The Nets were moving into New York City - the home of their rival New York Knicks - and the borough of Brooklyn, a community that resisted change, was cautious of the team’s arrival. These challenges made it difficult to be welcomed as an old face moving back to the neighborhood.

Two significant strategic objectives were in play:

1. Translate cultural significance and modern-day momentum into simple design that would become a badge for all who share a connection with Brooklyn.

2. Differentiate the Nets from their crosstown rivals with an ownable creative look and feel.

Create a visual identity to launch a new professional sports team, the Brooklyn Nets, in the most powerful sports market in the world, New York City. In doing so, set the tone for how Brookyln’s new home team would connect with its fans.

The Brooklyn Nets logo would be the badge of honor worn by the team’s future fans. Launching the logo required a thoughtful design synonymous with Brooklyn’s undeniable authenticity.

To engrain the city’s heritage into the look and feel of the Brooklyn Nets, we applied a rollsign treatment, which uses typography and design cues of early 1900’s New York City subway signage.

The stark black and white color palette embodied the essence of the borough and is a differentiating quality of the Brooklyn Nets, as the first team in NBA history to solely use the color way.

We seeded anticipation, displaying empty shields with the Hello Brooklyn message in OOH media. When the logo was revealed in the same media placements Brooklynites rushed to get their piece of new Brooklyn swag, as evidenced by retail results from the 6 months following the campaign launch:

-Brooklyn Nets merchandise was the top-seller of all NBA teams.

-Modell's, the Nets' official sporting goods retailer, sold more Nets merchandise during the first day of the launch than all of the prior New Jersey Nets season.

-Merchandise sales through Brooklynnets.com were more than double the team’s total sales for the 2010-11 season.