Utah Jazz Logo PNG
In the Utah Jazz logo, a basketball forms the head of a musical note. The team’s name links basketball and jazz, a pairing echoed in its mascot, Jazz Bear.
The Utah Jazz story starts far from Utah. Mormons founded Salt Lake City, a strict religious community with its own customs and history. Against that backdrop, the idea of a team named “Jazz” in this environment always looked out of place.
The franchise began in 1974 in New Orleans, a city closely tied to jazz culture. The name and the original purple, yellow, and green colors came from that context. Pete Maravich became the face of the early years, spending five seasons with the New Orleans Jazz.
In 1979, the team moved to Salt Lake City. The market was smaller, yet the owner kept the name despite criticism and its weak connection to Utah. The identity remained intact, including colors and emblem, though green became dominant for road uniforms.
A shift came in 1984 with the arrival of John Stockton, after which purple took a leading role and “Utah” appeared on jerseys. In the 1990s, the team experimented with purple, turquoise, bronze, and black and introduced mountain imagery into the logo.
In 2004, the club switched to blue and white, simplifying the uniforms, a change that overlapped with Andrei Kirilenko’s tenure. The change did not last long. The team later returned to yellow and green with dark blue accents, while the main logo stayed structurally the same, with only color adjustments over time.
Meaning and History
The basketball club’s logo is based on its nickname. The name Jazz came from the franchise’s time in New Orleans, the jazz capital of the world. The logo fits: an eighth note shaped like a large “J.” After moving to Utah, nothing changed: the team kept its old name and preserved the logo’s key elements.
What is Utah Jazz?
The Utah Jazz is the basketball team from Salt Lake City that has been in the NBA since 1974. It moved to Utah in 1979, and before that, it was based in New Orleans, Louisiana. As of 2021, it has not won a single championship, but it is considered one of the strongest NBA franchises of the 1990s.
1975 – 1979
The Utah Jazz name preserved a connection to New Orleans, where the team began playing in the NBA in 1974. The musical theme drew on the city’s history as a jazz center and the idea of collective improvisation. Even before approving the name, the franchise selected colors associated with Mardi Gras. In the celebration’s symbolism, purple represented justice, green faith, and gold power.
A naming contest that spring drew over 6,500 submissions. New Orleans Jazz was announced on June 7, with 27-year-old broker Steve Brown named the winner. Three entries proposing “Jazz” had identical postmark dates, so the winner was selected by drawing lots. Brown received two season tickets and a trip to the 1975 NBA All-Star Game.
The first logo combined music and basketball imagery. The “J” took the form of an eighth note, with a basketball and white seam lines replacing its oval notehead. The slanted stem rose above the rest of the lettering and ended in a long horizontal flag. The ball at its base connected the musical name to the sport.
“JAZZ” appeared in large, angular, dark purple sans-serif letters. Narrow white gaps separated the heavy strokes. Above the right side of the word, black “NEW ORLEANS” lettering appeared on two lines to identify the team’s city.
1980 – 1996
The move to Salt Lake City in 1979 changed the geographic reference in the Jazz logo. Approval for a rebrand would take time, and the 1979–80 season was approaching. The team therefore kept its name and musical emblem. “UTAH” replaced “NEW ORLEANS” above the right half of “JAZZ,” identifying the new home state.
The purple lettering, slanted letterforms, and three-color basketball remained unchanged. The musical-note “J” continued to connect the franchise to its origins. This version was used from the 1979–80 season through the end of the 1995–96 season.
1997 – 2004
Utah’s mountains became the foundation of a new Jazz identity unveiled on June 4, 1996, for the 1996–97 season. Owner Larry Miller wanted to shift the team’s image away from New Orleans and toward its current home state. NBA design director Tom O’Grady led the development, and Sean Michael Edwards Design also received credit. The starting point was the identity for the 1993 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. The franchise liked the mountain imagery and carried it into its logos, uniforms, and court design.
The Wasatch Range imagery was paired with colors inspired by O’Grady’s impressions of Utah. Light blue recalled sunlit snowy slopes. Copper was added after he flew over the Bingham Canyon Mine on his way home from the All-Star Game. He envisioned the “JAZZ” lettering sliding along a mountainside, reflected in its rising diagonal and elongated stroke endings.
The logo centered on a circle with a copper rim and a black outer border. Snow-covered peaks occupied the upper portion, with “UTAH” following an arc above them. A purple basketball filled the lower portion. The large word “JAZZ” crossed the circle and extended beyond its edges. A jagged line separated the light blue and purple sections of the letters, while multiple outlines added depth. The “J” replaced its earlier eighth-note shape with a saxophone-like form.
The update was controversial. John Stockton favored keeping the previous identity. The purple mountains later became associated with Utah’s appearances in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals.
2005 – 2010
For the 2004–05 season, the Jazz updated the mountain logo’s colors while retaining its structure. Navy, light blue, and silver replaced copper and teal. Purple remained in the mountains and basketball.
