10 Better Brooklyn Nets Logos I Drew Myself

The Brooklyn Nets (I suppose it's time to start calling them that now that the New Jersey Nets season has ended) unveiled their new logo last week, and what they showed us garnered mixed reviews.

Many people murmured about how simplistic it was and how bland it seems, but at the end of the day it's not a terrible logo.

They're not trying to be too flashy, but it's got a subtle coolness about it kind of like Jay-Z does these days. That's what I think about when I see this logo, Jay-Z, so I suppose they've done something positive there.

It doesn't deviate too much from the previous logo and it is blunt and out there, and at the end of the day I actually like it.

However, I'm a competitor, it's something that runs through the veins of most people in the world and I thought, "You know what, I think I can do a better job."

I was wrong.

Anyway, I set out creating some prototypes for new, better, Brooklyn Nets logos in my medium of choice—Microsoft Paint.

Enjoy.

The Initial Attempt

This right here was my first thought when I sat down to make a new Brooklyn Nets logo.

There's a net, we can see that they're in Brooklyn now and it's got a cool element about it with the seemingly spray-painted "BRK" across the front. It shows off the street art that can be seen around Brooklyn and gives it a bit of a cool look.

Plus, the red rim and the blue letters keep the old color scheme of the Nets, something I try to do throughout.

However, I thought this one was too hokey and obvious, so moved on.

Simplifying Things

I wanted to simplify from my initial attempt, and this is what it came down to. 

There's something to be said about a simple, no frills logo that gets the point across and still looks good.

I like the look of this because it keeps the graffiti look that I had on the first attempt and it throws back to the old blue that the Nets used to rock.

In the end though, I thought I went too simple with this one, so I moved on.

My Dadaist Take

Consider this my Marcel Duchamp L.H.O.O.Q. take on the Brooklyn Nets logo. It's my one foray into Dadaism.

I still wanted to keep the graffiti image going on with the logo, and this one seems like a big middle finger to New Jersey at the same time, which is never a bad thing.

Basically all I did was rip the old Nets logo and throw my "BRK" graffiti look over top of it, making it seem like some guy in Brooklyn just went and tagged the logo and made it something of his own.

Going Old School

Here's the deal with this one, it looks terrible but the concept is pretty cool

The first logo the Nets ever had back in their ABA days as the New York Nets was basically this, but with a "NY" in the background instead of a "BRK." There was also a guy dribbling a ball off to the right of it, but you're crazy if you think I'm drawing an entire man in MS Paint.

I'd like to bring back that old color combination for the move to Brooklyn, and I want to keep the team's history along with a new twist to it, so that's what I was going for here.

Subtle Tweaks

After I changed the old Nets logo to have a "BRK" instead of a New York in the background, I started to think about what I could tweak about the current logo to make it better.

My best thought here was to put some color into the logo. The logo is cool when it's all black, but it's still bland and kind of forgettable.

So, I brought back the old Nets colors and inserted them into the new Nets logo with blue lettering and a red boarder, and I think it creates a pretty cool dynamic about it.

A Classic Style

It was time to branch out a bit and really create something of my own, so what I did next was create a logo that ended up looking like a logo from the 1950s.

Here I stick with the old Nets color scheme while keeping some black from the new scheme and created a basketball.

Then I put in the "BRK" and "Nets" on the top and bottom of the ball, creating a new, albeit lame logo.

The Night Sky

From there things started to get a little crazy as I put together a bit of a night sky look with some kooky looking buildings silhouetted in black.

I wanted to throw in different sized windows and make a few crooked here and there so I could give off a bit of a unique look.

I think the flat black color looks better here than putting in the red and blue, but I still couldn't settle on whether this one was decent or not. In the end that uncertainty is probably a negative thing.

A Creepy Character

From there I figured I'd get a little weird, as if I hadn't gotten to that point yet.

I brought back the red and blue because I'm still keen on putting in a bit of throwback style into this logo, but I also kept some of the black.

This guy would go on to be as iconic as the Celtics leprechaun or the Toronto Raptor...right?

A Slick Look

One of my favorite logos of all time is the old San Francisco Warriors logo with the blue popping against the yellow, the bridge as the main attraction and "THE CITY" across the top of the circle, so I used that as inspiration here.

What came out was my favorite logo that didn't come immediately from an old logo (even though it was kind of inspired by one).

The black and white color scheme works wonderfully with this one and the arching black "BROOKLYN" across the top really pops against the white "NETS" in the middle.

Give this to a real artist and this could be one of the coolest logos in the league, but that's just one man's opinion.

My Favorite

It's kind of funny that my favorite logo also happens to be the one that I had the toughest time drawing that still ended up looking like complete garbage.

In case it wasn't easily identifiable from first glance, this is my attempt to say the simplest and most effecting thing the Nets could have done would be to reach deep into Brooklyn's past. This is the classic Brooklyn Dodgers "B" which is one of the most iconic logos in baseball history.

Making a bit of a crossover here and grabbing the Dodgers old logo would endear this team to the old fogies in the city, plus it looks pretty cool.

What Did We Learn?

The Brooklyn Nets logo isn't anything special, but at the end of the day I think we learned one thing here—I can't do any better.

Sure, some of what I made was pretty interesting and had some cool concepts, but they didn't top the new Nets logo.

I think I'll stick to clicking away on a keyboard and leave the art to the artists from now on.

If you are one of those twitterers, you can follow me @JDorsey33.