Oakland Athletics Logo

[rtrich11]

I should be able to decide these things for myself, but I'm having trouble deciding which direction to take my Oakland Athletics logos. As you can see, the "A's" has taken a back seat to the actual team name here. I was looking to do something classic, and not gimmicky.

A. Is kind of the retro logo of the bunch. Very squared.

B. Is more dynamic, but too much?

C. A more modern version of A.

What do y'all think?

[dustyb58]

I'm not familiar with the team's history - what is the elephant for?

[ltravisjr]

I like A the best. The elephant's a big guy. I think he needs something firm to stand on, like that wordmark. My personal opinion, though, is that I would try making the A the same size as the other letters. Either that, or enlarge the S to match it. I figure you are playing up the "A" of the A's, but I think I might like the balance better. In any case, I think that may be the best drawing of an elephant I have ever seen.

LT

[Cooleyvol]

I'm not familiar with the team's history - what is the elephant for?

The elephant takes its origina from the A's Philadelphia years. At that time, the Phillies manager called Connie Mack's Athletics a bunch of white elephants. Mack took the jab and turned it into a rallying cry for his club, adopting the elephant as the team's mascot.

Its endured ever since.

EDIT: I THINK it was the Phillie manager. It could have been a Philly sports writer or something, but it definitely was meant in a derogatory way against the Philadelphia American League team from the more established National League of the time.

[VitaminD]

I'm not familiar with the team's history - what is the elephant for?

The elephant takes its origina from the A's Philadelphia years. At that time, the Phillies manager called Connie Mack's Athletics a bunch of white elephants. Mack took the jab and turned it into a rallying cry for his club, adopting the elephant as the team's mascot.

Its endured ever since.

EDIT: I THINK it was the Phillie manager. It could have been a Philly sports writer or something, but it definitely was meant in a derogatory way against the Philadelphia American League team from the more established National League of the time.

Nope. It was NY Giants manager John McGraw, IIRC. And it was derogatory - in the same way that opposing (Northwestern especially) fans nicknamed Notre Dame's players "Fighting Irish" in a less than complimentary way at the turn of the last century.

PS - I dislike the "OA" monogram because I am not a fan of incorporating the team nickname into the monogram (like the Colorado Rockies do), but I do like the way it looks. If the "A" wasn't so iconic on the cap, I could see the "OA" on a cap. I may not be crazy about it, but that's just the consistency in me.

[TBGKon]

I wonder, as homage to the past, if you could incorporate the current "A" to make it the A in Athletics. Would look kinda cool if I imagine it correctly.

[ravenmaster]

A, for sure. He isn't carrying anything, he's making a statement on the ground he's on.

[illwauk]

I like A the best since it gives the elephant something to stand on and it emphasizes "Athletics" over "Oakland" which is good since they're moving to Freemont. But for that reason, I wouldn't impliment the cap logo you used. I always wanted to see the A's rock an "O" cap, but with the upcoming move, that ship has sailed IMO.

[maz]

I'm not familiar with the team's history - what is the elephant for?

The elephant takes its origina from the A's Philadelphia years. At that time, the Phillies manager called Connie Mack's Athletics a bunch of white elephants. Mack took the jab and turned it into a rallying cry for his club, adopting the elephant as the team's mascot.

Its endured ever since.

EDIT: I THINK it was the Phillie manager. It could have been a Philly sports writer or something, but it definitely was meant in a derogatory way against the Philadelphia American League team from the more established National League of the time.

Nope. It was NY Giants manager John McGraw, IIRC.

I think he mightve gotten cunfused with when a Philadelphia manager called the Pirates {Then called the "Alleghenies"} pirates for signing a player he forgot to re-sign.

[rtrich11]

emphasizes "Athletics" over "Oakland" which is good since they're moving to Freemont.

Will they remain the Oakland Athletics or change to something else? The move isn't until 2011, but sometimes they decide these things early.

[sideshowbob]

wow, I amvery impressed. The elephant i think is perfect. At first I liked B, but after I looked at them and read the comments, I decided A was the best one. As itavis said, the elephant is a big animal and the logo looks better if it is on top of the wordmark, instead of the circle. For some reason, I don't like the hat logo, but Im not sure why, it dosent really fit in with the other logo, imo. anyway, amazing what you have got here.

[BallWonk]

My one-fiftieth of a dollar:

A, then C, then B. They're all attractive, but A is goodest, C is gooder, and B is just good. That is one excellent elephant. Very sharp; better than what they use now.

The cap logo? On a pure visual-design level, it's awesome. But as a big-league baseball cap logo, I despise it with a burning passion. Combining location and nickname initials is just wrong. It looks too bush-league for the majors, it shows about the same respect for the fans as "Orioles" script on a road jersey, and anyway there are already too many teams that do it. Adding another one of these monstrosities to the big leagues would be a sin. Every time someone wears a location/nickname initial cap, and angel dies. But that aside, it really is a beautiful cap logo! The old comics fanboy in me thinks it would be a great Green Lantern tie-in cap. If the Green Lantern Corps had a baseball team, they would totally wear green caps with a yellow interlocking "OA".

What about an O cap, or an intertwined OAK cap? Why let the White Sox and the Cardinals corner the market on three-letter caps?

Also, I hope you'll be designing uniforms with numbers in a type style that matches your "Oakland" and "Athletics" letters. That is an excellent bit of type design -- kudos if it's a custom or modified font.

[cyandlux]

Love them alll.

One complaint is the hat logo. No, just no. I dont fear change but Id hate to see O and A on the same hat. A lot of people hate the CR for that same reason.

[rtrich11]

Every time someone wears a location/nickname initial cap, and angel dies.

Hilarious

You know, I had mixed feelings making that hat logo in the first place. I understand the opinion y'all have. I hate the CR Rockies hat, but I thought these letters looked good together. I'll play around some more with that. I promise NOT to put the elephant head on the hat. Too minor league.

I do have a elephant head secondary I'm working on, but it may not be necessary.

[-kj]

Unrelated, I suppose, but since someone brought it up... I don't see a problem with the Colorado CR hats. I think they look terrific.

As for this concept, I love the first one, especially with the larger A. The AO doesn't do anything for me, though. I think it'd be better to keep the "A's" cap, but use the new font treatment for it.

[chestnutz]

Tough to pick what I like best, it's a tie between A and B. I love the hat logo too

[LMU]

Thankfully there won't be a need to worry about the OA cap logo, since they're moving to Fremont anyway. The elephant is fantastic though.

[StPatty33]

I like all of them, it's hard to choose!

I really like the angled concept of B and C--however--the elephant is not visually centered on these. He needs to be moved a bit to the right for the perspective to be accurate.

[CS85]

I like B the best, but A is pretty cool too.

[nwtrailtrekker]

A is the best. good designs. i even kinda like the hat logo.