Once upon a time, the Jaguars had some of the best uniforms in the league. As I frequently stated in the early and mid-2000s, that uni had a chance to become a modern classic if they were just smart enough to leave it alone. But of course that didn’t happen — they went ahead and ruined the uniforms. But at least they still had a really nice helmet with a solid logo. And now they’ve taken the final step in dismantling a once-solid identity by ruining the helmet logo too.
That last sentence is what I expected to be writing today. But to my very pleasant surprise, I really like the new design, which was unveiled yesterday. How much do I like it? Let me count the ways:
• I like the angle of the head.
• I like that the cat is looking more straight-ahead instead of at the viewer.
• I like the toning down of the heavy black outline.
• I like the more realistic depiction of the cat. In fact, the old one, which I always thought I liked, suddenly looks sloppy and almost amateurish by comparison.
• I like how the spots seem more like real spots on real fur, instead of just abstract squiggles.
• I like the use of white space.
About the only things I don’t like are the teal nose and, especially, the teal eye. But they’re not dealbreakers. (The teal tongue, oddly enough, has never bothered me, I think because I’ve known several chows [dogs], which have blue tongues. Yes, I realize a dog is not the same as a jaguar, and blue is not the same as teal. But somehow the dog example overrides my “teal jaguar tongue does not compute” circuit.)
Oh, and there’s also a new wordmark, which is every bit as bad as the old one, but we probably won’t have to see it too often, so no biggie.
Is it possible that the new uniforms, due to be unveiled at the draft, will be as good as the new helmet logo? That seems unlikely. But at least now I have a little hope.
Meanwhile: The results of my Browns-redesign contest are up today on ESPN. Enjoy.
Logo theft, continued: In response to yesterday’s post about logo theft, I received the following note from a reader who prefers to remain anonymous:
I confess: I am a logo thief. I spent several years on the board of my local Little League, and since I have a background in graphic design, I was frequently tasked with creating artwork for flyers, mailings, etc. The league logo that had been in use for years was the worst sort of clip-art butchery imaginable — a baseball with an awful motion swoosh and tacky typography.
When I was tasked with redesigning the logo, I decided it would be cool to include a panther, which is the mascot of our local school district. Time was short, and drawing a decent panther was beyond the reach of my atrophied skill set, especially with a tight deadline.
Fully aware of how frequently schools crib the designs of pro and college teams, I set off on a Google Images quest for an appropriate panther. I didn’t want to be so obvious as to take the first panther I saw so I scrolled and scrolled past all the Carolina Panthers logos. The Florida and Pitt panthers are hideous, so I skipped them as well.
Finally, after many pages of unfamiliar panther-named teams and hideous clip-art panthers, I discovered the logo for a small university whose teams are called the Panthers. It was obscure enough and far away enough that I figured no one would notice or care, so I proceeded to pinch their panther for our logo.
As a former graphic designer, I fully understood what I was doing and where it fell on the Right/Wrong scale. In my television career, our network was known for many graphic innovations, and we frequently saw our designs “trickle down” to other networks. Rather than feel anger or disgust, I always felt sort of a condescending pride. If our designs were being pinched by other networks, that simply validated our design chops.
Our tiny Little League organization made no profit from this logo, other than the sale of a few T-shirts, and those proceeds were directly reinvested into the league. Board members work exclusively as volunteers and have never been paid a cent. Indeed, most board members wind up digging into their own pockets to provide goods and services for the betterment of the league.
