Mailbag: For The Habs' Shoulders
Sunday · Sep 30 · 2007 | 12:36 PM PDTI got an interesting email the other day with a new concept logo for the Montreal Canadiens. It wouldn't replace the primary, but rather serve as a secondary.
I don't think it's a necessary addition to the Habs' look, but I still like it a lot on its own merits. The designer, Gary, had this to say about it in his email to me.
There's two motivations behind it. One is political, the fleur de lis within the maple leaf clearly shows Quebec as a part of Canada, and not a seperate entity. However, using it as the base of the maple leaf is symbolic of the fact that the true Canadian identity requires a strong Quebec. The other reason is to honour Quebecs former NHL team, the Nordique, who proudly displayed the fleur de lis on their jerseys. Despite the rivalry between the Nords and Habs, NHL in Quebec City was great for the province and country.
I've had the idea for a long time but never tried it out. Your blog/website gave me the motivation to give it a try today while I should have been working.
We appreciate his work and he even went the extra mile to show us how it might look on a couple of jerseys.
I have to say, I don't hate it and it goes rather well with the logo and uniform. My only problem is that when I look at it all I see is Nordiques. And I'm pretty sure they don't exist anymore.
So what do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Have any suggestions for improving it? Comment away.
Reader Comments (16)
that actually looks REALLY good... i would love to see the habs wear that.
I like the logo on its own merit. I don't like it on the jerseys. Being a non-Canadian, all I can think of are the Diques and the Maple Leafs, not symbols of Canadian national pride.
Also, you just don't mess with the jersey of an Original 6 team.
The red and blue should be switched.
Not bad at all, but I don't think it's needed for the Canadiens. If it was to be used, I think it would blend in with the red shoulders of the jerseys too much. Maybe make the white edges thicker.
Seriously that's so ugly !
It's bad idea to mix up politic and hockey in a logo !
It would never be accepted by the administration of the team or the fans for 1 simple reason: the maple leaf does not sell in Québec. companies remove maple leafs on their logos or canada on their slogans to be able to make profit in Québec.
there may be only 45% to 50% of québecois that want independance but nearly every french speaking québecois (so 85% of the population) identifies themselves as québecois and not as canadians. In québec, canadian flags do not floats in front of the houses, and people call canada day ''moving day'' because they use this day off to move from their home.
The person who made that logo must have though that it was a brillant idea. It is a good idea in theory, and the logo is very well made, but in practice it is not usable. He must have made that patch without knowing that the maple leaf is not a symbol of identification in Québec. The fans would not recongnize themselves in this patch. the flames have been able to use the canadian flag in Alberta because albertans identifies themselves into this flag, but it is not the case in Québec.
A more accurate patch would be the Québec flag on each shoulder. This patch would be perfect for the identification of the fans with the team and would match the 400th anniversary of Québec city, the birth of the Québec nation. Especially because the habs have a very important place into the history of the nation.
It's a great design for a secondary logo and I really like it. Please, stop saying you don't mess with an original six logo - all of the original six teams have evolved their look over the years - granted in subtle ways but still there's been an evolution. And that's a good thing.
I agree with snake.
Any depiction of the maple leaf in Quebec would get somebody's ass kicked on the streets. Living in border towns in NY and traveling to Ontario and Quebec for many years I can tell you that it is almost like going to 2 distinctly separate countries.
My first venture to Montreal was when I was in high school and I could not believe how there was NO piece of clothing that sported red or the leaf, while the Blue fleur-de-lis was emblazoned on EVERYTHING.
That young lad that created that this concept secondary emblem could have caused a civil war in Canada if he worked for RBK!
I think any nationalist symbol (be it Canadian or Québécois) should be avoided at all cost on the Habs jersey. This would only cause division, especially among habs fans... This is a nice design, but it's clearly a very sensitive issue, and that would be disastrous to take that road!
And given the rivalry between the late Nordiques and the Habs, I don't really think any sort of tribute to the Nords would be welcomed by the fans in Montreal... Even if many people miss the Nordiques in the province of Quebec, there's no way that would work.
if i saw that i would stop watching hockey all together.
