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Realignment of the WTA, organizationally and visually

The WTA, the association of professional tennis players (Women’s Tennis Association), has given itself a new logo against the background of an organizational realignment. As far as the naming of the tournaments is concerned, the WTA follows the model of the ATP. Visually, however, you still go your own way.

As the WTA recently announced, the tournaments it organizes for the start of the 2021 season will be named analogous to the men’s tour. Instead of naming the tournaments “Premier Mandatory”, “Premier 5”, “Premier” and “International”, as before, WTA tournaments will from now on, like the men’s competitions, in “1000”, “500”, ” 250 ”and“ 125 ”tournaments categorized. The naming is intended to accommodate fans, companies and the media. The measure is also accompanied by a visual realignment that includes a marketing campaign in addition to a new logo. “WTA FOR THE GAME” is the campaign motto.
The ATP had already revised its branding two years ago (dt reported).

WTA Logo - before and after, image source: WTA, image montage: dt

WTA Logo – before and after, image source: WTA, image montage: dt

The last redesign of the WTA logo took place 10 years ago. At that time, the logo, which depicts a player in the form of a silhouette, was replaced by a word mark. Now, to a certain extent, there is a return to the silhouette representation, but in a different form. The serve action shown in the logo is symbolic of the WTA organization and of tennis. The service is “the only stroke in tennis in which the players have absolute control and every point begins”, so the explanation. The chosen form also underlines “the fearless initiative of the founders of the WTA, with which women were paved the way to today’s tennis”. The previous “WTA” word mark was adopted and the letters were modified in terms of shape, spacing and spacing. The new logo now works without color gradients and, unlike before, can be displayed in both a positive and negative form.

The “WTA FOR THE GAME” campaign is to be played through numerous different media channels, including with the help of commercials, advertisements / banners and influencer stories.

The Landor agency (Australia) is responsible for the new brand identity as well as for the accompanying campaign.

comment

Too complex, too irregular, not too concise. The previous logo was better in terms of craftsmanship, appearance and handling. The new figurative mark is too illustrative for a logo. In my opinion, the optical approach to the ATP does not lead to an improvement in the design and the design quality.

Let’s see if we will see a new, then joint branding from WTA and ATP in a few years. Barbara Rittner, in any case, has long considered a merger to make sense.

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