WNBA Logo

WNBA Logo PNG

The WNBA logo has expression and movement, which indicates an active sport. The female energy emanating from the emblem adds a sense of grace that reshapes the male competition and creates a standalone fun game.

Meaning and History

The history of the WNBA is a journey of tough competition. Its formation was officially announced in April 1996 and approved by the Board of Governors of the National Basketball Association. But in parallel, another women’s professional organization appeared – the American Basketball League. It began operations in the fall of the same year but ceased in the 1998-1999 season. The fact is that, unlike the WNBA, she did not have full support from the NBA.

The meeting, which discussed the formation of a new league, was attended by three of the country’s leading basketball players: Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, and Sheryl Swoopes. Their presence meant that they were automatically assigned to one of the trains. When the association debuted, it had eight teams: the Cleveland Rockers, the Charlotte Sting, New York Liberty Houston Comets representing the Eastern Conference, and the Utah Starzz, Sacramento Monarchs, Phoenix Mercury, Los Angeles Sparks from the Western Conference. It is safe to say that they laid the foundation for the great world-class women’s basketball.

As soon as the WNBA emerged, it had its symbolism. In the early years, it echoed the design of the NBA men’s identity and was chosen from fifty options. Then the logo received individual features. In total, there are three emblems in the arsenal of the women’s basketball league.

1997 – 2012

The debut logo has an unusual shape. It looks like a diagonally slanted shield. Moreover, both are symbolic: the shield denotes the continuation of traditions and the connection with the roots, the slope conveys movement and dynamics. Unlike the male version of the logo, this sign contains a female silhouette. The basketball player is depicted as feminine, with smooth transitions between levels and rounded lines. The athlete runs and dribbles. Her hair can be seen fluttering from high speed. The text designation is also slightly slanted. The abbreviation of the organization is in capital letters. The color scheme has something in common with the state flag of the United States: it also contains blue, red, and white.

2013 – 2019

After the redesign, the WNBA personal badge began to differ from that of the NBA. On it, as before, an athlete is drawn in motion. But she no longer dribbles the ball but throws it into the basket. This made the logo simple, clear, and concise. The changes also affected the color scheme. In this version, instead of blue and red, brick-orange is used, like on basketballs. White retained: it still has the silhouette of a female player. The designers moved the league’s name from top to bottom, placing it in the right corner. The inscription is made in lowercase letters with streamlined lines. Sharp corners are absent in them.

2019 – today

The current emblem consists of a silhouette in reverse. Now it is not the space around the white figure that is painted, but the orange basketball player is drawn on a completely white background. At the same time, the developers slightly turned the athlete, placing the body not sideways but straight. The woman is depicted in a jump with an outstretched arm, in which there is a ball. The artists have rearranged the silhouette to make it more solid. They also changed the design of the letters, which is why they became clear, large, even.

Font and Colors

Basketball player Sue Bird is believed to be the prototype for the WNBA logo figure. The first mark of the women’s sports association echoed the emblem of the men’s league, emphasizing their relationship.

Several types of typefaces are used in different logos. These include Cyclone, a built-in, compact, chopped font designed by Hoefler & Co, and Standard CT Bold Extended.

The branded palette is also unstable. In the beginning, it consisted of a combination of red, blue, and white. Now the predominant color is orange, the color of a basketball.

WNBA color codes