Logos are vital and core identities of the brands behind them. They serve as strong visual cues that convey an abundance of details about a brand depending on individuals’ perceptions and experiences. The iconic Chicago Bulls logo design signifies power, strength, and domination. With its legendary bullhead design, this logo represents aggression and intensity.
Some logos become part of people’s psyche since such emblems carry a history and association with the masses. Amongst such iconic logos is the emblem of the Chicago Bulls. This is one outstanding symbol of a sports team and has not changed since its inception.
What Is Chicago Bulls?
The Chicago Bulls competes in the National Basketball Association, a North American professional basketball league. The team represents the Eastern Conference in the Central Division. The club was dominant from 1991 to 1998, winning six association championships.
The iconic logo features an angry red bull. A ferocious gaze, flared nostrils, a formidable muzzle, and a furrowed brow indicate that he is always ready for a massive attack.
The Chicago Bulls logo has an angry bull’s head. It is said that the designer Klein had a craving for slaughterhouses, which was the inspiration for the logo design. That is also why the bull’s horns have droplets of blood on their tips.
What Does The Chicago Bulls Logo Mean?
The main reason the Chicago Bulls logo has a dominating bull figure in its logo is that the club is from Illinois. This US province is known for bullfighting. So, the club name could be anything like “Bullfighters” or “Matadors”. But it chose “Bulls” because this word is simple to pronounce and conveys aggression, power, force, and strength.
The Chicago Bulls logo is an angry bull’s head with a focused gaze. It has a frowning forehead and has flared nostrils. It shows the face of an angry bull whose eyes are half-closed. There is a superciliary arch over the bull’s eyes, which makes the look of the bull dominating and menacing.
There is also an inverted arched line that is very much visible above the nose. The team name is at the top of the head.
Who Made The Chicago Bulls Logo?
The Chicago Bulls logo, designed in 1966, was created by American designer Dean P. Wessel. While the color scheme for the logo was suggested by Dick Klein — an ace athlete and the founder of a basketball team. Klein recommended a graphic artist to paint the logo in black and red.
The logo signals strength and ferocity. These are the typical characteristics of a team that wants to win each match.
Klein was looking for a punchier and shorter name for the club. The Bulls website says that Klein’s son did not find those names right and said, “Dad, that’s a lot of bull.” That is when a dynastic name was born.
Others say that Klein was also influenced by the Chicago Packers name, which had a bull logo in the early ’60s. When Klein needed a logo for Chicago Bulls, he approached commercial designer Dean Wessel, who lived North of Chicago.
According to Wessel, “Right after I first submitted it to Klein . . . Dick looked it over and sent it back to me, saying, ‘I want blood on the horns. Blood!’” Wessel told the Tribune in 1993. “I, of course, obliged him.”
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Why Was The Logo Design Not Changed?
The Chicago Bulls logo has remained unchanged from i1966. Some mystery still surrounds the story of the logo. But there is no doubt that the logo has proved its design has remained unchanged so far.
But people say that it is actually because of the club’s legendary basketball player Jorden that the logo owes its popularity. The Bulls were just any other team before the mid-’80s. But the arrival of Jorden in 1984 in the team changed it all. So, Michel Jorden became a brand due to his extraordinary winning performances for the team. The logo remained unchanged because people associated it with Michel Jordon.
According to the creative director and consultant of NBA, “In my opinion, the Bulls logo is not all that great…. It’s not modern—even that bull looks nostalgic in its own right—but it’s synonymous with winning. And at the end of the day, that’s really all that unites the fabric of sports. If you do anything to change or take away from that, you better have a really good reason.”
Font
The logo displays the company name in big letters at the top and between the bull’s horns. To make the club name look dominant and visible from a fair distance, graphic designer Dean Wessel used a serif typeface.
Serif typeface stands for a formal environment and is less friendly. So, by using the serif font, the club conveys that the team will deal with its rival teams strictly and professionally. So, the serif font successfully conveys the intended aggression of the club’s team in a toughly fought basketball match.
To show the aggressive attitude of the club, the designer created the letters in large and rounded shapes. They are all in the upper case to express the club’s domination. Also, the designer arranged the words in two lines so that the logo looks like a compact design.
But which is the font that this logo uses? There is a certain unknown font used in the Chicago Bulls logo. But many experts opine that the logo used Stymie Black font initially. This font is symmetric, clear, and deliberately notched. Others think that the logo uses an altered Rockwell Extra Bold.
Color
The Chicago Bulls logo is red, black, and white. This is because these are also the basketball team’s official colors. Also, this color scheme conveys the message of ruthless aggression that the team intends to show to win a match on the field.
Red is the color for aggression and passion. The bull is the symbol of ruthlessness. The designer created the bull in red to make it an even more fearsome animal. That signals that the opponent team should be aware of the level of competition.
The tips of the bull’s horns also have traces of red to convey the aggression even more. This signals that the team has already defeated and dealt with previous opponents, and you are next on the list.
Black provides some element of mystery to the logo. The outline of the bull figure and all the drawings inside the bull’s face are black. Both red and black are dark colors that perfectly convey the intended message to the team’s opponents. The black color also helps to give the bull a very menacing look.
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The Upside-Down Mystery
If you flip the Chicago Bulls logo upside down, you see the logo as a book-reading crab robot. Some see a mysterious figure in the logo when turned down.
Some have seen an alignment in the logo when seen upside down and associated the design with some mystery. But the robot or any other figure seen by the people could be merely a coincidence.
Overall, the Chicago Bulls is an iconic logo that people have kept in mind for decades. But there is a lot of history and some controversy that has made the logo likable.
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Wrapping Up
Chicago Bulls is an iconic logo that has remained the same since 1966 the club was founded. The basketball team is known for its bull’s head logo, which is now a symbol of power, strength, and aggression. Red, black, and white are the strategic colors to send signals of aggression to the rival teams.
