Status on the Nationals Logo legal battle

[HatManTC]

anyone know the outcome of the legal battle for the script "W"

i know the Nats had agreed to pay some company a certain amount for the use of the "w" but it was never put to paper. then the company wanted more than the orginal oral agreement. then it was taken to court. thats the last i have heard of it.

[fonz]

They should just get rid of it. It doesn't match anything for them.

[JohnnyFriedRice]

They should just get rid of it. It doesn't match anything for them.

The "NY" of the Yankees doesn't match the text on the uniforms.

The "LA" of Dodgers doesn't match the text on the uniforms.

Guess they should get rid of their hat logos, too.

[Survival79]

Are you referring to this?

[maz]

I think that the script W is the best thing about their whole look. The rest of it I think is bad. They should design around that W more, rather than just throwing it out.

[HatManTC]

Are you referring to this?

yeah that was it.

[dpnation]

I think that the script W is the best thing about their whole look. The rest of it I think is bad. They should design around that W more, rather than just throwing it out.

Agreed.. I really dislike the block letters/numbers they have on the uniforms, not to mention it really looks odd paired with the script 'W'.

[BallWonk]

I think that the script W is the best thing about their whole look. The rest of it I think is bad. They should design around that W more, rather than just throwing it out.

Here's why I think you're wrong (about why it would be good to design new uniforms around the curly W, not about liking or not liking any other aspect of the uniforms, which is a matter of taste):

The curly W is just a bad cap logo. First off, it's the logo of the expansion Senators, and not even their original cap logo. The expansion Senators were a terrible team; even in their solitary and locally celebrated "successful" year they weren't any good. The expansion Senators were also unpopular in Washington, drawing embarrassingly small crowds their entire time in DC. And on top of that, the tiny number of actual fans of the expansion Senators got completely screwed by perhaps the most blatant ownership betrayal in the history of big-league sports. That's the tradition the curly W stands for, and only Bud Selig, who chose the curly W for the Nationals, would deliberately embrace that kind of legacy. It's the baseball equivalent of translating the French Army's 1940 field manual into English and using it as the basis of the curriculum at West Point.

But even worse than the fact that the curly W stands for a tradition of bad baseball, uncommitted fans, and evil ownership, the updated design is a poorly drawn graphic. You can see here that the curves don't line up when they cross themselves in the middle. At the intersection, the lines are pinched in, like an amateur designer just eyeballed it. Well, worse than that, actually, because that's a mistake even I wouldn't make, and I'm definitely at the bottom end of "amateur" in terms of technical skill, to say nothing of actual talent. I usually admire even mediocre logo design from a simple, "well, it's certainly better than anything I could do" standpoint, but the Nationals curly W fails even that minimal test.

Now, I happen to like the gold bevelled graphics that make up the rest of the Nationals uniform set, in large part because in shape and form the various elements perfectly capture the dominant aesthetic spirit of Washington's public architecture. But that's a matter of taste, and I would be willing to embrace nearly any redesign that didn't use the name "Senators." As an exercise I once worked up a script "Nationals" and "Washington" based on the shape of the Bob Short W of betrayal, and I'm convinced that in the hands of an actual designer that script would look awesome. But even if the Nationals move toward a more generic script look, the first step needs to be replacing the Bob Short W of betrayal -- at the very least with a curly W where the curves line up.

[Gothamite]

I would tend to agree with BallWonk - the W is a very poor design.

I'm no fan of the rest of the Nationals set or even name, but the absolute worst element in their package is the Walgreens W.

[SabreGuy]

I think that to try to figure out what the worst element of the Nationals set is would be like trying to figure out whether it's worse to step in a pile of horse poop or a pile of cow poop. Either way you're going to need to get the carpets cleaned.

The W is bad, for the reasons Ball Wonk mentioned. I don't have any particular feeling towards the W, but if it draws that much ire from long time Washington fans, then that's fine by me, I can totally understand it. A script W for a logo is a good concept, but all they did was rip off the lesser of the logos from past Washington teams.

And the bevelled letters... oh dear sweet Jesus don't get me started on that. There is absolutely NO reason for that ridiculous, Photoshop 2.0, web-design-done-in-mom's-basement design element to make it on to ANY professional sports team's logos (Nationals and Blue Jays, I'm looking SQUARELY at you!)

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Red, White and Blue color scheme, and I totally get the "America's Team" aspect they are going with there, and gold isn't a bad color either (though I don't particularly like metallic embroidery), but you should come up with your OWN logo (Interlocking DC... perfect!) and for God's sake, don't use Photoshop filters on your wordmarks/logos! No bevel, no drop shadow, etc. Ugh. Seriously people... hire a professional.

[JQK]

I have to agree with the statement that the "W" is the best element of the Nationals uniforms and logo set.

The rest of the package is rather hideous. A traditional Baseball script, based upon the cap "W", would serve this teams overall look better than the current design.

[See Red]

I have to agree with the statement that the "W" is the best element of the Nationals uniforms and logo set.

The rest of the package is rather hideous. A traditional Baseball script, based upon the cap "W", would serve this teams overall look better than the current design.

I agree completely. But for whatever reason, I do love the DC logo. The logo main and the wordmarks, however, are awful.