The Sens' Unused 20th Anniversary Logo
Wednesday · Sep 26 · 2012 | 12:39 AM PDTLast season, the Ottawa Senators celebrated 20 years in the NHL. But they also used the occasion to look back on the history of pro hockey their city. They did so by recognizing a team from the early 20th century that shared their name with a special heritage uniform — designed by fan Jacob Barrette.
Now Jacob is back with some more insights into his involvement with the Sens last year. He tells me that the club commissioned him to design a 20th anniversary logo — one they unfortunately didn't use in the end. Take a look.
It's very unfortunate this logo got left in the dust. It's absolutely perfect. Here's what Jacob tells me about the design:
Because they were celebrating their 20th but also celebrating their whole history last season, I was asked to incorporate modern and vintage elements, with the Senators current logo as the main one (i.e. not the =O=). So the background of the logo is from this 1909 Stanley Cup holders poster.
That may be the coolest part. Take a look at the poster from which he took his inspiration.
Why, Ottawa? Why?
To jog your memory, here's what they actually used last year.
Just doesn't have that vintage feel, does it?
Reader Comments (11)
Oh wow! This was a huge mistake! The unused logo is miles better than the one they went with.
Should've gone with JerkStore's design. It's much more elegant, and much less bland.
This unused logo is so much better than the one used by the Sens that it actually makes sense to me. The Senators have always made terrible decisions with the look of their franchise.
It's a shame that their is SO much brilliant artwork by casual fans out there but teams always look to 'professionals' for rebranding and ignore incredible stuff like this. It truly is a rotten shame.
Oh come on! Jacob's actually has a connection to the past instead of just the standard template with the Sens logo slapped on top.
I don't think it's obvious enough that it's a 20th anniversary patch. The XX is downplayed at the bottom, almost as though it's filler space, and instead of the heuristic we're all used to, seeing the start year on one side and the current year on the other, he split up 1992.
By either adding more focus to the roman numerals, or even easier, using the number 20, and using 1992 2012 on the sides, it probably would have been chosen.
Masterfully done, truly, and leagues better than what they used, but I think it needed to be just a little more conventional for the audience.
Shame. That logo is spot on.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I prefer the logo that the Sens went with. Simple and elegant. By no means am I saying that Jacob's logo is bad (there are a number of elements that I really do like, including the background "shield") but there's something a little "off" in the logo. In my opinion, I think the XX proportions, the detailing in the ribbon/banner and the size of the Senators logo are turns offs for me. Just my $0.02.
Yeah, the Sens haven't made a good aesthetic choice since they were reestablished, taking an Arabic-numeral 20 with the logo over the posted one is just another sad example.
I sort of agree with the Sens choice here. Jacob's logo is lovely, but it's centered around the Sens logo rather than the 20, which is a major flaw. You should be able to tell that it's a 20th anniversary logo first and foremost, rather than the primary element being the same logo you already see ten times the size right next to it.
Yeah, the Sens haven't made a good aesthetic choice since they were reestablished, taking an Arabic-numeral 20 with the logo over the posted one is just another sad example.