Pittsburgh Ironmen

Basketball has been scarce in the Steel City, with the original Ironmen franchise lasting only the 1946/47 season. Pittsburgh’s second chance at pro basketball was more successful, with the Pipers winning the ABA title for the 67/68 season, The next season, the Pipers would spend a lone season in Minneapolis, moving back to the ‘Burgh due to poor attendance in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The Pipers would change their name a season after returning to the Keystone State, becoming the Pittsburgh Condors, also trading in their blue and orange for red and athletic gold. Attendance and poor play would would spell the end for the team in 1972, four years before the ABA-NBA merger. My concept for a possible Pittsburgh NBA franchise revives the Ironmen nickname and complements it with the black-and-gold color palette synonymous with the city’s various pro teams. My primary logo design places a basketball emblazoned with an interlocking PI within a gear-themed roundel. The ball is rendered in black, athletic gold and old gold while steel grey outlines the mark. The primary logo breaks down into a textless version of the gear/basketball and a PI-monogram. A modified version of the Pittsburgh crest with two crossed sledgehammers and a P-anvil round out the logo set. The typeface is a slab serif with rounded corners, a short and wide version is used on the wordmarks and a taller, more condensed version for the numerals. The Icon, Association, and Alternate uniforms feature diamond-plating down the sides and the city shield mark sublimated on the back of the jerseys on black, white, and athletic gold respectively. The Pride uniform puts the Steel City front-and-center with a steel grey base and the city crest logo above the number on the front of the jerseys. The P-anvil logo appears on the shorts. The court places the primary logo at center court with a black out-of-bounds and athletic gold lanes. The gear is sublimated within the three-point line on each end, with the P-anvil and the bridge pattern greet players o the near sideline.