Okay, so I’ve been wanting to mess around with recreating that classic Utah Jazz mountain logo, the one from the Stockton and Malone era. You know, the purple mountains with the basketball? It’s super iconic, and I thought it’d be a fun design challenge.
First, I gathered some reference images. I just did a quick search online and saved a bunch of pictures of the logo from different angles and on different merchandise – jerseys, hats, whatever I could find. This helped me get a really good sense of the shapes and proportions.
Breaking Down the Shapes
Next, I started sketching. I didn’t go straight to the computer; I used good old-fashioned pencil and paper. I focused on breaking the logo down into its basic components:
- The overall triangle shape of the mountains.
- The jagged peaks and how they overlap.
- The basketball and its position relative to the mountains.
- The “JAZZ” wordmark and its unique font.
I did a few rough sketches, just trying to get the basic forms right. I wasn’t worried about details at this point, just the overall composition.
Moving to Digital
Once I had a sketch I was মোটামুটি happy with, I took a picture of it and brought it into my design software. I used it as a template, tracing over it with the pen tool to create the vector shapes. The mountains were the trickiest part. I spent a lot of time adjusting the curves and points to get that jagged, natural look, while making many curve line and points.
The basketball was simpler – just a circle with some lines for the seams. The “JAZZ” wordmark was also relatively straightforward, although I did have to eyeball the font since I didn’t have the exact one. I looked for a similar font, and then I tweaked the letters individually to match the original as closely as possible.
Adding Color and Details
With the basic shapes in place, I started adding color. I used the eyedropper tool to sample the colors from my reference images. The purple gradient in the mountains was a bit of a challenge, but I managed to recreate it by playing around with the gradient tool. I Added gradient from top to bottom, to make it looks nature.
Finally, I added some subtle details, like the white highlights on the mountain peaks and the shading on the basketball. These little touches really helped bring the logo to life.
It took a few hours of tinkering, but I was pretty happy with the final result. It’s not a perfect replica, but it definitely captures the spirit of the original. And the most improtant thing is, I made it. It was a fun project, and it reminded me how much I enjoy these kinds of design challenges!