It reminds me of the Flames. Any hockey fan knows what province and country the Habs represent. Asserting your geographic allegiances with a shoulder patch suggests either lack of design imagination (eg. Stars) or insecurity (Do you think Calgary would have the Alberta flag on their shoulders if they were the only team in Alberta, or if they were the capital city and had won 5 Cups?)
At least this design matches the team colors.
In fact I think the Québec flag would be a perfect patch. And it won't generate any division among the fans because the Québec flag is not seen as a sovereignist symbol (not every fans are sovereignists) but as a national symbol (nearly every Québecois identifies temselves to it).
And about the Nordiques. It is starting to make a long time since they moved. People who are 22 and lower don't have a lot of memories about them (if none at all) so I don't think it would be welcomed so badly. In fact I don't think that ther's a hab fan right now that don't miss the nords.
The only real opposition i would see is about the fact that the team never really changed a think in their jerseys.
Politics aside, this is a great logo. Does it work on the jersey? Visually, I have to say no.
Too bad the tension within the province would never support this great work.
It's really sad, all these divisions. We are all Canadians, whether English, French or any other. We all share the best country in the world. We are so lucky but we waste it bickering amongst ourselves.
But by the by, do you think it's a coincidence that the team is called the Canadiens? That name was chosen to be a symbol of Canada within Quebec.
I would love for that logo to be used. I'm probably one of the few who would love to see it as a primary. But at least it should be the shoulder patch.
Kudos to the artist. God bless you man.
Folks you got it so wrong in all level !
First of all, what is Canada and what is a canadian or Canadiens in French ?
Canada was first use to describe the new country that was discover by Jacques-Cartier in the 16th century but the real terms Canada refers for the algonquin's language (an amerindians tribe) as the usual word for village and not the name of the country.
Secondly, the first use of the word Canadien was to distinguish the french that was born in Nouvelle-France that the french that was born in France.
Later, after the conquest of 1760's the english canadian which a lot of them was loyalist to the english crown move to Canada from the United States after the declaration of independance from the united states (1776).
As loyal British citizen they were offer land in the atlantic province and eastern township of quebec and in the ontario region.
They called themself as british not canadian.
Later the british governement decide to split the colony in 2 upper-canada which is Ontario and lower-Canada which is Québec today
The province of New-Brunswick, Prince-Edouard-Island and Nova Scotia was known before as Acadie under french regime and not Canada.
The NewFoundLand was a british colony since 1583 then claimed by the french and return later to the british. Also it's only since 1927 that the Labrador is recognized by the brittish governement as part of Newfoundland and Labrador.
All western province came much later at that time they were part of hunting territory called North-West-Territories were Indian lived with some Métis which is a mixed of French and Amerindian descendents.
Canadian was still uses to represented the French-Canadien.
And when Calixa-Lavallée composed the O Canada music it was first played in french only on Saint-John the Baptist day (National day in Québec) the 24 june 1880.
So when the team was founded in 1909 the term Canadien refers to the french-canadian only and not all the Canadians cause a lot of Canadians of that time refers themself as English, Scottish, Irish and but in all British citizen living in Canada.
I think since the fondation of the Dominion of Canada on the 1rst july 1867. By the 4 provinces of Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will start a change which will took 2 or 3 generation before english speaking people living in Canada start calling themself as Canadian. To difference themself from the british who were born in great-britain, also new immigrants coming to Canada from other european country like Ukrainians, Polish, German and Italians who start immigrating in Canada late 19th century and beginning of the 20 th century called themself Canadian quicker than their english speaking counterparts.
Back to the logo now.
I don't understand why there is a red diamond shape at the top tip of the red Maple Leaf. Maybe the artist signature.
Also the fleur de Lys must be bigger. It most have the same height as the Maple Leaf in the backgroud cause the Quebecois look as themself as equals to the Rest Of Canada and do not like to be compare as other regular province of Canada which gives them the feeling of been threated as second class citizen in their own country.
Since not everybody in Canada is in reality French-English bilingual, they still want to keep their independance inside the Canadian confederation to make sure that french culture is passed on to the future generation of Quebécois whatever their from french origin or not.
Leave the Habs jersey as it is. No shoulder patches are needed. EVER.
I got mad when they added the three colour numbers to the white jerseys and still think they should change back. You don't mess with tradition. No cups won since new building or three colour numbers. (of course no good players during that time either!)