Abstract :
This study conducts a multimodal discourse analysis of the eight Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise team logos for Season 11 (2026), examining how color psychology, iconographic choices, and typographic systems construct regional identity, cultural meaning, and brand narratives within Pakistani sports communication. Drawing on Barthes’ (1957) triadic semiotic model of denotation, connotation, and myth, integrated with Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2002) theorization of color as a semiotic mode, the research treats each team logo as a visual text encoding layered cultural, political, and commercial meanings. The image based corpus comprises all eight franchise logos alongside their extended visual identity systems, including slogans, jersey color palettes, and mascots. Findings reveal that PSL logos operate as a deliberate cartography of Pakistani cultural identity, assigning each franchise a distinct regional archetype through visual vocabulary rooted in Sufi mysticism, Mughal heritage, Pashtun warrior culture, and Sindh’s maritime bravado. The color system reveals a regional differentiation through franchise specific palettes. Notably, the two newest franchises, Hyderabad Kingsmen and Rawalpindiz, disrupt the established semiotic conventions of the original six teams, signaling a generational shift in how Pakistani sports brands negotiate cultural authenticity and global modernity. The study contributes to an underexplored intersection of color psychology, sports communication, and Pakistani visual culture, offering a framework for understanding how franchise cricket leagues construct meaning through design in postcolonial South Asian contexts.