After hearing that New Orleans’ NBA basketball team, The Hornets, may be changing its name to The Pelicans, we asked 99designs users to create their own NBA New Orleans Pelicans Logo. The turnout was incredible! Almost 200 top quality designers participated in the contest, submitting unique variations of the beaky bird infused with a little New Orleans flavor.

We ran one external poll and two community polls to help us make our final decision. Kudos to everyone who participated in the contest and thanks to everyone who gave their input in the polls! Who knows, maybe one of these awesome designs will grab the attention of someone from the NBA.

Drum roll…. and the winner is…

Logo: TinBacicDesign™

TinBacic’s winning logo is fantastic! First and foremost, we love the simplicity of the design, which hangs nicely with the 29 other team logos in the National Basketball Association. As for the pelican illustration, it achieves an effective ferocity that is not normally associated with the bird. The fleur-de-lis is a nice touch — a subtle reference to the history of New Orleans. The font is clean, original and lends itself well to further branding and merchandising.

Runners-up

Our decision was by no means easy! Just take a look at this incredible variety of styles and high quality logos that we received:

Logo: dinoDesigns

Logo: Mark™

Logo: novanandz

Logo: BennyT

Logo: KiMLEY™

Logo: Freshradiation

Logo: bodong™

Logo: Widakk

Logo: aNk∆s

Logo: grapiKen

Logo: BluegumBoy™

Logo: TeachDesign

Logo: Popovicmilan

Logo: Projectthirtyfour

Logo: AriPerdana

Logo: BTGraphicDesign

Logo: Eren G.

Logo: Nic03elic

Logo: minus*

Logo: pixelmatters

Logo: Freshinnet

Logo: Rom@n

Logo: Giulio Rossi

Logo: damichi

Logo: kingsandy

Logo: OnQue

Logo: dialfredo

Logo: DSKY

Logo: JayBee works

Which one do you think works best? Tell us in the comments!