A navy rim replaced the copper ring around the emblem. “JAZZ” became light blue with thin white and dark outlines, while “UTAH” above the peaks appeared in a light color. Introduced in 2004, this version remained with the team through the end of the 2009–10 season.
2010 – 2015
Fan requests prompted the Jazz to return its musical logo, unveiled in an updated form on June 15, 2010. Team president Randy Rigby attributed the revival of the wordmark with its musical-note “J” to fan demand. The musical version became a secondary logo, while the mountain logo remained the primary mark.
Both versions shared navy, dark green, and golden yellow. Green and gold restored a connection to the earlier Mardi Gras colors. In the mountain emblem, green appeared on the peaks and basketball. “JAZZ” became white with a gold outline, while the outer circle remained navy.
In the musical wordmark, navy replaced purple. The “J” retained its note shape, with a basketball divided into colored sections at its base. The mountain and musical logos were used together until the 2016 update.
2015 – 2022
The musical wordmark returned as the Utah Jazz’s primary logo for the 2016–17 season. Developed by the in-house creative department at Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment, the project covered logos, uniforms, and the home court. The official unveiling took place on May 12, 2016. UniWatch posted the primary and secondary logos on its Twitter account a day earlier.
The design drew on the version used from 1979 to 1996. “UTAH” received a new typeface, while the colors came from the 2010 alternate logo. The state name appeared above the two “Z” letters. “JAZZ” and the upper portion of the musical-note “J” were navy, while the basketball at its base was divided into blue, green, and gold sections. The mountain emblem was retired from the active logo set.
A secondary circular logo combined the three-color basketball with the words “UTAH JAZZ BASKETBALL.” The musical-note “J,” the basketball, and a “JAZZ”-only wordmark were also used separately. The primary emblem’s slant established a 66-degree angle for cuts in the lettering, numbers, and stripe endings on the uniforms. “UTAH” also appeared independently of the musical logo, and the phrase “We Are Utah Jazz” became part of the uniform design.
2022 – 2025
An effort to unify the Utah Jazz’s many color schemes led to an update announced on June 17, 2022. Owner Ryan Smith described the change as an attempt to simplify the franchise’s identity. In the new design, a standalone black musical-note “J” with a basketball at its base became the logo’s foundation. Beneath it, “UTAH JAZZ” appeared in narrow uppercase Plaak Jazz lettering with vertical strokes.
Solid black with white seams replaced the ball’s colored sections. The new identity used black, white, and bright yellow. Black and white referred to piano keys, connecting the design to the team’s musical name. Alongside the update, the franchise brought back purple uniforms with mountain imagery.
For the 2022–23 season, Studio Dumbar/DEPT® and the Utah Jazz creative team developed a motion identity. The note’s 25-degree slant provided the angle for text blocks. The collaboration continued for the 2023–24 anniversary season. The designers explored 50 seasons of uniforms, typography, and logos, developing connections among jazz, basketball, and the team’s Utah surroundings. Art director Tyler Andrews represented the franchise, while Liza Enebeis provided creative direction for the studio.
The Jazz introduced the next program, Mountain Basketball, on June 5, 2024. Developed with Doubleday & Cartwright, it restored mountain imagery and purple to prominent roles. The colors were named Mountain Purple, Midnight Black, and Sky Blue. Blue referred to the state’s skies and lakes. Uniforms placed greater emphasis on “UTAH” and mountain silhouettes. At the same time, the musical-note “J” remained one of the franchise’s main symbols.
The transition took two seasons. The new identity appeared alongside the previous design in 2024–25, with the changeover completed for 2025–26.
2025 – today
For the 2025–26 season, the full “UTAH JAZZ” musical wordmark returned as the team’s primary logo. It appeared entirely in purple, retaining the note-shaped “J” with a basketball at its base. “UTAH” remained above the right side of the name. Plaak Jazz provided the typographic foundation.
The lettering and basketball were further refined. Thin lines behind the wordmark were removed, the slant of the “A” was adjusted, and the ball’s seams were redrawn. The standalone musical-note “J” remained in use alongside the full logo.
Studio Dumbar/DEPT® continued developing Mountain Basketball for the 2025–26 season. The mountain theme drew on the Wasatch peaks visible from Salt Lake City, while purple, black, and light blue connected the design to the team’s updated colors.
Font and Colors
The word “Jazz” in the logo and the team’s name conveys the idea of “collective improvisation.” This definition came from the dictionary used by those who chose the nickname New Orleans Jazz. Therefore, the emblem developers decided not to abandon the musical theme and linked it to sports, combining basketball and the letter “J” into a single drawing, first as a note and then as a saxophone.
The club’s emblems use two unique fonts. The first (and the last) is a proprietary font with a note instead of “J” and asymmetrical letters with an additional straight line on the right side. The second version (used from 1997 to 2015) looks completely different. It’s a stylized font with serifs at the edges and triangular protrusions in the center. In this form, the letter “J” clearly resembles a wind musical instrument.
The classic Utah Jazz palette corresponds to traditional Mardi Gras colors. It combines green, gold, and navy blue, whereas the original used purple.