So whatever guilt I feel for using another designer’s work is assuaged by knowing that what I did was not for myself, but for public service. Am I rationalizing? Perhaps. Would I do it differently if I could go back? Yeah, probably. However I may be judged for this, I accept it.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Last week the Canucks announced a Vancouver Millionaires patch for their third jersey. Now they’ve unveiled a full-on Millionaires throwback, to be worn on March 16. I totally dig it, natch. … New uniforms, including a truly horrific G.I. Joe design, for West Virginia baseball (from Jay Sullivan). … Indiana will apparently be the next school using a bleed-out design (from Ryan Mandel). ”¦ A Pixar artist has done some really great NFL match-up interpretations. ”¦ Here’s a nice close-up of Stan the Man’s zippered jersey (from Nicole Haase). … An Arizona football recruit was shown next season’s uniforms and was apparently quite impressed (from Kenny Abbey Jr.). … RPI hockey wore this “freakout” jersey, whatever that means, the other day (from Tim Fogarty). … A tug-of-war at a California high school turned gruesome the other day, as several students suffered severed fingers. And if that’s not a good argument for bringing the tug-of-war back to the Olympics, I don’t know what is. … Some high school kid with an Auburn tattoo has committed to Alabama. … Can someone please just put some iodine in the Wilpons’ coffee already? … Joakim Noah ran afoul of the NBA’s uniform police because he was wearing a sweater on the bench (from Leo Thornton). … A high school in Washington State played a game in 1980s uniforms that were recently discovered in storage (from Alex Allen). … Latest effect of global climate change on the sports world: The Iditarod race has had to make some adjustments. … An obsessive English soccer fan has written a book about soccer dugouts. “It’s photos of, well, dugouts,” says Cort McMurray. … New lacrosse helmets for Lehigh. “Brown is a rare helmet color, often has to be custom-ordered,” notes Connor Wilson. “The ‘Lehigh’ on the facemask bar is also pretty special.” … The A’s have unveiled a Coco Crisp bobblehead that’s really more of a bobblebody (from Tom Mulgrew). … If you’ve been dying to vote on who has the best and worst hockey jerseys in a tiny D3 conference, today’s your lucky day. … Once upon a time, Don Cherry wore something other than outrageous suits (from Anthony Nuccio). … Think you’ve seen everything? No you haven’t — until now. There, now you have (screen shot by Doug Ceane). … Can you guess the Niner? (Thanks, Brinke.) … Late-breaking item from last weekend: The Sharks wore Valentine’s Day-themed jerseys prior to Saturday’s game against the Stars. They had another home game last night and will have another one this Saturday, so it’s odd that they would wear the V-Day gear so far in advance of the holiday (from Rich Paloma). … Many readers noticed that two of the zebras working last night’s Michigan/Ohio State game wore different — and differently oriented — American flag patches. I got, like, six e-mails on that one in a two-minute period. Impressive! ”¦ In that same game, both teams wore fairly awful uniforms. ”¦ Wish the photo was bigger, but it looks like Tennessee baseball is going with some very nice striped stirrups this season (from Chris Morgan). ”¦ Here are some more photos of those crazy Illinois State throwbacks from a few days ago (from Matthew Keegan). ”¦ Check this out: an auto racing helmet that mimic an Indiana football helmet! That Facebook page says it’s for Kraig Kinser, but the helmet has “Steve” printed on the facemask, which may mean it’s actually for Kraig’s father, Steve Kinser (from Calvin Alger).
By the time most of you read this, I’ll be on my way to Washington, where I’ll be covering tomorrow’s “Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American Sports” symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian. (If you’re curious, there’ll be a live webcast here.) I’m also looking forward to meeting many of you DC-area readers at 7:30 tonight at Hamilton’s. As for everyone else, do me a favor and go easy on the Ticker submissions over the next few days — I’m gonna be pretty busy. Thanks for understanding.
I asked last night if the the Jags had ever used “JAGS” as a logo/wordmark. Look like maybe they have now.
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It’s from a USA Today link.
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The logo has two golds, which I thought was just shadowing for the logo.
But if you look at the shield for JAGS, there are two golds there, too. Looks like the colors may be black, teal, light gold and dark gold (beveled numbers?)
I just hope they actually get one of those golds properly matched on the uniform, and don’t use that washed out junk color the Saints have.
One more thing. Looking at the small logo on the Jaguars’ site, the white around the mouth stood out like the letter “C”
I flipped it to the left, like the Eagles, and tweaked the gold to make the white mouth look like the letter “J”
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I always thought the Tongue should have more emulated the letter J on the old logo. Seems like a lost opportunity to sneak a J in there.
The “J” stands out more on a black background.
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Also, I think if the logo is going on an all-black helmet, they would’ve displayed it yesterday. Gold helmet? Gold stripes?
what if the Jags got a Gold helmet ?
NESCAC may be tiny and D3, but its team regularly win national championships. And they have some of the great rivalries in all of college sports (Amherst-Williams foremost among them, of course).
