Odell Beckham Jr’s New Logo: Our Take

Odell Beckham Jr’s new logo has been getting a lot of flak on the Twitter-sphere since it was leaked last week. Designed by Nike, the new logo draws inspiration from the Old English style of black letter typography, often associated with newspapers and tattoos.

The logo contains Odell’s initials, OBJ, albeit many Twitter users claim that they were not able to spot the letters very easily, which is understandable. Without knowing that the logo is supposed to say ‘OBJ’ before seeing it, spotting the initials is a bit of a stretch. That being said, not being able to instantly recognize the letters isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. Logos often have hidden meanings/shapes, and sometimes the “aha” moment is a nice addition that instills viewers with a shot of dopamine and a sense of accomplishment.

Here’s what Twitter has been saying about the new logo:

Nike’s new OBJ logo looks like he finna start an old-timey newspaper pic.twitter.com/GYSIVAQt7u

— 12up (@12upSport) May 7, 2018

You could’ve given me 500 guesses and I wouldn’t have come up with “OBJ” after looking at this … https://t.co/w31je18AlP — Ralph Vacchiano (@RVacchianoSNY) May 7, 2018

I see the O and the B but not the J. https://t.co/8OKNh9PXxS

— Patricia Traina (@Patricia_Traina) May 7, 2018

Big congrats to Odell on becoming the opening letter of a fairy tale printed in a leatherbound volume 600 years ago https://t.co/UW9I5FK94k — Drew Magary (@drewmagary) May 7, 2018

While I think Twitter is generally being too harsh on OBJ’s new logo, I can see where they’re coming from. When it comes to athletes, there is a certain aesthetic that people have come to expect. They want their favorite athlete’s logo to reflect the sport they play and the way they play it: bold, fierce, and intimidating. Nike decided to go the opposite direction with this logo design, going with an unexpected direction that attempts to be more “lifestyle” than “sports”. I always appreciate when designers try to break the mold, and if there’s any athlete in the NFL that’s popular enough outside the sport to create a lifestyle brand around it’s Odell. Unfortunately, it looks like the general public wasn’t quite ready for the radical attempt and now it’s backfiring.

Luckily for Nike and Odell Beckham, the logo hasn’t been made official yet. The story broke when a Twitter user saw Nike’s copyright of the logo rather than via an official press release, so Nike may still have time to backpedal a bit and make some revisions to the logo. Who knows, maybe this was an intentional leak by Nike in order to gauge the public’s feedback before releasing the identity, knowing that it was a risky move.

So, if Nike were to redesign #13’s logo in a way that’s more inline with other athletic logos, how would it look? Here’s our take.

What do you think about Nike’s new Odell Beckham Jr logo? How about our take on it? Let us know on Twitter!