Arthur Ashe Stadium is the main show court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City, and the centerpiece venue of the US Open Tennis Championships. In 2018, as part of a major 50th anniversary initiative that included extensive facility improvements, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) commissioned a new visual identity for the stadium from the New York-based brand design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.[1]
Design and History
The identity was unveiled in August 2018, with members of the Ashe family and former New York City mayor David Dinkins present at the reveal.[2] USTA President Katrina Adams said at the time that the world’s largest tennis stadium “deserved a new logo.”[2]
The centerpiece of the new identity is an elegant wordmark that evokes the silhouette of the stadium’s architecture and its retractable roof, which was installed in 2016.[1][3] The design draws a visual connection between the typography and the roof’s curved form, with the mark intended to function as a quiet, powerful sign for the stadium.[3]
According to Nicole Kankam, USTA’s Managing Director of Marketing, the goal of the new identity was to “honor and amplify the incredible legacy” of Arthur Ashe, the first African American man to win the men’s singles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open and the first to be ranked number one in the world.[1] The new stadium branding was designed to increase public recognition of Ashe’s name and legacy.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The wordmark’s form is directly tied to the stadium’s physical structure. The curved line above the typography references the building’s retractable roof, and the small gap between the central line and the side lines suggests the physical separation between the roof’s stationary and retractable sections.[3] This architectural reference grounds the identity in the venue itself rather than in abstract branding concepts.
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