Yeah! And Hamilton and … um …
OK, maybe Colgate, but that wasn’t um…
Damn those Jeffs/Ephs.
GO YOU CONTS!!!
Damn those Jeffs/Ephs.
What the heck did I do now?
Go you Conts, match up your dang blues on your pants and sweater on the road, please.
It’s like…navy sweaters, and then royal blue pants and helmets. Ugh.
Second that, speaking as the parent of a player on a NESCAC/NCAA champion team. The NESCAC member schools may be “tiny” size-wise, but collectively they’re the dominant force in NCAA D-III athletics by a wide margin. In ice hockey alone there are currently 3 NESCAC schools in the NCAA Top 15, a ratio that is more rule than exception in every other sport (my child’s NCAA champion team was one of 3 NESCAC teams in the Elite 8 of the NCAA tourney and one of 5 NESCAC teams in the Top 20 the year it won, for instance).
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And the NESCAC ties the ECAC East for the most teams (4) in the top 17 of the objective (ish) D3Hockey Computer Rankings. And that doesn’t even include a Middlebury team that has won eigth national championships and sits at second in conference standings.
They all look pretty good.
It appears the 2013 MLB playoff logo has been pulled already. 404 error when you go to the link.
People are often dismembered in tug-o-war matches.
Well, maybe not often, but this ain’t the first (or tenth) time I’ve heard of this sort of thing.
Yeah, this is partly why I don’t care about tug-of-war anymore. Never wrap the rope around your hand. Probably not the cause in this case, but still.
Usually it is the rope snapping, recoiling back, and “el chopperino!”
I had 3rd degree rope burns from a tug of war contest. You could see the bone on my knuckles. Not kidding.
btw, this wasn’t ever really real was it? Really?
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Is the Jags helmet color remaining the same or is that changing too?
Yes.
I love the new logo, but did they really need to make the spot closest to the tongue look like a phallus?
Yes. Yes they did.
I’m guessing that graphic designers do that sort of thing a lot. Kind of like their joke on the rest of the world.
Can’t unsee…
When I clicked the Don Cherry link, fun’s Some Nights was playing on the radio, and it made me realize that young Don Cherry looks a great deal like fun lead singer Nate Ruess:
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So if any of the Browns uniforms prototypes are used from the redesigned contest, would that be considered theft or property of the designer…or uni-watch…since none of it is actually copyrighted?
Are we sure they’re not?
I know written work is automatically copyrighted as soon as it has been created. What protections apply to graphic work?
Then again, they’re all derivative works based on the Browns’ intellectual property and might not be eligible for protection.
I believe artwork is given the same protection, though I’m no attorney.
Good point re: derivative works, Chance. It’s not the same as when that guy submitted his logo ideas to the Ravens: link
I suppose WVU’s baseball redesign closes the door on their link alternates (which always looked link as separates link.) A shame, I always kind of liked that look for them, but if they’re abandoning the old gold, perhaps it’s for the better.
The gold and blue camo is horrendous.
I just noticed something… have they stopped using the interlocking WV? If so, that would be a world-class tragedy.
Looks like they have: link
Yeah. It sucks. I understand it, but it doesn’t make me happy.
the “freakout” uniforms that RPI hockey wore are for their annual Big Red Freakout game. Its their annual everyone dress in school colors game which normally takes place the first week in February. Every year they come out with a one time design to wear for the game
Oh and I don’t think this was mentioned yet but this past Friday for the game on NBC Sports network, Union college wore their Alt uni’s against Dartmouth… link
more pics here… link
and before anyone says that the Browns one is a pool of poo. i’ve seen people say it’s based off of WOW’s Swamp of Sorrows
…and
DC Bound
Even that sounds better than “Washington Wizards.”
Jacksonville got a new cat yesterday, Monopoly gets one today:
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I see great marketing potential in a rivalry between the cat and the Scottie.
I thought I liked the teal eye, nose, and tongue on the new logo until I saw the full effect, with the wordmark hovering above it. Now it just seems out of place. I’m a little bit surprised that they didn’t ditch the teal altogether when they had the chance. Seems like they’ve been heading in that direction over the past few years, and it seems almost pointless to keep those three items on the logo teal if (as they announced this past season) they’re just going to wear black and white at home and on the road.
