As one of the WNBA’s eight original franchises, the Phoenix Mercury have witnessed a surplus of change in nearly three decades since the league’s founding. Teams have cropped up, then folded. Others have relocated. Phoenix, meanwhile, is one of only three franchises — the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks being the other two — that have remained in the same city.
With the league’s 30th season approaching next spring, however, the Mercury are unveiling a significant change of their own. On Monday, Phoenix revealed a complete rebrand, sharing an updated logo and wordmark. The franchise is expected to release new uniforms on Tuesday and will have new courts for next season as well.
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“We weren’t looking for a total reinvention. We just wanted an evolution. We wanted a modernization,” team president Vince Kozar said. “To me, (it still) looks and feels like us, right down to the ‘M’ that’s at the center of it. And that’s something that we didn’t take lightly because it’s an original franchise, it’s a really proud history, and it’s a pretty rabid fan base.”
Kozar said the franchise began thinking about a rebrand before the COVID-19 pandemic. The rebrand was put on pause as the franchise — and league — weathered a tumultuous period. In the aftermath of the departure of franchise stalwarts Diana Taurasi (retirement) and Brittney Griner (free agency), new ownership establishing itself within the market and the 30th year of the league, Kozar said the timing made sense. The process took around 2 1/2 years.
“We’re coming to an inflection point in our team’s history,” Kozar said.
Kozar pushed those in the organization to “look at everything” as they considered what the next iteration of their brand could be. The Mercury worked on their design process using internal staff, a rarity across major professional sports re-designs.
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“It didn’t make any sense to hand something this personal and long-lasting over to someone that doesn’t eat, sleep and breathe the Mercury every day,” he said.
There were few creative limitations — except one: “No spaceships was my big thing,” Kozar said.
“We don’t want to feel like NASA. There’s a temptation, because it’s a planet, for it to get very space and very cartoony and very Marvin the Martian.”
Phoenix ended up with an “M” positioned at a 19.97-degree angle in the primary logo, a nod to the inaugural season, with the right corner of the letter serving as a nod to the original logo’s geometric rings.
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The Mercury also unveiled a global logo, with four rings positioned behind it, a reference to the planetary rings on the original design. The “M” divides the four rings into eight lines, paying homage to the Mercury being one of the eight original franchises. Phoenix also debuted a second logo, featuring the outline of the state of Arizona, and workmarks which acknowledge the team’s “Merc” nickname.
The Mercury wanted to stress visuals synonymous with the franchise. For instance, their colors are widely thought of to be purple and orange, yet purple was barely in their prior wordmark. Purple has a more prominent place in the redesign as it serves as the shadow next to the orange crescent shape at the logo’s center, which the team said echoes the shadowed side of planet Mercury.
“It comes at a time where we’ve begun a new era. It’s an opportunity to point ourselves forward and continue moving forward,” Kozar said. “What we wound up with is what felt truest to who we are and what our fans know and love about us. We wanted it to feel recognizable at a time when so many people, now more than ever, recognize our logo or recognize our team or players or brand.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Phoenix Mercury, WNBA
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