re: Worst Logo Changes in Sports History

Freaking GOAT. But can’t have a white man as a mascot anymore.

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YouTube vid
Great video explaining the trend

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I spent a lot of time in the field of "brand design" and have watched trends come and go. The push to "flat" design has been driven directly by two things. First like they state in the video, mobile first, better yet, mobile native design. You need a brand mark to be clearly legible on what are truly small spaces. Also, additional color and design can be detrimental to page download times, especially when you're considering mobile data trasfer.

Second is flexibility and reuse. How current CMSs (content management systems) work is that you upload one SVG file and the backend of the CMS deploys the logo for mobile, desktop, tablet and everything in between. So that one cached image populates across your site in various sizes and places. So that means the more simple and flexible your logo is, the better it will be for wide use across digital properties. That's where 90+% of the places where your brand is viewed.

I personally like the more refined look of the corporate logos today. Sports logos on the hand should be reserved to have character and unique styles.

That said, the trend shifts every five years or so. Since things have turned so sterile, I imagine that some handcrafted type elements will start making their way back into brand design.

I don't know why Cleveland gets a pass on their logo change while Washington is getting crushed. Cleveland went from iconic to moronic

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If they had kept the same colours and classic uniforms the logo wouldn't be that bad

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I'm going to be honest, I will never understand why Miami is always mentioned as having such a bad rebrand. Of all the NFL franchises who have rebranded the past 15-20 years, Miami had probably the most minor of changes. So they use a brighter shade of green, changed the font of the numbers, and took the helmet off the dolphin in their logo. What else am I missing?

To me, it's just a modernized version of what they've always worn. They didn't reinvent the wheel with their rebrand

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So they use a brighter shade of green, changed the font of the numbers, and took the helmet off the dolphin in their logo.

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Individually, those changes may not be much. Altogether, I think they were all downgrades. No need to fix something that isn’t broken.

The current “dolphin” on the helmet looks like a whale

I'm old but Oregon used to be a team I loved to follow when they used the Green and Yellow color scheme every week. Then Nike and Phil Knight decided to use them as a public test for their awful ideas.

Chicago Fire (MLS) management went completely stupid in 2019 when they dropped their iconic Maltese Cross-inspired crest to something my 7-year old would be embarrassed to claim. Then they went with the completely generic crest they have today.

What I've gathered from this thread is that the 90's were fricking sick. I know was in my teens then. Everything is so shitty and watered down now