Utah Jazz

Brand in motion – bringing a new identity to life through animation and socials

Since moving from New Orleans to Salt Lake City in the 1970s, Utah Jazz has become one of the NBA’s most enduring franchises. Following the success of our work on their 21–22 play-offs campaign, Studio Dumbar/DEPT® worked with a large creative team on a comprehensive rebranding project. Our task: to create an extensive motion design language ranging from social media templates, typographic animations, custom patterns, and 3D visuals. 

STRATEGY

Developed by their in-house team with The New Company, a refreshed identity was set to launch ahead of the 22–23 season. It was important for our work to support the spirit of the new look, using our unique skills to bring the brand to life in motion. The client sought to express the creative energy of both jazz and basketball and, in doing so, buck the trends associated with mainstream sports branding. The proposition: Utah Jazz is a different breed of franchise – just as jazz is intrepid, innovative, and contrary. Rivals, take note.

DESIGN

We delivered a vast number of assets for use and re-use across a variety of applications, throughout the season. Inspired by the rhythms of jazz, our typographic system (using a customised version of Plaak, designed by 205ft) includes a variant angled at 25° – echoing the team’s iconic musical note symbol. We also created a library of custom patterns: bold geometric designs that can be scaled, cropped, stacked and combined in different ways across any touch-point – from a small press lanyard, all the way up to motion spots for the arena’s JumboTron screens. Social media templates allow the new identity to shine in every post: from everyday news and player profiles, to real-time game day updates. The key was a set of well-defined yet versatile assets, with a consistently strong look and feel devised to engage throughout the long NBA season. 

RESULTS 

Rebranding a sports franchise can be risky. However, by working with a strong creative team and striking the right chord with their values and history, Utah Jazz succeeded where others have not. Visit their home arena on game day, or check out their latest social posts, and you’ll see that our contribution to the project was significant, and above all, impactful.