Some sports logos are synonymous with the franchises they represent.
The New York Yankees have their classic design with the overlapping “N” and “Y.” The Dallas Cowboys have the famous five-pointed blue star. And the cartoon bull of the Chicago Bulls became iconic during the team’s dynasty in the 1990s.
Sports logos are about nostalgia, said designer Michael Irwin, who has been part of three rebranding efforts in the NFL — with the Los Angeles Chargers, Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions.
“A logo is tying someone to a certain place in time,” Irwin said. “It’s not necessarily if the logo is good or bad subjectively based on other opinions, but what is tying [fans] to remembering something, a good memory or bad memory, with that logo from the franchise.”
As Washington’s NFL franchise enters a new era as the Commanders, the new logo marks a potential fresh start for a team looking to create new memories. Artists and design experts who reviewed the logo following its unveiling Wednesday largely gave it positive reviews, but they all said any new logo needs time to settle in with fans and the public before final verdicts are offered.
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“The funny thing is, with sports teams especially, is if this team starts winning, you know, suddenly the logo is cool,” Irwin said. “Suddenly the logo’s tied to a winning team and a great franchise and new players and young talent.”
The new look was largely a product of Code and Theory designers. The New York-based company created the Commanders logo, while Nike handled the uniform and helmet designs. The team’s primary logo is a burgundy “W” with a gold border, celebrating the team’s roots in Washington even though the franchise is headquartered in Virginia and plays its home games in Maryland. The angled cuts at the top of the “W” are intended to signify progress and forward movement.
The team also unveiled a crest with elements connecting the franchise’s past to its future, as well as a word mark with the team’s full name. But the primary logo specifically received praise from a few sports designers who spoke with The Washington Post on Wednesday. Irwin said he appreciated the team sticking with common branding themes with the stencil numbers and letters on the team’s jerseys to match the logo. So did fellow designer Britt Davis.
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“I like that it’s got that, like, military vibe,” said Davis, a digital media manager for the Home Depot Backyard. “So it’s got the kind of stenciled lettering with the uniform, but because it’s still so new and so fresh, I want to kind of give it a chance to marinate and really kind of see how they’re going to apply it across different campaigns — from their social to their billboards and print.”
Jeff Eagles, who helped with rebrands of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers, said it might be harder for fans to have an immediate affinity for the logos because they’re not as visually striking as an animal mascot. But still, he said the organization’s intent with the logo, crest and word mark was “spot on.”
“I do think that the name is more of a concept than it is your typical mascot,” Eagles said. “I think that’s a tough thing to translate into a logo ... [The Commanders’ logos are] a very conceptual set of marks. The ‘W’ is very literal, and honestly I think that’s a great way to sort of tie back to the geographic area and that’s very strong.”
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But not everyone was a huge fan of the logo. Todd Radom has been a designer for nearly 30 years and created the original Washington Nationals logo when the Expos relocated to the District.
Radom liked the team retaining its signature burgundy and gold colors but felt the logo left him wanting more. He said the designs could grow on him depending on how the logo is used, how it works on uniforms and on the athletes in action.
“I don’t know if there’s a lot of meat on the bones,” Radom said of the new logo. “Brands for sports need to be robust. ... It looks like it is of its time to some degree, and I think it might look dated pretty soon.”
The new uniforms were unique compared with past iterations of Washington jerseys. There were three: a burgundy jersey with gold lettering, an all-white jersey with red lettering, and an alternate black jersey with gold lettering. The all-white jerseys don’t have a lot of gold in them, which surprised Paul Lukas, who runs Uni Watch, a website devoted to sports uniforms.
Lukas said the existing color scheme worked well and will continue to stand out because so few teams rely on burgundy and gold. So the choice to use black on the white jerseys was jarring for him.
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Regardless of how they parse the details, the designers said fans should be patient and give the logo and new look some time to settle. Eagles said a fan base’s immediate reaction following a major brand overhaul is negative. Fans tend to be more vocal — especially on social media — when they don’t like something. And Irwin said the sense of nostalgia surrounding a previous logo or look is hard for many fans to look past.
Davis pointed to two examples of revamped logos and designs that fans instantly jeered: the Brooklyn Nets’ logo in 2012 and the Los Angeles Rams’ updated logo last year. But slowly the criticism waned and both logos have come to be accepted. It helps, of course, that the Nets are one of the best teams in the NBA and the Rams will play in the Super Bowl this season.
The Commanders stringing together some winning seasons could go a long way toward defining how people feel about the franchise’s new look.
“People want to hold on to what they know,” Davis said. “And when things are kind of introduced, it’s a challenge. But I think, over time, once it sits with us, we start to respect it.”
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