This Artist Reimagined All 30 NBA Team Logos for a Colorful Set of Nike T-shirts - Adweek

Michael Jordan never saw a Chicago Bull quite like this one.

In a project that seems destined to delight designers everywhere, Nike commissioned Polish artist Filip Pagowski to reimagine the logos of every NBA team. His hand-drawn takes add a sense of spontaneity to brand identities that are in many cases so well-established as to feel staid.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's revised logo, for example, is quite literally exploding with energy.

Pagowski has a long history of working in the world of high fashion and creating designs for Asian brands like Chinese sportswear giant Li Ning. His illustrations have appeared in such publications as Le Monde, The New Yorker and The New York Times, but he is best known for designing the instantly recognizable heart-with-eyes "PLAY" logo for Tokyo-based fashion brand Comme des Garçons.

The same intimacy Pagowski brings to his drawings and fashion designs comes through in the Nike work.

As the artist says in a Nike press release, "the idea behind the project was not to replicate the original or the official logos of each team, but rather come up with something that portrayed the team or the place they are coming from, or both, and to have it done in some fun way."

Pagowski took a three-pronged approach to each shirt by considering the team's name, its mascot and its home city.

"I tried to get away from the drawing of the bull's head that's on the official logo," he said of the Chicago team's iconic jerseys, adding, "I researched it by going through ancient Greek drawings of bulls. And that bull that I did use had some elements from mythological Greek imagery."

Of course, there's a retail element to the project. Right before the beginning of the 2017-18 pro basketball season, Nike debuted its first "NBA connected jersey," officially launching a partnership that makes it the exclusive on-court apparel provider of the NBA, WNBA and NBA D-League for the next eight years. And the shirts themselves are now available for purchase through Nike.

Sky Gellatly, CEO of New York and Los Angeles-based creative agency and art advisory firm ICNCLST, facilitated the partnership between the NBA and Pagowski. The firm also represents the artist commercially.