Detroit Pistons

The Pistons’ brand identity has been rather consistent over the years, with the exception of a period from 1996 to 2001 when the team sported teal, black, cardinal, and athletic gold uniforms. It was the 90s and Detroit got sucked into the teal and purple phenomenon. Outside of that, the Pistons have almost exclusively featured royal and red, with small amounts of navy and silver added in recent years. My concept looks to do what every automobile maker seeks to do in Motor City: engineer a modern classic. The primary logo features a shield reminiscent of vintage hood ornaments combined with a PISTONS wordmark that looks equally at home on the side of a Thunderbird as it does on a logo. Inside the shield there is a basketball with a DP insignia that evokes tailpipes with a strong pair of upper left serifs. A version of the shield sans text allows for use at smaller sizes where readability may be an issue. The DP mark also stands by itself in a two-color application. The secondary places the DP-Basketball against a pair of crossed pistons, while a modernized version of the team’s classic mark adds a little more history to the logo set. The pair of wordmarks in the classic car typeface appear throughout the identity, while the numerals are sharp and simplified. The Icon and Association uniforms keep the Bad Boys-era side stripe, but with simple navy trim capping it at the armholes and the bottom of the shorts. A bold wishbone collar in navy with red helps orient the shield mark over the heart. The backs of the jerseys offer a subtle horizontal striping pattern that complements the shield under the player name and number. The Alternate uniforms swap navy and royal from the Icon edition and feature an off-center player number on the front. The Pride uniforms feature a light grey base with segmented royal and navy side panels. The team name and back player number are navy with a white outline, while the NOB (name-on-back) is royal. The front player number is placed inside the team’s basketball icon in white. The Crossed-Pistons mark is placed on the shorts. The court uses mostly red along the boundaries, with a royal-and-white striping pattern between the three-point lines. The paint in the lane places the royal-and-navy striping flanked by red, and white lines throughout.