Some new Thunder logo ideas

If you haven’t heard, the Thunder logo isn’t great. And maybe it could be in for a makeover sometime in the next few years.

So naturally, with that in mind, the enterprising graphic designers and photoshoppers of the world have taken a spin at a new look for the Thunder. Via r/nba, here’s a sampling of what creative people have come up with (there’s more over there to look through). The big takeaway: It’s really hard to come up with a good idea for a sound.

I don’t know why the “K” is backwards in the bison one (is that a bison?), but I dig the whole concept there.

Going with the Thunderbird theme, there’s some good stuff here, especially the middle logo combining the state flag in with basketball and thunder (sort of). Looks like an ABA logo, which is always a plus.

Solid concept for sure, but looks more like a casino logo than a basketball one. But then again, it’s still probably better than the original.

The Thunder say they don’t like the idea of grown men representing an animal theme, so going with the bison look probably isn’t happening, but still, it’s a solid tie-in. I like the idea of the team name stemming from bison rumbling down the Oklahoma plains rather than it just being a noise that follows lightning. Though I’ve seen a lot of bison logos, and they all look too cartoonish for me. Hard to get that right.

This one looks like it was made in paint — much like the Thunder’s D-League logo — but still, I actually like the idea quite a bit. I think Oklahoma’s flag is pretty cool, so connecting that to the logo is a neat idea.

My favorite right here. Just the logo concept, though. The jerseys are terrible and the colors are no good. Stick with the original color scheme and use that logo concept, or something close to it and you’ve got a very bold new brand. Which means it would never, ever, ever happen.

A popular style of redraft. I don’t like he storm clouds thing so much, though. I mean, it’s a cloud.

I kind of like the smiling demon bison.

Now this is probably the direction the organization would go with a “refresh” of the original logo. And it’s pretty good, I say. I’m actually not a fan of a complete overhaul because even with the original logo being horrible, it’s had almost eight years on us, and we’re used to it. It’s the identifier we associate the team with. So something like this to hover around the initial theme and connect the two is pretty good.

Yeah, this one. Definitely this one.