The Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is a professional field lacrosse league founded by brothers Paul and Mike Rabil, which began its inaugural season in June 2019. The league’s visual identity was created by We Are Bill, a Brooklyn, New York-based design studio that also named and designed the identities of the league’s six original teams. Team uniforms were designed by Adidas.[1]
Design and History
The PLL’s league mark was introduced ahead of the 2019 season. According to We Are Bill, the crest was inspired by the shape of a lacrosse goal in perspective, intended as a strong mark conveying the authority the league would carry. Within the crest sits a lacrosse head with motion marks, a nod to lacrosse being described as the fastest sport on two feet.[1]
The league’s trademark registration describes the mark as consisting of a rectangular gold and green border with a white lacrosse stick head and a white ball outlined in gold.[2]
In February 2019, the PLL unveiled the names and logos of its six inaugural teams: Archers, Atlas, Chaos, Chrome, Redwoods and Whipsnakes. Each team identity was developed through a creative process that league founder Paul Rabil described as “imaginative.” Given the league’s tour-based model, the team names were intentionally not tied to specific cities, inspired instead by concepts from topography to mythology.[3][4]
In November 2023, the league’s clubs added location names to their identities and unveiled new logos. Most club nicknames remained the same, with logos reworked to add details or colors specific to their new markets.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
We Are Bill described the league crest as inspired by the shape of a lacrosse goal in perspective, conveying authority. The lacrosse head with motion marks inside the crest pays homage to lacrosse’s reputation as the fastest sport on two feet.[1]
For the team identities, each club was conceived as its own character with a unique persona. The Archers drew from the precision and intensity of a classical archer archetype, while Atlas was reimagined as a bull, with horns wrapping around the mark as if holding a globe. Chaos personified intensity and raw emotion in the body of a scorpion, and the Whipsnakes logo features a snake curled in the shape of a lacrosse head.[1]
Typography and Design
We Are Bill developed a custom typeface for the letterforms in the league crest, described as powerful, fast and fierce.[1] For the team identities, custom typography was also used, such as the Archers’ Copperplate wordmark with an arrow stretching from the center of the “C” to the “E,” and the Atlas type custom-designed to integrate with the bull icon.[1]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