The teal tongue on the Jaguars logo has never bothered me. I expect the team’s colors to be incorporated into a logo.
However, I’ve just never been a fan of the Jags’ logo in general. I can be glad that I’m not a Jags fan and don’t have to worry about it.
I wonder if they are going to put a Christmas hat on it as was once done in the late 90’s at mid-field during December home games. I am trying to look for some screen shots of it.
I remember that. The NFL shut that down, though.
Really? Boo to the NFL; that was a neat tradition to see the jaguar sporting an elf hat.
Here’s a link.
I always loved that. It’s the beauty of mascot logos, that they can be customized for special occasions.
am i the only one that thinks that the new cartoony jags look makes it too similar to the Panthers logo
Nope. And that stupid angular/pointy font needs to die. Stop it, Nike! Stop it.
Nike has nothing to do with either the Panthers’ or Jaguars’ logos.
The new Panther logo was designed by NFL Properties, Don’t yet know who did the Jags’ upgrade, but have heard that it was not Nike.
I couldn’t agree more, Ben. There are too many NFL team wordmarks that are slight variations of heavy, blocky font with sharpened serifs. We need more like the Steelers whose mark makes it look like it was die cut from a sheet of steel.
the new Jags logo looks like Cheetara from the thundercats cartoon
My thoughts on today’s logo theft post: Just because you didn’t profit from the theft of someone’s handiwork doesn’t make it ethical. What if you copied one of Paul’s articles (from Uni Watch) about baseball uniforms, made a few edits and posted it to your Little League website with no credit to Paul… would that be ok? It was for the kids, so it’s ok, right?
I recently made a concept football helmet where I used helmet decals that were based off of another’s design. Even though the helmet is just sitting in my basement, I feel like I did something wrong by taking someone else’s design. Serves me right, I guess.
As the man once said “every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief.” Nothing is truly original, it’s just a matter of how well you’re able to conceal the source of your inspiration.
I’m a professional designer and have no problem with someone “borrowing” a logo when it’s for a small non-profit, loosely organized group like a volunteer-run little league team. I see it as a form of pro-bono work for those unable to create — or afford for someone else to create — artwork for themselves. It’s not so much thievery as it is a team needs a logo, has zero budget and doesn’t profit (appreciably) from the sale of team merchandise. When the “profit” that’s made from such sales allows the team to throw a couple pizza parties for the players, I’m cool with that.
There’s a difference between using somebody else’s work as a “source of inspiration” and just using somebody else’s work.
Right. Agreed. But I feel it depends on the use of the logo teamed with common sense. Kids pretending to be Major Leaguers for a summer = good; Douchebag selling bootlegs = bad.
Apparently Kraig Kinser thinks its ok (link from today’s Ticker):
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I just have two things to say:
1. About the Jags’ new logo. Yes, the old one suddenly looks “dated” (like something someone drew up in the late 1980s). But is it just me, or does the new logo somehow remind anyone else of Richard Scarry’s children’s books (specifically, his drawings of cat characters)? I mean, the face is so… white!
2. About the Browns’ uni contest. Congrats to Ross Hazlett on being one of the five who got on today’s ESPN.com column. Because his ideas were similar to mine (keep the design simple, add drop shadows to the numerals, add a couple logo patches). Besides, I’ve been published before (Astros, last June) and it’s always cool for someone else to get their turn in the spotlight.
“the old one suddenly looks ‘dated'”
I thought the exact same thing. It had never crossed my mind till I saw the new logo.
Buzzfeed is encroaching on Uni Watch territory….
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the jags new logo is better than this:
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Someone doesn’t like the new Jags logo.
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+1 for Sherlock!
You guys are always great about featuring hockey gear and soccer kits, and today you’ve got a sprint car racer’s helmet! All of my favorite sports. That’s fantastic! I’ll definitely be looking for that one when the World of Outlaws season starts. It’s worth noting that if this is indeed for Steve Kinser, it will be a drastic step away from his usual design motif. Great stuff.
