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Uni Watch

Diamondbacks Unveil 25th-Anniversary Logo

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The Diamondbacks began play in 1998 (one year before Uni Watch!), which means they’ll be marking their 25th anniversary next season. Yesterday they released a new anniversary logo, which will presumably be worn as a patch on their caps and/or jerseys next year.

Overall, it’s a nice enough design. I do have two quibbles with it, however:

  1. I could live without “Arizona Born,” which (a) sounds too much like a hashtag and (b) like, duh, the team is from Arizona — just like every other team is “[state] born” (except for the handful of franchises the have relocated). The Cubs are Illinois born, the Tigers are Michigan born, blah-blah-blah. Seems like a stupid thing to be bragging about.
  2. This didn’t initially jump off the screen at me, but now that I’ve seen it, I can’t un-see it:

I understand that the “2” and the “5” in this font are not mirror images of each other. But if you’re going to push the two numerals so close to each other, it would be nice if the turns toward the horizontal strokes could align, just to create a sense of symmetry. Instead, the mismatch in that area that I’ve circled is like a splinter in my brain — a small thing that’s really annoying.

The (Devil) Rays will also be celebrating their 25th anniversary next season, so I imagine we’ll be seeing an anniversary logo from them in the near future.

 
  
 
Comments (36)

    “Battle Born” is on Arizona’s state flag, so I’m guessing that’s why they went the way they did on the logo.

    Major brain cramp. I looked up Arizona but one of the search results was for Nevada and I didn’t even catch that.
    Sorry…ignore me while I go back to bed.

    Yeah, I caught myself as I hit send. It’s on some state logos I saw but not on the flag. Coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.

    Unfortunately, “Battle Born” is on the Nevada State Flag..even though Arizona had actually Civil War battles

    The Vegas Golden Knights began using the “Vegas Born” slogan in their second season as two other teams from the big six leagues relocated to Sin City (Raiders, Aces). It was clearly an attempt to establish a difference between the teams and fan bases: we are original and they are not. I wonder if the Arizona Born slogan was taken from their neighbors to the north

    Not a very inspiring motto but the logo is OK. I like how they put the old purple and teal in it. As for the 25, they should have picked another font with a 2 going all the way down. from right to left.

    your cacti don’t curve like that? oh gosh… now i’s self-conscious about my cacti… i heard it was normal for them to have a curve.

    I believe Intralesional Verapamil or perhaps the use of Xiaflex should address the cacti curve.

    Ah, yes. Xiaflex! thanks to a combination of exercises and stretches along with xiaflex, all of my phallic produce is now straight as an arrow, just as advertised!

    Almost all saguaros grow straight up, but some can have a bend to them, so it’s not impossible. Still, if you stand next to a mountain covered in saguaros, you tend just see a sea of cacti standing straight up, so I think it’s a fair criticism.

    The way they connected the 2 and 5 is odd. Accounting for the outline, there is basically no space between them. Most sports fonts would have the horizontal strokes misaligned if pushed that close. Rather than re-engineer the font, separate them a bit.

    I remember back in 1982 the Giants celebrated their 25th SEASON of playing in San Francisco.
    But the Dodgers waited until 1983 to celebrate their 25th ANNIVERSARY of moving to Los Angeles.

    The 2 and 5 misalignment reminds me of the Chicago Bears logo. The first time you see that its misaligned, you just think it must be a crappy photoshop. Then for the rest of your life it sticks out like a sore thumb.

    “now that I’ve seen it, I can’t un-see it:” – my snap reaction is the new logo resembles Looney Tunes credits! Cue the music….

    What jumped out to me more than the misalignment was the shadow (bevel) on the top vertical side of the “2.” Shouldn’t the shadow be on the right side instead of the left – like the bottom right vertical side of the “5”? The dark shadow is consistent on the bottom and the right everywhere else except that one spot.

    That jumped out at me too. Imagine a light source above and to the left of the digits. The wrong side of the beveling is shadowed on the “2”.

    YES! i saw that immediately! as an artist and designer myself, i remember distinctly that kind of shadowing or beveling being one of the first font tricks i liked to practice (like back when i was single digits years old) but here we are looking at this.

    I really like how the old team colors are in the center of the design to honor the team uni history.

    I liked that too; I wish they had used the team’s old number font for the “25” and the years, rather than a generic block font that the team has never worn.

    I know purple isn’t popular here, but I’m sad that the Diamondbacks changed their colors. Especially since they won their only World Series with these colors. I get it that Purple & Teal was the trendy colors back then, but why not lean into that since it’s when the team started. They comment from the team when they changed was that there was already a team in their division with purple, and no red team. First off, that was a lame excuse. The new owners just didn’t like it. If they wanted to move away from purple, they could have minimized it, or even eliminate it, and go with Teal and Black. Their teal now is more turquoise, and would look great with black.

    What bothers me most is that — while 2023 may mark the franchise’s 25th anniversary— the 2023 season (during which they’ll wear this logo) will be the team’s 26th season.

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