What the new Hawks uniforms say about Atlanta: Part I

So you’ve had the entire summer to think it over. Back in June, the Atlanta Hawks unveiled new uniforms ahead of their 2015-16 season. Though this year’s draft night merchandise sales were six times higher than the record-breaking numbers from when the organization revived the Pac logo aka “evolved Pac” (“EVO” for short), not everyone has been sold on the new look.
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? ESPN.com managed to take not one, but two jabs at the Hawks new branding. First, “Uni Watch” writer Paul Lukus called the look, “an unusual uniform set on several levels, from the atypical color scheme and the sublimated triangle pattern to the mix-and-match factor and the lack of the team name on any of the jerseys.” After a breakdown of elements from lettering to the color choices, Lukas closed with: “Remember, there’s a difference between good design, which tends to resist demographic typecasting, and fashion, which is easily market-targeted. The Hawks’ new uniforms feel like they’re on the wrong side of that divide.” Of course Lukas had to follow that up with his ranking of the “Best-Dressed Cities” in sports, with Atlanta coming in last on the list of 30 teams. Lukas’ biggest gripe? The new Hawks unis. 
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? Internally, everyone from execs to the players had a say in the new uniforms, and the latter don’t seem to mind. “When you do design it feels like it’s easy to just pull what’s cool right now, and try to throw it on to something,” shooting guard/small forward Kyle Korver said in a video posted on the Atlanta Hawks website. Korver, a Creighton University grad, studied graphic design in college. “I think what was thoughtful about this was they pulled out new colors and new concepts but everything has a meaning to it. I think that’s really important, not just to make something you think looks really amazing but something that has meaning as well.”
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? Indeed, the Hawks have gone into great detail about the historical, organizational, and creatives thought processes that went into transforming the brand. Ultimately, it came down to respecting the past, but embracing the future of the team that’s coming off a historic season, and trying to reach a younger, more multicultural demographic. So, we at CL decided to see to do some more digging, and reached out to Larry Luk, a leader of the die-hard Hawks fan club, #HawksBros, and brilliant design mind at We Are the Process. In the first part of our chat, Luk talks about first seeing the EVO Pac almost five years ago, the problems with the secondary logo, why nothing is too bold for Hawks CEO Steve Koonin.
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??So can you at talk about the fact that you saw sort of an early version of the EVO Pac five years ago?
? Yeah, so this is probably 2008, 2009 playoffs, and I was friends with a few Hawks employees who are no longer there. And this is back in the day when I was feeling like, “Hey man our uniforms are boring, we need something else. We should throwback, or we should do something — like everyone loves the Pac logo.” And, I’m sure the Hawks have scoured Twitter and they know that everyone has this affinity to the Pacman logo. That was me talking in 2009, and this guy from the Hawks organization pulls me aside and says, “Look you can’t tell anyone that you’ve seen this, and he whips out his phone and he shows it to me. He shows me this primary logo, but it’s already been evolved. From what I gathered, it was like a combination of people at the Hawks and Adidas working together on evolving this mark from the previous one. I’m like, “That’s hot. Will you send it to me?” He’s like, “No, I can’t send it to you.” So it’s been in my head because I’ve seen it so long ago, and I’ve told a few people there’s another Pac logo floating around. Steve Koonin comes on board last playoffs, and he was like, “We need to drop this now,” so they did and the city really fell in love with it. I think that our Pacman logo is the best in the NBA, possibly the best in sports. Like, you can’t break that logo, it is very very cool. It’s works small, it works huge, it works in so many different colors, and you can see it from far away.
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?Why do you think it’s been so iconic? Why do you think this logo resonated with the city and with the fans?
? I just think it was bold — I think that’s one the Hawks have always done well. When they introduced Pistol Pete green back in the day, no one had done that before in the NBA. The Hawks have always been bold up until they rebranded and made us red, white, and blue, just like everyone else in the league. Atlanta’s has a history of being mediocre, but we’re not going to stand for that anymore, we’re going to do something else. So this decision to go back to the Pac logo — which has been in production or been on someone’s computer Downtown for years — is great. 
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? ?So the Pac is on point, but folks are having trouble wrapping their heads around the secondary logo?
? Okay so, I feel like the secondary logo is trying to do too much, all while trying to fit into this like iconic, unbreakable style of the ol’ Atlanta Flames logo. That, and the old Pacman logo, those were designed by the same guy [[http://www.artsatl.com/2014/06/atlanta-hawks-logo/|Bob Wages]] in the ’70s. Those two launched at the same time. And I think he’s also responsible for doing the Atlanta Apollos logo, the old soccer team here. When you look at all three of those logos side by side, you’re like, “That’s the same dude.” I think this was trying to achieve that, but it also needs to be a basketball, it’s trying to be a flame, an emoji, it’s trying to be an A, and it’s trying to be a Phoenix or Hawk wings. The wings aren’t even pointed up like they should be. There’s a lot that I hate about it. When it came out, I took my sketch pad out and started trying to redraw it. There like four things it’s trying to be. This is an impossible framework for designers to try to achieve this. Like, pick one thing or two things and make it that.
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??Talk about this new kind of lettering font that we’re using, specifically with Torch Red uniforms. Is the “A” in “ATL” supposed to be a beak? 
? I feel like it’s trying to follow some of our old fonts where we had that beak. I’m a little disappointed because I’ve shown this to a ton of logo designers, and everyone agrees that it’s just bad typography. I was so excited to buy the red jersey because I knew a red one was coming. But now I’m going to buy that one last because I can’t get over how weird that “A” looks. Just put “ATL” on it. I heard the %22A%22 is supposed to follow the shape of the “L,” like they literally took the “L” and punched it out. So I opened up that file and pulled the “L” over;  it’s not even that. It just bums me out that they tried a little bit too hard here, on both of these.
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? What do you make of the feather pattern on the jerseys?
? Yeah, I think it’s a modern. And really I think it’s an abstraction of a feather pattern on the breast of a hawk, not necessarily the wings. So I think that’s what it’s doing. I think it’s cool because we’re the only team right now that has like a sublimated pattern in the jersey. It’s fresh and unique. But, time will tell whether or not it sticks around. This is like a modern thing. The Hawks know that they want to build a fan base of younger fans, and so they need to take risks and try things, and I’m all for this.
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? So are they just throwing s**t on the wall and seeing if it sticks?
? Yeah you know like the Charlotte Hornets, for a while they had pinstripes. They don’t have pinstripes now, but they know that they can go back to it, which is cool. So this is putting something out there, not pinstripes, but hey it’s a pattern, and maybe we use this pattern again in the future. It’s simple enough to wear.
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?So you’re a fan of the Torch Red, minus the “ATL” lettering?
? Yeah, you got to have red, it’s the Hawks.
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? The Georgia Granite Gray is definitely getting some good feedback in the fan base ...
? For me with Georgia Granite, I see it coming from two ways: 1) Kids want to wear black. I mean it matches your sneakers, it matches all the streetwear you would have. 2) There’s a trend in uniform designer analysis — or you know, uniform nerds — they use this term “black for black’s sake.” So every team is like, “Oh we got a black jersey now because we know you want to buy it.” As a person who is up on these trends, I’ve got a lot of black sneakers. I wear a lot of black things, and I’m excited that this is a part of my favorite team’s brand colors. So now I don’t have to buy different clothes just to match my jersey. I like that they framed it as “Georgia Granite.” I think it’s nice that they framed it that way. And it’s not black, just a shade off of black. I’m super excited about it. And also, I think they’ve said we’re the only team with this color charcoal. 
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? Yeah, I feel like there’s a theme in that. You’ve got a lot of firsts, or things other teams aren’t doing, and I think that speaks to, kind of what you said, that boldness. 
? I mean Koonin was that dude who wanted to put a Coca-Cola ad on the moon. 
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? See I think we need that kind of attitude. 
? Yeah bold isn’t even crazy for Koonin.