And sure enough…here’s Steve Kinser’s lid for this season. Looks like the helmets were painted by someone named Steve as well. I kind of thought it was strange that The King would go away from a pretty established design (especially considering what his car looks like this year) and it looks like that’s the case. link
I’m totally with you on the sprint car racing. Maybe we could get Paul to post a racing livery of the week, or something. Everyone sees NASCAR cars all the time, but not everyone realizes that there are some really great designs in other forms of motorsport.
If you’re looking for some cool images of this coming year’s cars, iBracn is the go-to. I can’t stand NASCAR racing but I do enjoy seeing drivers from the dirt ranks make it big (wish more would go to Indy but that’s another story). I must admit it’s always fun to say I saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kasey Kahne fail to make it out of the Non qualifiers show at the Knoxville Nationals. :)
2013 Cars: link
2013 Helmets: link
I check out that site almost every day…right after Uni-Watch.
From Craig Robinson of FlipFlipFlyBall fame, a Marlins-style Mexico jacket at the Caribbean Series:
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The old logo had some major conceptual flaws and this one has some major execution flaws.
The logo looks stretched out, looks much better when you squeeze it horizontally.
The “furry” spots are fine (actually I question how they replicate at small sizes but whatever), but don’t match the rest of the illustration style.
Speaking of spots, although these are more authentic to a Jaguar’s head, I preferred the more traditional jaguar spots on the old. Better for future applications and patterns.
The areas around the eye are wonky as well around the nose.
No need for the second gold, in fact they’ve dropped it on the hats. Why is it there if its not there in a big execution?
How good is this going to look at 2″ on a coaches polo? My guess is pretty poor.
Overall from a laymen’s perspective it’s an improvement, from a designers perspective I can’t unsee all the issues with it.
As a layman, well, not a graphic designer at least, I think part of the success of this logo is that the designers involved have thought “to hell with how it looks in miniature on a polo shirt, let’s make it look more like a real damn jaguar on the players helmets!”
“Designers perspective” has given us simpler logos in recent times. Logos that are easier to reproduce, logos that are easier to scale down, logos that are unsatisfying, logos that lack character. The Winnipeg Jets, OKC Thunder, Marlins and it seems the Dolphins have all suffered from being kicked around in the house of modern design aesthetics
I can’t get over how hilarious link.
Love that link.
If there’s anything better-suited to a baseball uniform than soutache, I haven’t found it.
That link about Kalama has at least 4 stolen logos in the top banner (Michigan’s Block M, Oregon State’s Beaver, Toledo’s Rocket, Donald Duck). I can’t identify any others, but there may be more.
If you think that’s bad, just look at what Kamala uses for a mascot logo:
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The article says that the team “flossed” the unis in a recent game – this is a usage with which I am not familiar. Is this one of those green dot questions, or are there others that were confused by that choice of verb?
Looks like one school lifted the Chicago Rush’s stylized R, while another ‘designed’ a logo that the Tennessee Titans might want to know about.
Parts of a teen vampire movie were filmed at Kalama MS/HS (though they had to redress the gym, exterior, etc…):
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I live 8 minutes from Kalama. The Beaver logo is my alma mater. That is one of many logos we have used over the years and that one gets used by the paper and it’s website more than the school.
I didn’t like the news Jaguars logo when I first saw it but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on why until now:
1: The teal eye. The first thing you would notice about an actual Jaguar stalking you is its eyes which are gold.
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I find it disappointing that one of the most characteristic and frightening aspects of real jaguars is dispensed with in the name of generic “angry eyes.”
2: The shading on the gold portions. Shading is supposed to give a three dimensional look, but it just looks a little bush-league, like an AHL logo. Between that and the expanded white areas, it makes the logo look like a generic cartoon of a cat. That makes it hard to imagine this looking good on a helmet, especially a black one.
3: The angle on the jaw. The first thing I thought was, “That kitty looks like he’s yawning.” The jaw just hangs gaping which gives the logo the appearance of being bored. Which is exactly how I feel about this logo.
If the new one looks bored, the old one looks like he was hacking up a hairball. I’d make that trade.
Quick update on MS Paint to make it look more “real” (not that I agree that it would be a good thing to do)…
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Cubs having a contest to design the 100th year of Wrigley Field.
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I know you aren’t big soccer guys, but here’s a leaked Centennial jersey for the USMNT
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Nice throwback to the 1916 jerseys, though I wish they had made the crest as big as the original one.
