Chicago Bulls Logo History: Every Crest and Its Colors

This page traces every logo the Chicago Bulls have used, which is unusual, because it has barely changed since 1966, with each era’s colors as one-click hex values.

Dick Klein founded the team in 1966, and the bull’s head drawn for that first season is still on the floor at the United Center.

Only the drafting has moved, because the design survived every NBA rebrand wave of the 1990s and 2000s.

Today it runs on red and white: #CE1141 #FFFFFF. For RGB, CMYK and Pantone, see the current Chicago Bulls color codes.

Chicago Bulls logo history timeline

1966-present

Chicago Bulls logo 1966-present

Chicago Bulls crest, 1966-present. Club trademark, shown to identify the logo of that period.

Primary mark: a fierce, forward-facing red bull's head with narrowed eyes, flared nostrils, and two white, red-tipped horns, with the black 'CHICAGO BULLS' wordmark (Stymie Black font) above it. Designed by Dean P. Wessel at the franchise's founding in 1966; sources note it has never been redesigned, one of the few NBA primary logos unchanged since the team's first season, though some sources date first on-court/merchandise use to the 1966-67 season, so 1966 vs 1967 as the exact debut year is disputed across sources.

1970-1979 (approximate)

Chicago Bulls logo 1970-1979

Chicago Bulls crest, 1970-1979. Club trademark, shown to identify the logo of that period.

Alternate/promotional mark used in the early 1970s: the same bull head rendered in black with red highlights, paired with a cloud reading 'Windy City' beneath the bull's nose on a red matted background.

Why it changed: Promotional variant incorporating the team's 'Windy City' nickname; not a replacement of the primary mark, which continued unchanged.

1967-present (approximate)

Chicago Bulls logo 1967-present

Chicago Bulls crest, 1967-present. Club trademark, shown to identify the logo of that period.

Alternate mark: the bull's head alone (red bull, two white red-tipped horns) without the 'CHICAGO BULLS' wordmark, used for merchandise and secondary applications alongside the full primary logo.

Chicago Bulls logo colors by era

Era	Colors
1966-present	Red `#CE1141` Black `#000000` White `#FFFFFF`
1970-1979	Red `#78162A` Black `#000000`
1967-present	Red `#CE1141` White `#FFFFFF`

Things worth knowing

Multiple sources (sportslogohistory.com) describe the Bulls as having kept the same primary logo since the franchise's founding, calling it one of the only NBA teams never to redesign its main mark.
The wordmark uses the Stymie Black typeface and has read 'CHICAGO BULLS' in black since first used with the 1966-67 season.
Rather than altering the primary logo, the Bulls have introduced modern secondary identities via NBA City Edition uniforms, e.g. the 2021-22 City Edition (a nod to the 1966 founding and Michael Jordan's 1984 rookie season) and the 2022-23 City Edition (built around Chicago's Municipal 'Y' symbol from 1917, with a rust color referencing the city's river bridges).
The primary logo's official debut year varies by source: some (sportslogohistory.com, Wikimedia Commons file labels) date material to '1967' or 'first used with the 1966-67 season,' while the team's founding and the logo's creation are both dated to 1966.