Hey sports fans, good news: the Brooklyn Nets have introduced their new monochrome color scheme and logos, as the team prepares for its relocation to the Barclays Center for the next NBA season.
Okay, perhaps not the most exciting information you’ve ever received, but I thought I’d mention it for one specific reason – the new branding had been ‘designed’ by hip-hop megastar Jay Z.
Shawn Carter (for that is Jay Z’s actual name) is, by any measure, successful. Worth around $450m, he’s managed to push around 50 million CDs and downloads across the globe and has bagged himself fourteen Grammy awards. On Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, he has two entries and he heads an enormously popular clothing line, Rocawear. He’s married to the fragrant Beyonce and, oh yes, he part owns the Brooklyn Nets.
Naturally, when you own a basketball team, certain perks come your way – you may have a say in their game strategy, or perhaps get to sign off on the recruitment of new players. And clearly, you’re perfectly entitled to have a go at designing the team’s logos. When you pay the piper … well, you know the rest.
But the right to do something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea. New York has grand tradition of excellent design. Russell, Worksight and FusionLab are just three of the many excellent branding agencies working in the city and I’m sure their fees are well within the reach of a gentleman worth half a billion dollars. Unfortunately, Jay Z didn’t take the professional route. No, instead he opted to do the job himself.
And the outcome? See for yourself:
All design is subjective and you may well think these logos are quite superb. But to me, they are staggeringly predictable, trite and a more than a little dull. This is to be expected. After all, they are supposedly the work of a man who excels at creating best-selling rap records but who is also, quite literally, an amateur graphic designer.
I can’t help wondering how this actually works. Having announced to his co-owners that he is going take care of the Nets’ branding design brief, does Jay Z spend long nights slaving over his Mac, flipping files backwards and forwards between Illustrator and Photoshop before arriving at an ideal execution (while Beyonce nags him to put the cat out and come to bed)? Or does he scribble a few ideas in a layout pad then chuck it to some uncredited designer in his office for a polish up? There’s a suggestion that Mr.Z had even less input than this. In fact, there’s considerable evidence the logos are actually the work of Timothy P Morris, whose website certainly claims significant input.
This just compounds the problem. If true, we are looking at a situation whereby a celebrity can ask his retained agency to produce a piece of design, which he can then announce as his own. It also opens up the possibility that Morris’ firm proudly unveiled work which is, at best, a bit boring. In truth, we’ll probably never have a real understanding of the creative process involved.
Respected review site ‘Brand New’ agrees, but it has had some fun unpicking the stylistic failings of the work. It’s pretty technical stuff for a copywriterf, but I’m sure designers will appreciate their forensic work and you can read it all here. For the rest of us, this is their summary: “The logo family is technically worthless and embarrassing.”
After all these shenanigans, what are we left with? A spectacular missed opportunity. The ego of a pop star, a lack of imagination and general ineptitude have all conspired to withhold a pretty exciting brief from genuinely able, professional design teams. And predictably enough, the result is perfunctory and flat.
There was a time when excelling in a particular field was sufficient. Humphrey Bogart never branched out into marathon running, Evelyn Waugh was never tempted to try his hand at particle physics. But the celebrity class of 2012 don’t see life in the same way. You can sing well? Hey! You can be a great movie actor too. You can sell boatloads of rap music? Bingo! You can also be an exceptional graphic designer. It’s the same mentality that leads Jordan to write books and Liam Gallagher to open boutiques.
If one has enough money, one is entitled to indulge in as many vanity projects as one chooses. But if you want a proper job doing, always hire a professional.
Okay, perhaps not the most exciting information you’ve ever received, but I thought I’d mention it for one specific reason – the new branding had been ‘designed’ by hip-hop megastar Jay Z.
Shawn Carter (for that is Jay Z’s actual name) is, by any measure, successful. Worth around $450m, he’s managed to push around 50 million CDs and downloads across the globe and has bagged himself fourteen Grammy awards. On Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, he has two entries and he heads an enormously popular clothing line, Rocawear. He’s married to the fragrant Beyonce and, oh yes, he part owns the Brooklyn Nets.
Naturally, when you own a basketball team, certain perks come your way – you may have a say in their game strategy, or perhaps get to sign off on the recruitment of new players. And clearly, you’re perfectly entitled to have a go at designing the team’s logos. When you pay the piper … well, you know the rest.
But the right to do something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea. New York has grand tradition of excellent design. Russell, Worksight and FusionLab are just three of the many excellent branding agencies working in the city and I’m sure their fees are well within the reach of a gentleman worth half a billion dollars. Unfortunately, Jay Z didn’t take the professional route. No, instead he opted to do the job himself.
And the outcome? See for yourself:
All design is subjective and you may well think these logos are quite superb. But to me, they are staggeringly predictable, trite and a more than a little dull. This is to be expected. After all, they are supposedly the work of a man who excels at creating best-selling rap records but who is also, quite literally, an amateur graphic designer.
I can’t help wondering how this actually works. Having announced to his co-owners that he is going take care of the Nets’ branding design brief, does Jay Z spend long nights slaving over his Mac, flipping files backwards and forwards between Illustrator and Photoshop before arriving at an ideal execution (while Beyonce nags him to put the cat out and come to bed)? Or does he scribble a few ideas in a layout pad then chuck it to some uncredited designer in his office for a polish up? There’s a suggestion that Mr.Z had even less input than this. In fact, there’s considerable evidence the logos are actually the work of Timothy P Morris, whose website certainly claims significant input.
This just compounds the problem. If true, we are looking at a situation whereby a celebrity can ask his retained agency to produce a piece of design, which he can then announce as his own. It also opens up the possibility that Morris’ firm proudly unveiled work which is, at best, a bit boring. In truth, we’ll probably never have a real understanding of the creative process involved.
Respected review site ‘Brand New’ agrees, but it has had some fun unpicking the stylistic failings of the work. It’s pretty technical stuff for a copywriterf, but I’m sure designers will appreciate their forensic work and you can read it all here. For the rest of us, this is their summary: “The logo family is technically worthless and embarrassing.”
After all these shenanigans, what are we left with? A spectacular missed opportunity. The ego of a pop star, a lack of imagination and general ineptitude have all conspired to withhold a pretty exciting brief from genuinely able, professional design teams. And predictably enough, the result is perfunctory and flat.
There was a time when excelling in a particular field was sufficient. Humphrey Bogart never branched out into marathon running, Evelyn Waugh was never tempted to try his hand at particle physics. But the celebrity class of 2012 don’t see life in the same way. You can sing well? Hey! You can be a great movie actor too. You can sell boatloads of rap music? Bingo! You can also be an exceptional graphic designer. It’s the same mentality that leads Jordan to write books and Liam Gallagher to open boutiques.
If one has enough money, one is entitled to indulge in as many vanity projects as one chooses. But if you want a proper job doing, always hire a professional.
