growing trend around the league.

This logo certainly keeps that trend going and would certainly be in line with where logos seem to be going.

Overall though, this logo returns to the somewhat cartoonishness of the Magic’s logo from 2000-2010. That is obviously something the team wanted to get away from in going with its current approach. So a logo like this is probably not where the Magic would go if they were looking for a new look.

What changes do you think the Magic should make to their logo or branding?

Next: Orlando Magic Daily Podcast: Turning up the focus on 2016