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Anything’s better than those blasted Waldos.
Does the Jaguar “gold” color change to a more “copper” color? It appears that it does
According to Donovan Moore of the ColorWerx blog, no. He posted this on the Chris Creamer board earlier:
Just got the new graphics…I’ll post RGB-optimized graphics later (I’ve been working on the New Orleans Pelicans on-and-off today), but a couple of interesting points in regards to the colors:
Black, Teal and (Dark) Gold are the same shades as they’ve been using.
The Light Gold is not only a very unique Pantone color, it’s a new color that was just added to the Pantone library a year or two ago.
The Jags will continue to use a metallic Gold for the helmet mark (alternate for the Dark Gold). This has been the norm since Day One of the franchise. Flat Gold primarily, but a metallic for the helmet decal.
Thanks!
I just clicked on today’s “Catch of the Day”… all I can say is WOW! Those are amazing fields!
What’s better than roses on your piano?
Tulips on your organ!!
Get it?? Get it??
Wow, can I play blue!!
I know those are old jokes, but I have to admit they made me laugh!
I was hoping that “Small D3 conference” would be the NESCAC. I go to Williams College home games all the time. Kind of disappointing to see they wear BFBS on the road.
Don’t most of their sports teams wear purple?
The purple cow is their mascot!
And yes, for the most part. The football team usually goes solid purple.
I know in the past, hockey’s worn purple sweaters on the road, and also yellow ones. But black? Meh.
Followup, they’ve worn gold as a light/home jersey a few times, but not in the past few years.
the spots on the old Jaguars logo look like silhouettes of footballs and cheese doodles.
Just heard the first details on the New Orleans Pelicans’ uniforms. The road jersey will be blue, and both home and road will say “NEW ORLEANS”.
Not just the Iditarod! New scientific project to track conditions at outdoor ice rinks (like the backyard rink where Gretzky learned to play) across North America and measure the effects of global warming:
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Rink watch is a great idea. This is the second consecutive winter with no rink at my house. My backyard slopes away from the house, so I have 2″ of water close to the house (Rochester, NY) and 9″ of water at the other side. I need consistently cold weather to freeze that much water, and the occasional days of 50 degree weather are ice killers. Is this result of global warming? I’m not sure. The winter of 2010 we had our best rink ever.
Logo theft:
I get why some people lift logos for their rec leagues or school team; but deadlines, not-for-profit or lack of talent is really no excuse. Graphic designers are everywhere & surely somebody knows one who would enjoy the opportunity & getting permission from the original source is the very least you could do. There’s plenty of free clipart or plain text/computer fonts teams or schools could use in the meantime.
Using the excuse “well I found it on a Google search & it’s already on the Internet anyway makes it fair game” doesn’t fly. We need to respect people’s property & ignorance, rationalizing or laziness doesn’t make it right.
And this: link
…and this is the reason we have so many frivolous lawsuits in this country.
I understand respecting others’ intellectual property, but c’mon… if a guy coaching a rec league team grabs the Astros logo to make a couple dozen shirts for his team, BFD. It’s not like he’s profiting from the design or doing something illegal or immoral that would sully the brand.
A guy using a logo or team identity to sell bootleg jerseys out of his trunk so he can pay his bookie is one thing. A group of kids playing baseball with a Yankee logo on their t-shirt ’cause it makes them feel like Jeter for the summer is the polar opposite.
Forget lawsuits, how about ethics? If a rec league can’t afford to pay someone to design artwork, or more likely doesn’t bother to find a parent to design one, why not just put the name “ASTROS” on the jersey? They don’t need a logo.
Oh please. Ethics? What about the folks who create uniform tweaks for this very website… are they being unethical when they use official NFL logos? The IU helmet treatment Kraig Kinser is using that was linked to in today’s Ticker… “supporting the team” or lack of ethics? There is probably some ambulance-chasing lawyer out there who’s itching to take that case, but the way I see it, it’s just for fun and expressing your loyalties. A rec league team is a not-for-profit venture that doesn’t harm the brand and therefore not unethical.
I hope that with this new logo, the Jags will resurrect and redesign the “prowling jaguar” logo they used to wear on their sleeves. That was my favorite secondary logo in the NFL until they got rid of it.
