The New Orleans Hornets are one of the NBA's least historic and least popular teams. Since the Big Easy got the Hornets from Charlotte in 2002 the team has had minimal success, the current roster lacks big names (Eric Gordon is hurt, leaving Ryan Anderson as arguably the team's most recognizable player) and the franchise's savior (top draft pick Anthony Davis) is injured. None of these facts, however, stopped sports fans from flipping out when the team announced earlier this week that it planned to change its name to the New Orleans Pelicans prior to the 2013-14 season. ESPN created the Twitter hashtag #NewOrleansMascotShouldBe to let fans try and suggest better names for the team, and countless sports media personalities have weighed in and criticized the move. If the announcement that one of the NBA's least followed teams plans to change its name, logo and colors can get top billing on SportsCenter, its clear that American sports fans care an awful lot about team branding.
On this note, Caught Looking has worked hard since its inception in April 2010 to bring its readers a clean look that's simultaneouly aesthetically pleasing and unique. To that end, the site was reformatted for its one year anniversary in April 2011 to great reviews - the light blue / navy blue / dark red color scheme has become a defining element of the site, and the capitalized and italicized Caught Looking font was good enough for MLB Network to blatantly steal. That being said, there were things I always wanted to improve. I wanted a logo that was more differentiated from Major League Baseball's. I wanted to bring out the dark red accent color a bit more. I wanted to add a defining characteristic that could be used as an icon on Twitter, Facebook, etc. While I didn't want to become the Houston Astros of blogs (changing colors and logos constantly), I thought that my readers deserved something better.
Take a look at the top of the screen this morning and you'll see Caught Looking's brand new header and logo, custom designed by Santiago Formoso (@truhoax). Santiago came up with the idea to integrate the backwards "K" into the logo - the symbol for a strikeout looking in baseball scorekeeping - and I loved it. Not only is the new header more unique, but it brings out the dark red accent color and, with the backwards "K," adds an element that readers can easily associate with this blog. I've still retained my signiture font, and replaced the old MLB-esque logo with something that's both new and classic. The other change you'll notice is that, for the first time, I'll be publicizing my real name (not just "MLBwhiz") front-and-center. I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish over the past 30+ months of writing, and I think it's time to promote myself a bit more than I have. I'm really excited about the site's new (and third-ever) look, but would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for ways I can improve what the blog looks like moving forward. If the New Orleans Pelicans can spark a national debate, there's no reason Caught Looking can't do the same.
I also want to use this format change as another opportunity to thank you all for reading this blog. As always, it is your support that continues to fuel my desire to analyze, criticize and write about the sports fan experience. As we head towards 2013 and I start to think ahead to some upcoming sports experiences that I have scheduled (including my first official trip to Brooklyn's Barclays Center for Princeton basketball vs. Fordham, an in-person look at Marlins Park in Miami and a Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC), I'm excited to post on them for you below my awesome new blog header.
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