2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
Raptors TWO FIVE
In 2014, the Toronto Raptors rebranded. In an attempt to shed their juvenile look, the team created a whole new visual culture. The black flag and “We The North” became the team’s calling card, and gave Canada’s only NBA team a disruptive voice.
To mark the Toronto Raptors’ 25th season in 2019, Sid Lee needed to use the same disruptive approach to create an anniversary logo unlike any NBA anniversary logo that came before it.
Insights and Strategy
The Raptors were built by a nation of fans over years of adversity. To pay homage to its fans with a logo that celebrated them, Sid Lee designed a logo based on the “hands that built” the Toronto Raptors. The logo needed to embody a “for the fans, by the fans” mentality and become something that would organically shift culture.
Execution
The logo is a photograph. Actually, it’s many photographs. This allowed the team to show the world what Toronto is about: diverse cultures all coming together, united by our love for each other and our love for the Raptors.
Results and Impact
With hand signs being such an integral part of basketball culture, Sid Lee knew the “Two Five” logo would successfully penetrate culture if it was adopted at our games, at bars and at home. Ultimately, the “Two Five” became championed by the Toronto Raptors team and fans made it into the first living anniversary logo in the NBA (or any sports league).
Creativity and Craft
From the start of the project, the agency knew it wanted to disrupt the repetitive iterations of anniversary logos featuring a number above or below the regular logo. Using real fans as hand models, it crafted a stark-contrast, black-and-white photographic logo that stands out as the first non-graphic anniversary logo made for the NBA. Mirroring the fluid nature of the team's fans, Sid Lee created different combinations of the “Two Five” where different hands and fans could be mixed together.