Its not a bad logo, but I don’t see how it will work on a helmet if they are keeping to the black and teal color scheme. Maybe they are thinking of a new helmet color too?
I’d like to see the Jags wear gold helmets.
It’ll work just as well as their old logo did.
Is there anyway the new logo can prevent certain TV commentators to stop saying “JagWIRES”?
Nice.
Did I miss something on the Bucks’ alt jerseys?
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The Hardwood Classics for this year were hinted at back in Paul’s NBA preview in October, and they’ve been snuck into Ticker items in recent days.
Tonight’s party was mentioned in the Washington Post:
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Posting from the train,
Paul
fyi…There is another place called Hamilton’s in DC. It’s the old Borders at 14th and F and is kind of happening place and that is where I thought the party was. I would have went there but I am glad did follow your link to the right location. Might be some confusion or maybe it is just my idiot self.
Looking forward to meeting you 2nite.
I believe that one is called THE Hamilton, no?
yes it is. My mistake. Hope your trip goes smooth. BTW..Indian museum cafeteria is excellent I have been told.
The “Original” Hamilton or just THE Hamilton? Or THE Original Hamilton?
Maybe I’m thinking of Ray’s.
In Philly (years ago), lots of folks used to confuse Bookbinder’s with Old Original Bookbinder’s.
Not a problem now.
Just wondering : Do you think that modern franchises use graphic only logos instead of lettered ones (as they used to do back in the day, see Bears, Niners, Packers etc…) just because today’s technology makes it easier to replicate on helmet and uniforms or because it allows them to relocate the team without having to change anything to its visual identity ?
Personnally, I’d have love to see the Jags go with some kind of interlocking Js on their helmet but if what we hear about their putative move to LA is true, this option was probably out of the picture from the very start.
Uh, define “modern”. From the very inception of helmet logos, most teams have used graphic logos rather than text – Ram horns, Eagle wings, stars, horseshoes, blue diamonds, green clovers… wait, what?
Sure, it is easier to relocate and change nothing if your logo doesn’t mention your city on it, but I really don’t think that’s much of a consideration in a logo design unless the team is already planning on moving anyway.
Define helmet.
…no seriously.
“it is easier to relocate and change nothing if your logo doesn’t mention your city on it”
Unless you’re Art Modell. HAR HAR HAR!
I don’t think the Indiana bleed out jerseys will make it to the court. I certainly hope not.
At what point does a change go from being an update to being a completely different logo? On one hand, the new JJ logo would be verbally described 95% the same way as the old one, but to the eye, they’re in totally different worlds.
Phil, I believe you’ve had similar arguments on weekend uniform updates/tweaks.
Well of course it’s a completely different logo. It’s also an update. Look at the form. Forest, not trees, here. It’s a cat head, looking right, mouth open, teeth exposed, ears back. It’s mostly yellow with black spots, teal tongue, and white bits on the bottom. In form, it’s little changed at all. You have to dig into the details of execution within the form to find meaningful differences, and even there we’re straining the definition of the word “meaningful.”
That’s an update. An update doesn’t mean a tweak or minor technical correction, though it may be just that. It means preserving the essential form of a design with a new treatment that throws off any accumulated sense of datedness.
“Phil, I believe you’ve had similar arguments on weekend uniform updates/tweaks.”
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Yup…Went from calling them “tweaks” to “concepts” although sometimes the concepts I get are tweaks and sometimes the tweaks I get are definitely concepts. Or something.
Just got into DC from NYC. Still trying to focus.
RE: The Kinser IU Helmet, I remember back in the early to mid 90s Joe Gibbs Racing Drivers (I especially remember this with Bobby Labonte) wore racing helmets made to look like different NFL helmets.
Three most evil people in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Fred Wilpon. If the O’Malleys were as horrible owners as the Wilpons, Brooklyn would have begged them to move.
The Indiana racing helmet is awesome. I wonder if he has a #FlamaBlanca alternate?
The old Jags unis are held in pretty high regard around here, and I don’t really get it. They weren’t that great, pretty standard expansion team garb.
In an era when everyone was trying to come out with the perfect shade of navy blue for their team, adding hideous alternates or bad color combinations, the Jags came out with a clean looking uniform combination with bold colors that worked.
