Anyone hoping to compete at the highest level should regularly check themselves to make sure everything is working in unison. This applies to branding just as much as it does in pro sports.

As time goes on, well-worn marketing muscles can become overworked, while others are ignored or forgotten and slowly wither away in the background. Suddenly, critical limits are reached and the whole system collapses, resulting in injury to your brand that might force an early retirement.

Checking into your branding every year or so and asking yourself if it still represents your business and values is a great way to make sure everything performs at maximum capacity. If you find you've been neglecting parts of your website, or your logo is getting a bit past its prime, think about giving yourself a bit of a performance boost through a rebrand.

Check out these ten sports associations that took a good hard look at themselves in the past year and decided it was time for a refresh (or try sports association logo maker on BrandCrowd).

UFC

It may only be a minimal change, but sometimes getting into the nitty-gritty of design is a good way of making sure everything is perfect. Only when comparing the old and new lettering for example can you really appreciate how odd the old "C" looked. Even that tiny change to one letter makes the whole logo flow better, and the continued simplicity of the logo means it'll probably last a long time before another update is necessary.

The logo now syncs better with UFC brand extension, making the overall messaging more consistent. The angled, carefully kerned and explosively red typeface is a great metaphor for the quick, bold, and exhilarating sport it represents.

Eurosport

Eurosport has made a great choice in seriously simplifying its logo. Most of the stars are gone, with the exception of the one forming the middle line of the E, which is a great way of paying homage to the old design and the European flag it was reminiscent of while maintaining a sleek and uncluttered look.

Reverting to one sophisticated color is also a winning choice. But it's the typeface that really steals the show here, with its simple, straight lettering and soft edges. The choice to make the star slanted sits a bit odd against the straight typeface here. My designer brain wants me to bump it into alignment. But overall, still a definite winner.

NBL

The NBL underwent a pretty massive change, and for good reason too. The old logo, which was almost reminiscent of a Microsoft Clipart design, was far from amazing. By contrast, the new logo is easy on the eye with its thick strokes and bold, condensed typeface.

Having said that, it's still not perfect. The ball graphic is a bit confusing, the black shapes overpower the brown and the slightly-too-thick white outlines mean the basketball is recognizable, but not immediately obvious. The black shape alone could form an American football just as easily. Speaking of line weights, these aren't quite consistent throughout the design, making it ever so slightly messy. Notice how the black outline is thicker than the white for example.

These are small criticisms of a totally decent logo with a vintage twist, which is a world away from the old design.

CBS Sports

As a design, the new CBS Sports logo is great, using color and a crisp sans serif typeface, as well as slight adjustments to the logomark, to bring the previously slab-serif, italic 80's vibe logo firmly into the 21st century. It's a bit plain, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. All the elements work together and nothing has been changed so much as to completely lose touch with the predecessor.

It's hard to judge how well this will work in context though. Placed against a white background it stands out nicely, but in its most common application, on a TV screen, it may not do so well to stand out against always busy backgrounds. A well-known brand like CBS could have easily made the plunge of dropping the logotype and simply focusing on the eye motif to create a universally recognizable and versatile logomark, in the tradition of Apple. Maybe for the next rebrand?

EFL

The EFL has gone with a design refresh that follows some of the trends we've already seen develop, ditching the old italic typeface for straight, bold sans-serif letters. While the colors remain the same, they are now presented separately, reserving the demure blue for the ball graphic and the energetic red for the typeface. This way both colors have the chance to shine to their full advantage.

If you observe the typography closely, you realize it's really quite interesting. The bottom half of the type has soft curve edges whilst the top is quite angular. This is a great, subtle way of connecting the logotype and logomark, with the typeface providing even "ground" for the ball to rest on. This kind of carefully thought-out decision makes this a very strong design. The ball itself has changed quite a bit too, now creating a great sense of movement by using a dynamic design made up of multi-sized circles.

The same attention to detail is given to the spacing and kerning. Everything has its place and the elements interact perfectly without crowding each other. An easy way to tell if a logo's hierarchies and spaces are working is by envisioning it in monochrome – this design would still work amazingly in black and white, making the color not a crucial point of distinction but the cherry on top of a solid logo sundae.

ESPN College Football

If you imagine this new logo without its typeface, you'll notice it is really reminiscent of a car logo rather than a sports one. This may or may not be a failure in branding.

On one hand, having a certain sense of industry recognition is usually very important for logo design, so as to attract the right audience. Anyone should be able to at least roughly tell what your company's about at a glance. The ESPN rebrand did great by modernizing its design and introducing bolder colors and stronger angles, but maybe the stylization of the football could have been slightly pared back to remain a little bit more obvious.

On the other hand, it's unlikely many people will be walking into a stadium looking for a drive-away deal, so this might not be too big a deal. College football will also share much of the same target audience of macho sports cars, namely young college guys. In any case, the overhaul has taken the design from a slightly unprofessional and outdated frat-party feel into the professional realm, which can only be a good thing.

The Open Championship

As far as sports logos go, this one is unusually elegant and delicate, making it stand out quite effectively from the crowd. The typeface is thin and sophisticated, with perfectly kerned spaces between some of the thinner strokes making it especially unique and accessible.

Ideally the designers would've opted to play around with the trophy shape, which looks no better now than it did in the old design, but this minor detail can be forgiven for its perfect integration into the letter O. Overall, this is a fantastic logo illustrating the sophistication of golf.

Australian Olympic Committee

The new version of this logo is still very similar to its predecessor, but modernizes it in several crucial ways. The dark, teal typeface and animals make it much stronger than the previous version and the re-balancing of all three design elements make this logo seem far more balanced.

The typeface moved to yet another bold sans-serif font and kerning was improved upon. This design is a great example of both the "less is more" philosophy in design and how to keep essentially all aspects of your old logo but still creating something far, far more evocative.

The French Olympic Committee

Another example of a brilliant redesign of a tragically outmoded logo. This design is both patriotic and beautifully competitive (or shall we say cocky?) with the inclusion of France's national animal, the rooster. The dynamic stroke creating the proud animal is supposed to symbolize the movement of and energy of sports, and especially gymnastics. By giving the animal and typeface the same line weight, we're treated to an excellently balanced design.

France's national colors are represented in the red white and blue of the design. The Olympic logo is still integral to the design of course, but instead of dominating the logo it works beautifully as the pedestal of the proud French bird. Overall this is a beautiful rendition of a sports logo.

USL

The USL is another example of a company moving from a busy design with lots of elements to a simple, monotone and minimalist design with great success. The only element still retained really is the color blue although even that has become darker and more sophisticated. The simple, evocative block letters will ensure maximum versatility.

The negative spaces through each letter are immaculately carried out, with very even kerning creating exact halves and a perfectly balanced font. By going this simple route though, it could be argued the association with soccer has been somewhat lost.

I can try to make the argument that the negative spaces and letters create shapes vaguely reminiscent of a soccer field, but this seems hardly enough as a clearly distinguishing feature. So while carried out superbly, this design could have used a little more thought to tie it firmly to the brand it represents.

Want More?

Rebrands can do wonders for your business, if applied sparingly - Start here if you're wondering if a rebrand might be in order for your business:

10 Famous Sports Teams' Logos That Were Rebranded In The Past Year

Four Famous Brands That Should Rebrand To Stay Relevant

When Should You Consider A Rebrand For Your Business?

Written by Divya Abe on Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Divya Abe is an expert graphic designer ready to share her knowledge with the crowd. Besides spending quality time on the internet she enjoys anything to do with cats. Get in touch via Google+.