TonY

Only this one and one more and then I promise not to do this again. I think it was 6th grade when I stopped watching the NBA regularly, I don’t know why, and it’s not important for this post. The NBA, which has expanded numerous times, has many franchises and a plethora of good and bad corporate branding.

Good: The Seattle Supersonics. They have changed their logo quite a bit, and it’s always been pretty decent, their current is by far the best. This is achieved by following the rule that The Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn’t they kept it simple. Not too many colors, an easy to read typeface, no over elaborate logo, just a shield, a ball and an “S”.

Gone: In terms of theme driven logos this is top notch. The New Orleans Jazz has everything, and the fact that their city came with its own color combination was an added plus. It has Mardi Gras, a music note, a basketball and CLASS.  They are now the Utah Jazz, they should have changed the name when they moved you don’t think Jazz when someone says Utah you think Mormons.

Foul: Gradients?! Is that the Rocketeer? Why is there a lightning bolt? Why is it orange and not gold? I can’t find one thing about this logo that I can’t question, well except the spelling that seems to be right.

Images found at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net

After making two clients very happy in the last 24 hours, my boss has told me doesn’t want me streaming television while I’m at work. I’m not the only one who does it, there are atleast 10 others that stream too. I was also asked not to be on any instant messenger service at work either, which is the real shocker, everyone is on AIM Gchat or MSN in here. Somethings up, and I need to get to the bottom of it, or I’m gonna flip!

Good: There is only one team that’s logo is a colored helmet and it’s the Cleveland Browns. Some may say that isn’t a logo, but it is and it isn’t even the color that their team is named after, its orange.

Gone: One phallic blue and red oil derrick. The Oilers moved to Tennessee for one year before dropping the moniker for the Titans, and although they did keep the colors (almost) they dropped the name and the logo.

Foul: This poor team, first their logo was a red and yellow effeminate pirate and now its this. This is perfect macho overkill to make up for the knife biter. There is way too much iconography for my tastes, the colors, and the football in the cross swords of the mast WAY TOO MUCH. They should have stuck to the KISS method, for those of you who don’t know what that means keep it simple stupid.

Images found at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net

Our oldest professional sports league is the National League, which began operation in 1876.

Good: The Braves have been in existence since 1912 and were originally from Boston, they moved to Milwaukee and settled in Atlanta in 1966. The Braves’ current logo is a well-balanced shape of the word “Braves” over a red tomahawk. What’s nice about it is if you squint the script almost looks like another tomahawk.

Gone: In the 1950’s if you heard red you thought of communists, and if you saw a handle bar mustache you thought of Stalin. That turned out the kill the Cincinnati Redlegs, don’t feel too bad, this mascot made a come back. He shaved the mustache and is now Mr. Met.
 
Foul Using classic American song for inspiration should be commended but the Colorado Rockies logo’s purple mountains are anything but majestic.

    Images found at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net
 

Professional Baseball has some fine logos, but they aren’t the best in all of sports. The American League established in 1901 has a rich history (which I will not go into). Let’s begin.

Good: First on the list is the current logo for the Toronto Blue Jays. The team started in 1977 and re-branded themselves in 2004. The color combination is eye catching with an ultramarine blue, silver and white, with details in black. The logo flies right by you, creating a sonic boom for your eyes, as the jay head cuts through any surface it’s on. 

Gone: This next team really shouldn’t count since they came back, granted it was 50 years later, the Washington Nationals. This is straight to the point, a big “W” for Washington and the capital building behind it, what more do you need?

Foul: For this last the management company must have an identity crisis. When they founded they were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with a manta ray swimming under the words Tampa Bay. It wasn’t great but it surely wasn’t as boring as this. They dropped the “Devil” in 2008 and now are just “Rays,” rays of what you ask, rays of light. LAME. Oh, and their cap insignia sucks too.

    Images found at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net

Sports logos are of particular interest to me. I feel the a lot can be learned from them. Some are animals, some just words, and some are just plain ugly. I have put together six posts that I will post over the next six days featuring three logos from the following leagues: The National and American Leagues (professional baseball), The National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, The National Football League, and the Arena Football League. Each post will consist of a current well-designed logo, a logo from a now defunct team what I wish still existed and finally one really ugly current logo.
The first league we will look at is the Arena Football League, which was founded in 1987. The best logo I found is for the Arizona Rattlers, which consists of a black “R” with a snake’s head creating the negative space inside of the R. It’s simple two-color theme, and bold shapes make a very sharp logo, and it’s style makes look as if it were created in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. Second I have the Pittsburgh Gladiators, its too bad they no longer exist because this logo could have been classic. Yellow circle, green “G” with a hand and sword emerging from the up stroke, which creates some powerful imagery. Lastly we have the Nashville Kats, it displays the unnecessary use of a cartoon animal in a logo. The artist must have gotten this direction “So we’re the cats, but its Nashville so make him look like a hack Elvis or Johnny Cash. Oh and we have four colors so just have fun with it.”
Images found at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net