I am a jags fan so my view might be skewed a bit, but I think they had a good, original uniform set which recently was undone by 15 different uniform combinations, bad number font and terrible double striped piping, etc. It’s still a good color combination but the execution has gone downhill.
Yeah they definitely weren’t bad looking, clean traditional design and all, but I just couldn’t handle all that teal.
The Jags logo is too busy – spends too much time looking like a real jaguar instead of looking like a logo. Plus if you change the aspect ratio and condense it, it looks a LOT better. Then remove the darker gold, and it’s even more of an improvement. Perfect for a sleeve logo…for an Arena team. In fact, I’m reminded of the San Jose Sabercats with this logo.
“The Jags logo is too busy — spends too much time looking like a real jaguar instead of looking like a logo”
The same could be said of Pat Patriot, but he’s a helluva lot cooler than Flying Elvis, IMHO.
This is what I pondered yesterday, whether a detailed, fussy logo can be a good logo.
I think it’s a case by case judgement.
If the logo is striking–arresting, vivid, impressive–it suceeds.
Of course, that’s all in the eye of the beholder, but I’ve come around to this new Jaguar pretty quickly.
What always bugged me is that Jacksonville and Carolina came into the league with virtually identical logos–snarling cat heads facing the same way. I was hoping one or the other team would take their logo in another direction this time around.
As for the Jacksonville logo, my problem with it was always that the top of the head (eye area) always looked too flat, just too two-dimensional. Then you get down to the mouth and it’s facing you, three dimensionally. It just feels like you should see the other eye a little bit at least. Just seems so flat up there.
The new logo has grown on me in the past day, wasn’t too crazy about it yesterday, but it will really only appear as a change to folks who really follow football. The casual fan will be like “oh the jags kinda changed their logo, right? It looks a little different.” Very slight change in the scheme of things.
But I think part of the answer is this, if they went from the new logo and switched to the old logo, the uproar would be great, it would be a terrible change. If you went from the new to the old everyone would be all “what the hell were they thinking?”. So, from that reasoning, I think the new version is better, even though the original execution of the logo was a good 95% right.
if they went from the new logo and switched to the old logo, the uproar would be great, it would be a terrible change. If you went from the new to the old everyone would be all “what the hell were they thinking?”
That’s a really interesting — and, I think, accurate — way of looking at it. Well put!
My feelings toward the old logo were never strong in either direction, but seeing how nicely the new one has turned out, I’ve decided to officially dislike the old one.
You’re 100% correct, Tom, re: if they’d gone from new to old.
Completely agree, Tom. The logo is a little more detailed, a more accurate depiction of the animal itself and a little bit more threatening. It flies in the face of the trend for over-stylized simplification of team logos. I love it!
Are the Sharks auctioning off the Valentine’s jerseys or selling jerseys like that in the team store? That would be my guess as to why they wore them so soon, so people have the time to pick up a gift for Valentine’s Day.
Did I miss it or (outside the link from the Ticker) has nobody mentioned how Michigan looked like hiliters last night? OSU was bad enough, but passable for monochrome. Michigan was brutal.
Dan Patrick used the same terminology on his show. I suppose when you see replays of the game, you are actually watching a “human highlight reel.”
In reegard to the Canucks wearing the retro Vancouver Millionaires unis – two comments:
1. It will be interesting to see how the off-white pants look.
2. While I can understand why the picked Detroit, from a color contrast standpoint – it won’t be as good as if they could have picked the Habs or the Bruins (unfortunately no inter conference games this season)
Paul – the comments on the Jags uni were as usual were thought provoking, the one that hit home the most was the use of white in the logo.
Was watching the Channel 7 (WXYZ) News in Detroit…
The anchors, weatherman, and sports guy were joking about the Michigan jerseys and how bright they are. Sportscaster stated taht it felt like he was watching French’s take on Heinze instead of UM/OSU.
Based on the new wordmark colors (gold/black vs teal/teal), I’m wondering if the Jaguars will use more gold in their uniforms?
Holy shit! The Jags logo wasn’t broken??? Why fix it? This new logo is the funny Jaguar? Like someone mashed up the current logo with Steve Martin or Bill Murray liver spots and all!!! This sucks!