Pittsburgh Penguins logo concept

[Keeb13r]

The skating penguin logo is an important part of the Penguins history and is beloved by lots of fans, yet every time I look at it, I can't help but notice how poorly drawn it is. You can't quite tell where the fingers begin and end and the skates... well, I've never seen hockey skates that look that bad.

I find the original logo to be best version of the penguin, but it obviously comes from a different era, and many people think it looks too friendly and fat.

I decided to try and design a logo that would pay homage to the team's history while still looking modern. The direction I was trying to take was to essentially mimic how other logos have been modernized recently (see the New Orleans Hornets or the NFL logo).

For the skating penguin: I liked the scarf on the original logo, which emphasized the penguin's cold habitat, so I brought that back. I also brought back the original "Steeler gold" (for lack of a better name) as the primary color, as I like it better than Vegas gold. I've maintained the Vegas gold as an accent color in 2 versions - I couldn't decide on white/gold stick and gloves, so I made 2 versions. And I included a 3rd variation without the Vegas gold, based on some initial feedback I got.

For the head logo: as I struggled with the skating penguin, I realized that the head on its own would make a strong secondary logo. I tried to make this logo echo the "flying pigeon" without the obvious resemblance.

I'd appreciate any comments or advice you guys could give me, as I'm not very experienced with vector graphics editors.

[lightning25]

I like it, looks great. I'm not sure about the eye, though. Also, you should probably ditch the vegas gold altogether and tweak the yellow a bit. Those are my only two problems though, the logo is still great.

[chickenfish13]

Looks real good, definitely a different take on updating the logo. I like the middle full body logo for the colorway. I think you could thicken up the outlines a little bit, and the eye does look a little weird, but other than that its nicely done.

[Discrim]

The eye looks a bit strange, but I like the idea of bringing the scarf back.

[hockey week]

When I clicked on this, I was expecting another terrible attempt to make the penguin fierce and with blue. This is, by far, the best Penguins logo concept I have ever seen, and as a Pens fan, I've seen a lot. Very, very impressive.

They eye isn't quite right. How, I'm not exactly sure. tinker a bit, see if you can come up with alternatives. Meanwhile, it looks better (not quite perfect, but better) in the secondary logo, so it might just be a placement-relative-to-the-body thing.

I think the scarf could be slightly more detailed, too, but that's just personal preference.

I like the bottom logo (gold scarf, white gloves) of the full body, and I'm liking the white-scarf secondary. Why isn't there a white-scarf version of the primary? And just for kicks, maybe try a baby-blue scarf. It works in the Pittsburgh city flag, and we all know that Pens love the blue, so why not give it a shot.

Again, this is by far the best Penguins logo concept I've ever seen. I'd love to see it perfected. It's very close.

[Bayne]

I quite like it. Definitely an upgrade, but I do worry that it loses some of it's 'classic' quality. I would either go all vegas gold or all yellow also. The two together don't really look good.

[number9hockey]

I like the modernization, but with a scarf like that where is his vespa? I think the rest of the logo is great but the scarf just makes it seem like some hipster. Just my thoughts.

[stumpygremlin]

I think that that logo is absolutely fantastic

[evanmaldonado]

I like the modernization, but with a scarf like that where is his vespa? I think the rest of the logo is great but the scarf just makes it seem like some hipster. Just my thoughts.

I actually like the scarf but the hipster comment is full of win.

[GeorgesL]

I like this. I really like this a lot!

[undead]

Very nice modernization. If you could make him a little meaner he'd be even better.

[Keeb13r]

Ok, at the suggestion of many, I redid the eye to make the penguin look more aggressive, got rid of the vegas gold, and I thickened up the lines. I also redid the scarf, having never been really happy with the level of detail I gave it before. Finally, I've tried a version with the baby blue, at the request of hockey week.

[HawkeyHouse]

Love the new penguin. Gold square, blue scraf. Pretty awesome heritage logo. Wish I had something like that when I was working on my designs.

[HawkeyHouse]

The crap? Double post?

[Generic]

Really great job, I love the first post one with the yellow fill. 2nd post is great too.

[webdav]

Doesn't the fact it's a penguin represent a cold environment?

[Riatt]

Maybe it's just me, but the beak looks a little too long.

[aci]

Maybe it's just me, but the beak looks a little too long.

I find that it looks alright on the full-body penguin, but looks very strange on the face-only penguin because of what it does to the outlines.

[nash61]

Cut the beak where the white ends and it's perfect.

[hockey week]

Nash61 is right. cut the beak off to prevent the outline from straying too much, and it is absolutely perfect.

I appreciate you trying the blue scarf. It pops. I'm probably in a minority here, but I actually like it best. It leads me to the idea that "what if the scarf's color was the same as the jersey that logo were on?" I don't think that's ever been done before, a jersey-dependent logo detail. I'd keep the blue-scarves as tertiary logos for any blue alternates. I just think it works, works well, and works subtly.

Anyways, it looks fantastic. This is THE ONLY logo I've seen that I'd be happy with as the Penguins official logo, and that's saying a lot for this traditionalist and long-time fan. Fantastic work!