The Current State of Sports Logos

[NeauXone]

Boring. Just one of the many words I can use to describe a lot of new logos these days.

You see, somewhere around 2011, most of the logo designers decided that anything special in their logos that made it distinctive was lame, and that being "simple", "clean", and "versatile" was everything.

Take the St. Louis Blues for example. Their font from 1998-2016, while yes, looked like something from the 2000's, was distinctive, and you could tell what team used the font if you had typed something else with it. The font that ended up replacing it? Looks extremely similar to the San Antonio Spurs new logo,  and the Toronto Raptors' font.

I'm not saying all rebrands today are like this. In fact, some of these "modern" logos, I actually like, for example, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, Tampa Bay Bucs, and Sacramento Kings logos are some of my favorites.

But I still don't like this trend. I'm getting a bit tired of seeing these "modern" logos everywhere. I would prefer it if teams tried to make their logos unique again. Bring back outlines. Bring back bevels. Hell, even bring back drop shadows, just do something when it comes to designing a logo.

Discuss.

[Ben in LA]

Baseball logos definitely got boring. I’m looking at YOU, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Colorado with your cap logos as primaries. And I’m a man of simpler things.

[Ray Lankford]

It's definitely true in baseball, with the Pirates downplaying the pirate and the Tigers downplaying the tiger but I wonder how much of that is league mandated. What are the odds that so many teams would move away from actual logos and going with just the cap logo on their own? Like how the NBA wants a basketball in everything, except I'd argue that the NBA is doing fine. With the exception of the Clippers, whose old logo was generic anyway, most new logos (Bucks, Wolves,Hornets) have been pretty good. And the NFL is really basically the same as it's ever been, as is the NHL.

[Cardsblues02]

The NFL is stupidly boring. Imagine if they did uniforms like CFB did. Franchises were able to have, say 5 different uniforms and 2 or 3 different helmets. They could choose their uni provider. Nike, Adidas, UA and Russell Athletic (just kidding on that one). I think it could work! 

 

NFL logos are very boring. Nothing changes, and when it does it sucks or nobody notices/cares.

[NeauXone]

56 minutes ago, Ray Lankford said:

It's definitely true in baseball, with the Pirates downplaying the pirate and the Tigers downplaying the tiger but I wonder how much of that is league mandated. What are the odds that so many teams would move away from actual logos and going with just the cap logo on their own? Like how the NBA wants a basketball in everything, except I'd argue that the NBA is doing fine. With the exception of the Clippers, whose old logo was generic anyway, most new logos (Bucks, Wolves,Hornets) have been pretty good. And the NFL is really basically the same as it's ever been, as is the NHL.

I can agree with the NBA, as most of these newer rebrands have been good (favorite one is definitely the Kings), but I want more rebrands like this instead of the same things you see in places like soccer leagues.

[Quillz]

10 hours ago, the heat suck said:

Bring back outlines. Bring back bevels. Hell, even bring back drop shadows, just do something when it comes to designing a logo.

And these were the exact things that everyone designing logos overused during the 90s and 00s, so things became boring and overdesigned, hence the move towards simpler logos.

 

Design is like anything else, it moves in trends. Eventually, there will be a move back towards "less boring" logos. But when that will happen, I don't know.

[MJWalker45]

4 hours ago, Cardsblues02 said:

The NFL is stupidly boring. Imagine if they did uniforms like CFB did. Franchises were able to have, say 5 different uniforms and 2 or 3 different helmets. They could choose their uni provider. Nike, Adidas, UA and Russell Athletic (just kidding on that one). I think it could work! 

 

NFL logos are very boring. Nothing changes, and when it does it sucks or nobody notices/cares.

NFL teams are more protective of their logos and uniforms than college. 5 uniforms spread across 16 gamesvis a bit much. They're at 4 now and it's almost too much. 

[Ark]

The worst thing about uniforms today is that with some manufacturers, gold has become beige. 

 

Thankfully Adidas makes NHL uniforms now. If Reebok still made them, the Golden Knights would be the Beige Knights.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The Orioles, Blue Jays, and Astros have dramatically improved their logos in the past few years, each team looking to the best logo in its history for inspiration. Similarly, the Mets made a simple but significant change by getting rid of the black and restoring their logo to its classic state (with one minor difference).

 

There have been no true logo disasters (looking only at the logos, not at the uniforms; so the Diamondback horror show and Marlins fiasco do not come into play). 

 

And there are so many teams whose logos rank anywhere from longstanding to timeless: Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Tigers, White Sox, A's, Giants, Royals, and probably a few more. 

 

So the overall state of Major League Baseball logos would at this moment be characterised as "excellent".