For the ATP Tour’s 2026 identity brand film, agency Thornberg & Forester collaborated with its creative allies and masters of brand identity, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv to launch the organization’s new logo on a global scale. Together, the partners designed a story that invites viewers to feel what professional tennis players feel as they seek to capture some of the sport’s most coveted trophies. 

The goal was to embrace both the ATP Tour’s rich history and its modern-day aspects. T&F presented three initial treatments, working closely with Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv and ATP Tour to sharpen the narrative:

The film consists of six parts, strategically designed to build toward victory – the standoff, the toss, the serve, jaw-dropping action, inner mental warfare, and, finally, victory. 

The piece begins with extreme close-ups on tennis’ most competitive players – including current number-one Carlos Alcaraz, number-two Jannik Sinner and Grand Slam record holder Novac Djokovic – revealing the intensity in their eyes as they prepare to play their hearts out.

After spending time with today’s stars, the piece travels back in time to visit some of tennis’ greats from years past, including John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

It then sets the scene, considering the courts, the stakes and finally, the serve. As the action gets underway, players fight hard for every shot, sliding to get that final backhand, diving at speed, or sending a hail Mary lob to the back court. 

The film transitions to the inner, mental warfare that players face, showcasing moments of mental defeat before the music kicks back in to present a succession of wins. This final sequence of fist pumps and screams of victory become encapsulated within the ATP ‘A’ as it pulls into frame from behind camera. As it lands in final position, we see a huge forehand winner being hit by Jannik Sinner. The wake of the ball becomes the catalyst to bring on the ‘T’ and ‘P’, and creates the channel through the wordmark.

Sound design was also an important component in the film. T&F added a wealth of sound effects throughout, infusing the brand story with even more emotion.

T&F worked closely with the London-based ATP Tour to identify specific clips needed to fill out the story. In the end, T&F scrubbed through hundreds of hours of footage, batched clip selects, and assembled a working edit that would be refined over the course of two weeks. Several clips required cleanup work and all were color graded to harmonize the film.

“We were delighted to collaborate once again with Thornberg & Forester to create the brand launch film for ATP. They scoured hundreds of hours of archival footage to find the perfect clips to weave together, creating an emotionally packed montage for the sport in general, and for our new logo design in particular. Under a tight deadline, they delivered a phenomenal asset for the brand,” said Sagi Haviv, partner and designer, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, in a statement.

In addition to the hero film, T&F also delivered cutdowns and a social toolkit of ATP Tour logo animations for ATP Tour social channels: