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Re-Branding the Oklahoma City Thunder: What if Actual Work Had Been Put Into Making Our Logo?

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Well, year three of the Thunder has concluded, and one opinion I have about the team has not changed. I still hate the logo. Whenever I see it in a large capacity, I can do nothing but cringe. The "Thunder" above the OKC logo looks tacked on, and the "basketball shield" below looks alright, but it symbolizes nothing. Essentially, what you have is a logo that both looks bad and doesn't symbolize anything in particular, except that the Thunder are a basketball team.

While Tim Gengler of the Bunny Dojo might not agree with my take on the final Thunder logo, he does give a take on what it would be like if those in the Thunder organization actually put some time and work into the final design of the Thunder logo.

Newthunderprimarylogo_medium

This is the new logo design he proposes. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of the work because it features dull colours and looks a bit too similar to the Cavaliers' old logo. But, it is significantly better than the Thunder's current logo. For one, it actually has a symbol in it, that of Thor's Hammer. Secondly, there are lightning bolts in the logo, because we all know that it comes before Thunder. Thirdly, the logo uses a semi-Western/mythological type font, which is much better than the basic stuff the Thunder have currently. The only place I can say the current logo wins out in is colour, but since both of the logos are blue-based, I'd have to give a huge win to Tim's design. The logo actually means something symbolically, and is something that I wouldn't be embarrassed to wear on a T-Shirt.

The logo is also a bit reminiscent of the Oklahoma City Redhawks logo (that's our AAA baseball team for you non-Oklahomans), except that it doesn't embarrassingly read "COK" like that logo does. If we did have this logo, it would go a long way in uniting the city under one colour scheme, much like Seattle has done with the Sounders, Mariners, and Seahawks or like Washington, D.C. has done with the Capitals, Wizards, and Nationals.

Tim actually has designed much more than a logo. He also designed a secondary logo, uniforms, and wallpapers of his designs. The jerseys are reminiscent of the Sonics jerseys, except with a distinctly OKC vibe. Be sure to venture over to his site to see the rest of his project. It's well worth it.

And before you start bashing me for being too hard on either logo, remember this: It's always easier to be the critic, but it's even easier to be the critic of the critic.