Philadelphia Flyers

In the summer of 2016, the Philadelphia Flyers Marketing team developed a plan to redesign the team’s championship banners in time for their 50th Anniversary season. These banners recognize the team’s achievements throughout their history including conference and division championships, Stanley Cups, Hall of Fame, and retired numbers. This plan included Joe Heller, Senior Director of Marketing, Hung Tran, Marketing Manager, Kelly Lineman, Marketing Design Intern, and 3601 Creative, as the production team.

The Problem

The Philadelphia Flyers marketing team was presented with the issue that the Wells Fargo Center could no longer provide space for additional team championship banners. The Flyers had a total of thirty-one banners occupying space in the rafters with no room to add two missing championships, dating back to the 2009-2010 season.
Our goal was to consolidate banners based on division and conference championships, while also establishing a well-designed system that would apply to the Hall of Fame, Stanley Cup and retired number banners. By doing so, our hope was to create more room for future team recognition and to create a cohesive appearance for the redesigned banners.

The missing championship banners were the eastern conference championship of the 2009-2010 season and the atlantic division championship of the 2010-2011 season.

When looking at the old banners, we decided to eliminate the NHL logo from each banner and to consolidate as much as possible to create space for additional dates. When consolidating banners, such as, the West and Patrick Division, and the Wales and Campbell Conferences, additional space wasn’t required for incoming dates because these areas are no longer active. The readability of the white text on the Hall of Fame banners was especially difficult, so we wanted to refrain from using white text on orange. Also, the retired number banners lacked a consistent design. One side showed a clipped image of the player, often not centered, while the backside showed the name and number (which did not stylistically reference the aesthetic of the jerseys).

Breaking Down the Achievements

By noting how many championships, Hall of Fame inductees, and retired numbers, we could begin to envision how we could many banners would need to be created.

We noted that Eastern Conference and Stanley Cup Championship banners were not to be consolidated. Retired Numbers would each have their own banner, as well.

8

16

2

16

5

Conference Championships

Division Championships

Stanley Cups

Hall of Fame Inductees

Retired Numbers

We were able to decrease our number of banners from 31 to 18.

The Process

The design process began by researching the way numerous professional sports teams handle their championship banners and how we could incorporate similar components. We studied the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Boston Bruins. The next step of the process consisted of loose sketches and rough ideas, combining research with new ideas for the overall aesthetic of the banners. After several rounds of revisions, the final banner designs were completed, with the retired number banners seeing the most revisions and new concepts.

The Resolution

Once the banners were unveiled, the media took notice and shared images of these banners in articles, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Two articles, written by CSN Philly and BroadStreetHockey.com, spoke about the new banners, followed by social media responses from fans.

The Flyers have replaced all the banners in the rafters at the Wells Fargo Center, updating them here during this 50th anniversary season. Bill Meltzer has pictures and ... they look really good, in my opinion.