Sky Creative and Nomad Studio have teamed up for the rebrand of Sky Sports for the first time in 26 years. Originally just 4 channels, Sky Sports has been adding channels slowly over the years, now championing 9 channels and a new look:
Our brief was to create a new Sky Sports, one that offers complete control to its customers by creating nine dedicated sports channels. The result is a fresh and modern brand that positions Sky Sports as the ultimate sports storyteller. Moving beyond the cliche celebratory moments to bring you every side of the story – the grit, the pain, the passion and the disappointments.
Sky Sports has been reimagined, with a new, stripped-back logo and a redesign for each genre channel. The channels were designed from a master kit of typography, colour and tone-of-voice. The before and after differences may seem quite minimal, but the new look is far more fresh and very on trend:
The new logo was designed in collaboration with brand typographer Miles Newlyn, and whilst the logo retains the same structure as before, a noticeable change is that the copy has gone from uppercase to lowercase – a subtle difference, but one I think looks aesthetically better. And, of course, they’ve ditched the dated light gradient effect:
The visual identity was more than just the logo – Sky Creative and Nomad conquered the identity’s typography, photography, set design and digital output. I’m pleased to read that the project was digital-first, rather than print-first, as digital often seems to be an afterthought. The detail of the rebrand is incredible, with a collaboration between Swiss Typefaces and Nomad, creating a unique typeface called ‘Sky Sports Display’ . This was based on ‘Euclid Flex’ and has five cuts used for the different sports:
I really like how clean everything looks in comparison to the previous style – even with the hero images and how they are placed on a plain background with minimal detail: