Portland Trail Blazers new logo

[Gothamite]

I presume this is already being discussed in a mega thread, but it's worth a conversation on its own: the Trail Blazers unveiled new logos yesterday. 

 

 

Quote

(I)t should be noted that the pinwheel logo is now the team’s primary logo, which actually was not the case previously. The pinwheel placed within a black rhombus with “Portland” above the pinwheel and “Trail Blazers” below was actually the team’s primary logo, but nobody really liked it and it was difficult to deal with from a design perspective, so it’s now been scrapped. Most fans don’t seem to know that logo was the team’s primary, which just goes to show how infrequently it was used, which was in no way an accident.

...

The most obvious change is that the red part of the pinwheel is now on top -- it was previously on the bottom -- and the bottom part of the pinwheel is now white rather than silver. The other “big” change is that the lines which comprise the two parts of the pinwheel are now connected by a straight diagonal line of the same color. 

As for other changes, the font has been updated — there are now serifs on both the “P” and “T” — and the lines are now at a 45 degree angle, which according to the team represents “the 45th Parallel North that leads on a path to the Northwest region.” Anyone who has driven over and over again past that 45th Parallel sign on I-5 in Salem can attest to that.
...

While the team did consider rotating the pinwheel back to a vertical orientation, as was the case on the original logo, for whatever reason, the decision was made to keep it diagonal.

 

The article on NBA.com includes this delightful animation of their logo history:

 

 

I like the update a lot: farewell ugly rhombus; good riddance pointless spiky things.  But this doesn't actually fix the main problem I have with the logo, which is that it isn't a P yet could so easily be.  I know, it's a B for Blazers, but city initials are always better than nickname initials.  Besides, the NBA is even using the pinwheel as a P in an ad running across the top of the page: 

 

 

What is that supposed to be?  "bresented by Moda"?  "qresented by Moda"?   

 

Flip the pinwheel around, and it would be so much better. 

 

[generalshepherd141]

What's the point if it is made to look like a letter? It is a classic logo as is, no need to screw it up.

[WSU151]

I'm not sure it's supposed to be seen as a letter, ever since they angled the lines years ago.  When it was vertical, yeah, it could probably be interpreted as a letter, but I think they are intent on it being a 5-on-5 pinwheel angled 45 degrees.  

[Red Wolf]

I can see the P, but it's not nearly obvious enough that they can get away with using the logo in lieu of a regular P. It'd be kind of like using an interlocking baseball logo like the Yankees' NY, or Giants' SF with times new roman font. It just doesn't work in that context. It's also weird that the logo being a B and a P has the be in front, so it's like Blazers Portland. And their full name is Trail Blazers and there's no T. Everything about this team's branding is weird now that I think about it. 

 

That said, this is a solid update to the old pinwheel design. It's been around long enough, and looks good enough that I'm sure there'd be a revolt if it changed too much. After all, didn't Portlandians chant, "You f***ed up!" at the Timbers logo reveal like they were at an ECW show? 

[Gothamite]

There's no P, and never has been.

 

It's pretty obvious that the B was intentional; it's even more clear in the logo's original orientation, especially when compared to the typography they were using. 

 

 

And the fact that they're still actively using it as a letter, albeit the wrong letter, indicates that they haven't completely gone away from that original intention.  Somebody may think that's a P, but it isn't.

 

Edit: they're not now using it as a P, that was just bad coding on the website.  But it's definitely intended to be a B. 

 

 

[BrandMooreArt]

its one of my favorite sports logos because the idea/concept of it is so unique. the movement and relationship to the sport condensed into a single mark that actually makes sense. where most would have taken a basketball (or any other piece of sporting equipment if it were another sport) and slapped a letter inside of it, or set it on fire, this logo goes around all of that to complete what is a truly unique and clever mark. the only thing i ever questioned about it was the execution, and they've addressed that somewhat.

 

i feel like they've fixed some things and broken other parts of it. the closed containing shape is better, i really like the mono-weight lines, the red being on top is fine because it's the primary color. what i don't like is the the lines close at the center now. it was done to divide the two "teams" in the mark, but it also weakened a sense of rotation and it doesn't quite look whole now— more like two different shapes sitting next to each other. 

 

im hoping the new uniforms will make use of what seems obvious, to pull those lines from the logo and incorporate them into striping or a pattern. otherwise, i think they missed a big opportunity with the wordmark, which is as plain as it gets and doesn't pair so well with the icon. still, even if the uniforms don't do that, there's the opportunity for a custom typeface to be used in marketing pieces. i'm just trying to a way/reason to use those lines elsewhere; that's a really key feature in this identity

[Gothamite]

Agree completely on the "5 on 5"/ motion. Distinct and clever, evocative of the sport but not so literal as a piece of equipment.  It deserves to be timeless, even though they keep tinkering with it. 

[GFB]

I don't know if the team is using the pinwheel as a P in that ad... that looks more like problematic responsive coding to me.

[jaha32]

I'm just glad they got rid of that boxy rhombus logo which was awkwardly tall and a poor solution to incorporating the team name. The rhombus version was a pseudo primary anyway because the pinwheel by itself was always a stronger mark and more commonly used.

 

On this update, I like how the lines now connect in the center, and the width between the inner black lines is more consistent. Overall a nice update to the NBA's most unique logo, but I'm not so sure I like the word mark with just the P and T having sharp points on them. I wish they kept oblique lettering of some kind.

[Lights Out]

This isn't a bad update, but it would have looked better with silver instead of white:

[Sport]

53 minutes ago, BrandMooreArt said:

its one of my favorite sports logos because the idea/concept of it is so unique. the movement and relationship to the sport condensed into a single mark that actually makes sense. where most would have taken a basketball (or any other piece of sporting equipment if it were another sport) and slapped a letter inside of it, or set it on fire, this logo goes around all of that to complete what is a truly unique and clever mark. the only thing i ever questioned about it was the execution, and they've addressed that somewhat.

 

i feel like they've fixed some things and broken other parts of it. the closed containing shape is better, i really like the mono-weight lines, the red being on top is fine because it's the primary color. what i don't like is the the lines close at the center now. it was done to divide the two "teams" in the mark, but it also weakened a sense of rotation and it doesn't quite look whole now— more like two different shapes sitting next to each other. 

 

Agreed. Always loved their logo. It's a true icon and the spiky one they've been using made it overly busy. In business logo design we tend to let more abstract works pass because businesses deal in thoughts and ideas while sports tend to be more concrete and obvious, but when your name is something like Trail Blazers an abstraction is the best way to go rather than a covered wagon or a flaming basketball like you said. Your second paragraph is my only complaint. In their animation (good job by whoever did it) there is a brief second where all of the lines are open and then are closed and it looks better without it. 

 

I took a crack at their logo and here's what I would've done

 

 

[upperV03]

38 minutes ago, Lights Out said:

This isn't a bad update, but it would have looked better with silver instead of white:

Disagree completely. The silver always seemed like an inappropriate accent color to use in the pinwheel, and I think most Blazers fans would agree that switching back to a primarily red/black/white color scheme is more fitting. I'm fine with them keeping gray(s) as secondary colors to be used sparingly for merchandising and promotional materials, and possibly even the alternate uniforms, but the main scheme should absolutely be red/black/white.

[JerseyJosh]

As I've said in the other thread- the update to the pinwheel is great. Much improved imo. However, I don't really like the word mark but maybe overtime it will grow on me. Looking forward to seeing the jerseys!

 

I think we all may be missing the best part of the new logo -- it's not a roundel!! 

[Toronto206]

3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

I presume this is already being discussed in a mega thread, but it's worth a conversation on its own: the Trail Blazers unveiled new logos yesterday. 

 

 

 

The article on NBA.com includes this delightful animation of their logo history:

 

 

I like the update a lot: farewell ugly rhombus; good riddance pointless spiky things.  But this doesn't actually fix the main problem I have with the logo, which is that it isn't a P yet could so easily be.  I know, it's a B for Blazers, but city initials are always better than nickname initials.  Besides, the NBA is even using the pinwheel as a P in an ad running across the top of the page: 

 

 

What is that supposed to be?  "bresented by Moda"?  "qresented by Moda"?   

 

Flip the pinwheel around, and it would be so much better. 

 

So the pinwheel is just covering up the ad, not actually being used as the letter 'p'.

[Gothamite]

Got it - thanks for the correction!

[FinsUp1214]

I'm a pretty big fan of it altogether, but one nitpick I have is that I think it'd look better if the motion lines were red and black with no background, like the old logos were. I never liked the black background on the primaries, the simple red and black lines were much cleaner (and of course, you can just do the red and white lines when the logo is against black).

 

Other than that, this is a great update. Really like that the lines aren't tapered anymore too; they're much better straight.

[UnclearInitial]

17 hours ago, anythinglogos said:

That's a good update on the pinwheel. Not really sure about the  bar joining the lines, it kind of undermines the dynamism that the pinwheel is meant to convey. 

 

My biggest gripe is the refusal to use the 70's font full time. They even use it in the Pride uniform, so   they know that it's a recognizable part of the Blazers brand. Not capitalizing on that is just stupid

 

[FinsUp1214]

Agreed on the 70's font. Growing up in the 90's, I'd always been partial to the italicized font because, well, that's always been the Blazers look I've known. But getting older and getting more into design, I've come to really appreciate the 70's font and see that it works even better with the pinwheel than the 90's-current wordmarks have. I prefer it now.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

So pardon my ignorance but what is the pinwheel logo supposed to be or represent and does anyone know how it came about?

[Webfooter]

8 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

So pardon my ignorance but what is the pinwheel logo supposed to be or represent and does anyone know how it came about?

It's supposed to represent the 5 members of each team in motion on a court.  I never got that until I finally read an interview with the people who helped design the initial logo.