kt wiz Baseball Team: A New Era of Sports Branding

kt Corporation's Innovative Approach to Sports Brand Identity

The name 'kt wiz' stands for 'wizard', symbolizing the team's commitment to playing games with superb skills and excellent performance, akin to magic. The key design concept, 'burst of magic', is inspired by the burst lighting of magical moments. This concept is consistently applied throughout the details of the kt wiz BI, including the outline of the Initial Symbol, the shape of the eye in the Image Symbol, the Outline of signage panel, and on the headlights of the bus. This innovative and sophisticated BI design opens a new arena for sports branding, distinguishing kt wiz from the typical and monotonous designs of other baseball teams in Korea.

The unique properties of the design encourage audience engagement both online and offline. With a wide range of BI applications, kt Corporation aims to increase sales and earn loyalty from the citizens of Suwon, the hometown of kt wiz. The design was realized using various software, including Adobe Creative Suite, Indesign, 3DS Max, Maya, Rhino, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe After Effect.

The design process involved extensive research and collaboration. At the early stage, a 'Design Preference Survey' was conducted with 530 baseball fans, which influenced the decision to use two characters for the initial symbol. An extensive study on 125 sports branding cases and market research on 113 sports branded products set the direction for the product development process. The design team also conducted sports branding case studies with sports management experts to demonstrate the power of successful design.

One of the challenges faced during the design process was to create a design that would earn the loyalty of fans and distinguish kt wiz from other sports brands. The emblem design reflects Suwon city, showing that it is a community-oriented team. After a series of design developments focused on proportion, size, and color, the kt wiz emblem clearly and harmoniously states the name of its hometown, Suwon. The emblem design expresses the outer line of Banghwasuryujeong Watchtower of Suwon Castle, the landmark of the city, and is widely loved by citizens of Suwon and fans.

This innovative design approach earned kt wiz the Golden A' Graphics, Illustration, and Visual Communication Design Award in 2014. The award is granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations that reflect the designer's prodigy and wisdom, advance art, science, design, and technology, and significantly impact the world with their desirable characteristics.