FastModel Sports - Identity
“FastModel Sports leads the sports coaching industry with our powerful suite of software products like FastScout, FastRecruit and FastDraw, the world’s #1 play diagramming and playbook software. Our software keeps coaches competitive by anticipating your every need, from customizing digital scouting reports to connecting your fan base.” (credit: FastModel Sports)
Our Role
FastModel Sports creates software products for sports teams, coaches, and players. We were hired to redesign the brand identity and products. This case study highlights the high-level process of redesigning the company’s brand identity for the company and their product line.
Background
The first task was to have discussions with the key stakeholders in the company, including: product, marketing, sales, as well as the founder and CEO. It was important to have all teams aligned under a singular vision for the company in addition to the products.
Some of the core principles that resulted in the discussions were: simplicity, consistency, and familiarity. With these principles in mind, we set out to create a new brand identity for the company and the products.
Design Explorations
We wanted to pay homage to the previous mark with the use of the “F” character–the first letter in the company’s name. The usage of the triangular shape was very well received by stakeholders, so we kept exploring that direction early on in the design process. The triangular shape conveyed a strong, heroic sense of brand, and it was conducive to making the mark read as the letter “F”.
We experimented with rounding corners, but felt that it softened the mark and was not consistent with the core principles previously outlined. The use of primitive geometry and a set grid system was conducive to a simple, yet striking logo.
The Primary Mark
As a result of countless hours of iteration, we created a new mark that is both derived from the legacy FastModel circular mark, and totally fresh and modern. One major design goal for the new mark was that it should embody the same energy, fun, and boldness of the best professional sports team logos. This triangular mark forms an “F” shaped inset within the interior negative space. The inner “caret” arrow pointing to the upper right subconsciously triggers an uplifting positive feeling.
Logo Construction
The mark was constructed through a carefully considered geometric exercise of transforming equilateral triangles. When used to represent the company, it should only be black on transparent, or white on transparent. Colors should only be used when sub branding with our products. The mark is legible at all sizes, even down to a small glyph. The mark is currently in the trademark registration process.
The Primary Logo
From the brand guidelines:
“The FastModel Sports logo is composed of the primary mark and the logotype. The logo is a provided asset and should never be manually reproduced. The registration mark must be positioned after the word “Sports”. In most cases, this horizontal logo should be used.”
Stacked Logo
From the brand guidelines:
“In certain instances, a stacked logo may be more appropriate, especially when the logo needs to be larger or aesthetically align with a centered style layout. The stacked logo should be avoided at small sizes since the logotype can become too illegible.”
Logo Construction
From the brand guidelines:
“The positioning of the mark and logotype is carefully measured to create a balanced negative area between them and visual alignment with the optical baseline. Always used the provided assets for the mark and logo without any modifications.”
From the brand guidelines:
“The Logo should only be used on clean white or black backgrounds. It should not be over other patterns, graphics, or photographs unless the area immediately behind and around the logo is white or black. Exceptions may be granted on a case by case basis. There also needs to be plenty of blank clear space around the logo in all applications.”
Alternate Logo
An alternate logo was created for special use cases when the use of the primary mark appears visually too heavy. For example, when the logo needs to be superimposed as a watermark or printed on apparel merchandise.
Product Logo System
From the brand guidelines:
“The Product Logos are based on the Primary Logo, but for each of FastModel’s products. Product Logos should be colored according to the Product Logo System to help provide a distinction between the Primary Logo which is black or white.”
Similar to the Primary Logo System, there are Full, Stacked, and Compact variations for the Product Logos.
Here is an overview of all the current products and their logos, with their respective colors. Note how FastDraw, FastScout, and FastRecruit all have a similar color as their legacy logos so existing users will instantly recognize a familiarity and respect as new branded versions of their products are released.
Product Sub-brands
Here are sub-brands that live under the primary product lines. The are marketed as add-on features that are used as up-sells during the sales process. This is an example of the use of the alternate logo.
Color Palette
From the brand guidelines:
“The official color palette of FastModel Sports is made up of each of the colors used in the Product Logos. These colors work equally well over white and black backgrounds. These colors are also used as the tint colors in each application for interactive elements like links and buttons. Due to the number of different products, a glance at any of our products should instantly convey what product it is based on their tint colors. Over time, that color will be increasingly associated with that product.”
Usage on colored backgrounds
From the brand guidelines:
“While our logos are typically over pure white or black backgrounds, we do have variants for dark backgrounds. It is a very subtle hint of the product color over deep gray, which softens and warms the feel of the visual design. The option of this alternate background provides another visual tool to help distinguish our many products. It can be especially useful when there are no other product logos or tints visible on the screen, and you will still be able to sense what product you are viewing.”
Northwest Seagulls
FastModel Sports has licensed this fake sports team logo (illustrated and solely owned by Jack Yi) to be used on our marketing materials and other places where we may not have rights to use real team names or logos. The name of the fake team should be “Northwest Seagulls”. The fake user name for the Seagulls should be “Joe Smith”.
Marketing
Marketing Website
Final Four Booth
FastModel Sports had a show floor booth during the Final Four college basketball championships in 2019. We helped design and manufacture six-foot tall banners for the four core products, and one six-by-six foot banner for the company. We worked closely with product, marketing, and sales to ensure a consistent design language across all our marketing assets.
