Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv celebrate 50 years of the US Open with updated logo

Watched by over 23 million people in the US alone, the US Open is the world’s most attended annual sporting event. The tournament began as the US National Championship in 1881 and in 1968, the tournament was first opened to professionals, bringing together several disparate competitions into the single event we now know as the US Open. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Open Era and to celebrate this fact, the United States Tennis Association tasked Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv with reinventing its visual identity.

The previous mark – an illustration of a flaming ball paired with thin serif type and a red swoosh – was “a complicated image that had challenges in digital media and did not represent the tournament well as a premium sporting and entertainment brand” the design studio remarks. On top of this, several versions of the mark existed, which made it difficult to build recognition.

Despite this, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv felt that the core image of the flaming tennis ball still encapsulated many of the attributes associated with the competition: energy, excitement and movement. Developing and evolving this flaming tennis ball, the new logo distills this image to its essence. The symbol is paired with an italic, lowercase sans-serif type, creating a more contemporary and youthful feel. The name is also held together by a flipped “u” and “n” at either end.

“The US Open has a great tradition, so the evolved symbol respects the legacy while moving us confidently into the future. This innovative rendition of a tennis ball perfectly captures the dynamism of our event,” remarks Nicole Kankam, managing director of marketing at USTA.