We at Outsports have been talking about a redesign of our branding and the website for years. Our current logo has always been a bit difficult to read, and it doesn’t say OUTSPORTS the way we need a logo to say, particularly when we’re looking at marketing and other material.

The folks at our parent company Vox Media, along with SB Nation, have been working with us over the last six months to find something that is dynamic, and that screams OUTSPORTS.

Today — the 23rd anniversary of the first time we published Outsports — we’re unveiling our new logo, and we’re really excited about it.

We feel it tells a story about the uplifting nature of our work. The arrow that replaces the first T signifies with a basic symbol what Outsports is: forward-thinking and uplifting. And it points directly to our tagline — Courage is contagious — that describes the powerful nature of our work and the influence LGBTQ people in sports coming out has on others.

In addition, we have some fun color alternatives embedded in the design that we’ll roll out at different times during the year.

Phil Delbourgo, Senior Vice-President of Design at Vox, oversaw the redesign project.

“With its legacy of providing a voice and forum for LGBTQ athletes, we recognized that Outsports stands apart from other team and league communities on the SBNation network and therefore needed a unique approach to its brand,” Delbourgo said. “Outsports reflects the nexus of sports and LGBTQ culture and we wanted that synthesis to feel seamless and natural. We focused on bringing to life the line ‘courage is contagious’ and creating a strong and simple action-oriented logo.

“The upward arrow is a great way to provide that sense of momentum and power that speaks both to the dynamism of sports and the empowerment that Outsports provides to its community.”

Adding to the special nature of our new logo, it was designed by longtime Outsports reader Richard Wade Morgan, a senior brand designer. Morgan was brought into the project after various redesign attempts had missed the mark.

“The opportunity to visually reimagine a storied brand, in a community to which you belong, is a dream rarely manifested by someone in my profession,” Morgan said. “They had a part in my coming out experience by providing visibility and amplifying voices that I otherwise would never have heard. On top of feeling the need to show some love in return, I also felt a responsibility to bring the research and precedence of the LGBTQ+ sports world into the process. We dove as far back as the fifties to consider the groundwork of visual strategy in branding, the historic use of symbols+iconography, and how we have represented ourselves as a community.

“What we came up with was an identity that not only honored the original logo, but brought it OUT into the modern design realm. I am very proud of how we, as a team, came to this new brand mark and cannot wait to see it flourish.”

We’re more and more excited about our new logo every day. We hope it resonates with you as well.

FORWARD!

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