The New York Jets NFL team has brought back a jet aircraft to its logo as part of its latest rebrand, which is a nod to its 1980s Sack Exchange era.
Designed to combine “coolness and nostalgia, the rebrand reintroduces a jet – the American football team’s namesake – to the logo for the first time since 1997.
The design is a modernised update of a logo originally designed by Jim Pons, the team’s former video director and former bass guitarist for Frank Zappa’s band, The Mothers of Invention. The original logo was used during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s and is connected to the team’s fondly-remembered New York Sack Exchange era.
“We’ve modernised it, I think it’s an improvement,” said New York Jets vice president of fan commerce Chris Pierce.
“It is a piece of iconic architecture in our history and certainly a moment in time for New York,” he told Dezeen.
“It feels like we are taking an asset from this great movie on this amazing stage – there was buzz about the ’70s and ’80s in New York City – and bringing it back to life.”
While the logo is a clear nod to the club’s history, the design team aimed to ensure that the team’s rebrand also looks to the future.
“There’s an element of coolness and an element of nostalgia,” said Pierce. “As much as this feels like a look backward and honouring the history and legacy, there’s something so optimistic and forward thinking and part of that is the design of the logo.”
“It’s italicised, the plane is moving. So you get this notion of a forward-thinking logo as much as it’s something from our history,” he continued.
The team neatened up the original design, which was hand-drawn by Pons in the late 1970s and used as the team’s primary logo from 1978 until 1997, to make it “stronger and slightly bolder”.
The spacing between the letters has been adjusted to be more consistent, while the tail of the J is taller and thicker and the jet itself is more pointed.
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