The The Women’s Tennis Association unveiled a new logo today with the help of Francesca Schiavone, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva and Sam Stosur at the year-end WTA Championships – Doha 2010.
The new mark is designed to serve as a distinctive and modern reminder of the captivating athleticism and excitement that has driven the international popularity and growth of women’s professional tennis and placed it firmly at the nexus of sport and entertainment.
“For close to four decades the WTA brand has stood for premium athleticism and entertainment on a global stage,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the WTA. “The WTA identity unveiled today is intended to be a modernized presentation of our logo that is both functional and effective for our partners and members across all forms of media.”
To create its new logo, the WTA enlisted Chermayeff & Geismar, a leading global brand design firm behind many of the world’s most recognizable trademarks including Chase, Mobil, NBC, PBS, Armani Exchange, National Geographic, and Barney’s New York, among others.
“By diverging from the expected approach of featuring an image of an athlete, we created a mark that is unusual in professional sports, and its appropriately bold identity will over time come to recall the incredible athletes that represent women’s tennis,” said Chermayeff & Geismar Partner and designer Tom Geismar.
The design of the new brand image departs from conventional sport logos by not featuring a figure of a female tennis player, but rather putting the emphasis on the letters W, T, and A. The symbol also incorporates subtle references to the sport: the oval shape of the mark is a reference to both the imprint a tennis ball leaves on the court and to the shape of a racquet, while the yellow circle as the crossbar of the “A” recalls a tennis ball. The new core brand identity will be fully integrated throughout the WTA and women’s tennis, including in television graphics, print materials, tournament branding, advertising, promotion, and digital and social media in all its forms throughout the 2011 season.
