Bad Conduct | What is the most beautiful sports logo?

Every week, sports journalists from Press answer a question with pleasure, and a little insolence as well. As we needed a bit of expertise in the matter, our special guest this week is Camille Dussault, graphic designer in our newsroom.

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Camille Dussault, graphic designer at Press

The Edmonton Oilers logo is eye candy. Without a doubt one of the most beautiful logos of all time, it is of perfect unity and balance, and it does so with ease. The centrality of the drop and the team name unified within the perfect circle shape results in a composition that literally resembles a seal. Another sign of harmony is the choice of blue and its complementary color, orange (more striking in the 1970s version, today’s blue being closer to an indigo). We also recognize the perfection of a logo in the ease of its use in monochrome version, without alteration or confusion of the components. The choice of the western-influenced typeface is not trivial given the geographical location of the team, but also has this little side vintage which makes the nostalgic fiber vibrate. The curved lines of the serifs of the letters ending in a layer of oil marrying the bordering circular shape complete the symbiosis. The whole is timelessly effective.

Special mention to the graphic overhaul of the Montreal Alouettes, which was brilliantly successful with their disarmingly simple two-color logo consisting solely of a line forming the bird and the city’s “M”.

Mathias Brunet

Aesthetically, the Detroit Red Wings logo is stunning. And it combines the two main elements of the team, the city, recognized as the capital of the automobile, and the character of the club, which we want fast and dynamic. Ironically, its color was predestined since the Wings were the first to massively welcome the former Soviet glories of the Red Army. Little-known detail, but oh so important, this logo, born in 1932, originates from … Montreal. It is indeed inspired by the first club to win the Stanley Cup, in 1893, the Winged Wheelers of Montreal, whose new owner of the Detroit Cougars, James Norris, had already worn the colors when young. Four years later, this rather mediocre club in the 1920s won their first Stanley Cup. Norris also today gives his name to the trophy awarded to the defender par excellence in the National League.

Miguel bujold

In my opinion, among the major professional leagues in North America, it is in the National Hockey League (NHL) that we find the most beautiful logos. Those of the Canadian, Bruins, Flyers, Blackhawks and Red Wings are all particularly successful. My favorite, however, is the Blues. From early childhood, I liked this logo, without really knowing why. Truth be told, looking at my hockey cards when I was 4 or 5, I thought the logo was a little shovel … it’s of course a musical note with wings, which makes it still more original. And since we are there, let’s talk about the name of the club. Why don’t we say the Blues rather than the Blues, as we do for the Utah Jazz? This is because in 1967 the owner and founder of the team, Sid Saloman Jr., named his team in honor of the song. St. Louis Blues, by W. C. Handy, and not for the musical genre. If the question ever ends up in a quiz …

Katherine Harvey-Pinard

I am so picky. I had all the hardship in the world to choose, but ended up going with the current main Boston Red Sox logo. Two red stockings, without unnecessary artifice. No need to rack your brains to figure it out. It is unique and even a little fun, but above all simple and effective. Like this paragraph!

Richard Labbé

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Tampa Bay Bucs logo. For the first logo, there, not the most recent. Because the first Bucs logo is sublime, and it’s a crime against humanity to have thought of packing it down in favor of a more “modern” logo. But what’s the point of being modern if it’s to be flatter? IM asking you. As we are brought back this orange pirate, the same color as the frozen delicacies of our childhood, who gazes menacingly at the enemy, the knife literally between its teeth. Perfection looks a bit like that.

Guillaume Lefrançois

Warning: I will answer here more out of nostalgia than out of pure design criteria. Because quite frankly, I would be more comfortable talking about Turkmenistan’s healthcare system than talking about design. So I fall back on the logos of the 1980s, when I started to follow the sport. I thought of the Islanders logo (not Captain Highliner, don’t worry) or the Brewers logo in baseball, with the moth that forms a B and an M (like in Brewers and Milwaukee). Well thought. But if we have to decide, I go with the first Sabers logo, so beautiful that the team ended up coming back to it, first in navy blue, then bringing back the royal blue of the 1970s and 1980s altogether.

Simon-Olivier Lorange

Accuse me of chauvinism or laziness as much as you want, but you don’t have to go through the entire article “sports logos” on my Encarta CD-ROM to find my favorite logo. That of the Expos is exceptionally beautiful. Simple and easy to love, whether or not you know its details and meaning, yet complex but fluid in its execution – the “e”, the “M”, the “b”. Above all, at the birth of the team in the late 1960s, it contrasted with the tradition of baseball logos, essentially centered on the names of clubs (Dodgers, Giants, Twins …) or on their literal illustration ( Tigers, Indians, Orioles …). When you see how far the logo has come through the years, another 17 years after the franchise moved, it is easy to conclude that the design, attributed to Gerald Reilly, was a stroke of genius.

Alexandre pratt

I like the logos with hidden messages, like the one for the Tour de France, with a wheel in the O and a cyclist in the R. Or the Minnesota Twins logo, with the word “win” underlined. My favorite ? That of the Hartford Whalers. The white base is W-shaped, for Whalers. In the center, in green, there is an H, for Hartford. All topped off with a whale tail. Genius.

Jean-Francois Tremblay

First of all, I like clean logos where it doesn’t take a master’s degree in the semiology of the image to understand what it is all about. And what is more refined than a logo that is just a stylized letter? When unveiling the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada brand image, there was a great risk of falling into the cliché. It wouldn’t have taken much for the logo to become a galleon, but obviously the designer was aware of the sad fate of the Spanish Invincible Armada which crashed onto the Irish coast in 1588 before succeeding. his invasion of England. All that to say that I was delighted to see this logo of an A surmounting two B. It’s all there. Plus, the black and white layout stood out clearly in an era when dark uniforms were not the norm.