The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has used three distinct league logos since its founding in 1996. Each mark has centered on a female player silhouette, evolving from a red, white and blue emblem modeled on the NBA’s format to the current free-standing orange figure introduced in 2019.
Design and History
The WNBA’s original logo was unveiled in October 1996, when the league announced its eight charter franchises. Contemporary press described it as “similar to the NBA silhouette of Jerry West except that the female version is portrayed with a righthand dribble and with the faintest suggestion of an anatomical difference.”[1] The logo was not developed with a specific female player in mind.[2] Tom O’Grady, creative director at the NBA during the WNBA launch, recalled that NBA Commissioner David Stern was intensely focused on the logo and eventually settled on a mark featuring a female player dribbling a basketball, in red, white and blue, not unlike the NBA’s own emblem.[3]
That first logo remained the league’s brand mark through 2012. In 2013, the WNBA introduced a new visual identity designed by OCD, The Original Champions of Design, the New York agency founded by Bobby Martin and Jennifer Kinon.[4][5] The refreshed identity featured a more modern “Logowoman,” a player silhouette the league said better embodied “the athleticism and diversity of today’s WNBA players while leveraging the distinctive orange-and-oatmeal color scheme of the league’s iconic game ball.”[6] The 2013 mark depicted a player with a ponytail going for a layup, and the colors shifted from red, white and blue to orange and white.[7]
In April 2019, the league unveiled its current logo as part of a broader brand “refresh.” The WNBA partnered with Sylvain Labs, an innovation and brand design consultancy, working with the firm for six months to develop what the new brand would stand for, with player input shaping the final mark.[8] The new logo removed the boxed frame that had contained the silhouette in both the NBA-style logo and the 2013 version. WNBA chief operating officer Christy Hedgpeth explained the significance: “The box is going away. It’s powerful, it’s freeing and it’s expansive.”[8] The new logo was not modeled after any single player, and the silhouette’s hair was changed from a ponytail to a bun, which Hedgpeth said represents the way many players wear their hair.[8] The logo debuted in April 2019 but did not appear on uniforms or game balls until the following season due to production lead times.[8]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2019 logo’s primary symbolic shift was the removal of the enclosing box. Hedgpeth described the change as freeing the silhouette: “She was free, there was more movement there, taking up more space. She’s more athletic, longer physique. This is basketball on our terms.”[8] The new mark features a player executing a swooping, finger-roll layup, which Hedgpeth said better represents the skill and athleticism of WNBA players.[9]
The current logo uses three primary colors: black, white and an orange the league calls “fire.”[7] The orange-and-oatmeal color scheme of the 2013 identity was itself drawn from the league’s distinctive game ball, which was selected in part because it showed the rotation of a shot on broadcast.[3]
Typography and Design
For the 2019 rebrand, Sylvain Labs commissioned type designer Hélène Marian to create a bespoke type system for the league.[10] Marian designed the logotype and a family of thirteen typefaces, ranging from WNBA Varsity for jerseys to WNBA Extended Black for high-visibility display type.[11] The type system was produced with Production Type, a digital type design agency based in Paris and Shanghai.[10]
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