The US Open is the fourth and final Grand Slam tennis event following the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. Watched by over 23 million people in the U.S. alone, the US Open is the world’s most attended annual sporting event. The total prize money awarded athletes tops $50 million dollars.

The tournament began as the U.S. National Championship in 1881. In 1968, when the tournament was first opened to professionals, disparate competitions were merged into a single tennis event—which became known as the US Open. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Open Era.

For this gold anniversary, the United States Tennis Association decided to reinvent its visual identity. The mark that had been used for 20 years—an illustration of a flaming ball paired with thin serif type and a red swoosh—was a complicated image that had challenges in digital media and did not represent the tournament well as a premium sporting and entertainment brand. There were also several versions of the mark, which made it difficult to build recognition. While the rendition of the mark posed challenges, the core concept of a flaming tennis ball still captures many of the attributes of the US Open—energy, excitement, movement.

The new mark is an evolution of the flaming ball idea, distilled to its essence to work as a simple icon. The new modern symbol is paired with an italic, lowercase sans serif typography, with the name held together by a flipped “u” and an “n.” The result expresses the energy, spirit, and velocity of the flaming tennis ball and the US Open itself, while modernizing the look, providing a more youthful appeal, and optimizing the identity for applications on everything from apps and Instagram to billboards, print ads, and swag.

The US Open Tennis Championships is held annually for two weeks, beginning at the end of August, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City.