The addition of the new Ottawa franchise in the CFL is reason to celebrate for most Canadian football fans, but the announcement of the new team name and logo has been met with some controversy.

Designing a sports logo and uniform is probably one of the most difficult challenges for a designer because the audience is so deeply and emotionally invested in the product. No matter what comes off the drawing board it will always fall short of the epic emblem every fan wants for their beloved franchise, and will almost assuredly be met with disdain, at least initially.

In the case of the Ottawa franchise, criticisms have mainly been directed towards the name choice REDBLACKS. Team President Jeff Hunt, had this to say about the naming decision:

“I like the fact that it’s a unique word, a made-up word. We heard a lot of me-too ideas. We wanted something distinctive we could own. Every day I hear from people who say, ‘I didn’t like it at first, but it’s grown on me.’ Hopefully that will be the way the market goes.”

Typically sports teams are named after something regionally relevant that speaks to the area’s history, geographical characteristics or local wildlife. In this way the team brand can draw on civic pride to add value to the brand and to be the embodiment of not just a sports team, but the representation of the collective pride of the region itself.

Some of the alternate suggestions for Ottawa were the

1. Nationals
2. Rush
3. Voyageurs
4. Raftsmen

When Ottawa decided to flout convention and chose a made up word for the team name with no connection to the city, people were disappointed and struggled to draw any meaning from the word. Colours themselves however, carry a good deal of meaning and generate a tangible emotional response from viewers.

Red typically symbolizes fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

And black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.

By selecting these two colours to represent the franchise we can surmise that the team wanted to create an imposing, intimidating persona. If we were to construct a football player that embodied the same characteristics of red and black, he would be powerful, dangerous, determined, dark, mysterious and strong.

With this in mind the naming decision seems a little less befuddling and more relevant to a professional football franchise.

The logo design, which was unveiled on June 8th, depicts an imposing saw blade, a reference to Ottawa’s logging history set behind a stylized “R” and of course, uses the colours red and black. The symbolism inherent in the saw blade goes back to the value of civic pride mentioned above and the benefit of shared history to create an emotional attachment – so where the name fails to take advantage of this, the logo picks up the slack. The saw blade image also effectively ties in the themes of aggression and intimidation.

The logo is simple and stylized enough to be iconic and memorable, unlike some sports logos that become overly complex and therefore ineffective as symbols that carry meaning and generate emotion, for example the Nashville Predators.

While classic enduring logos use more basic shapes, like the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens.

Overall I believe the initial Fan and media reaction was not surprising, but the new identity of Ottawa’s CFL franchise hits several key points:

1. They created a unique name and identity that generated significant buzz and debate; they didn’t play it safe and did something outside the norm. Uniqueness is an essential aspect of branding, it’s sets your organization apart from the crowd.
2. The design of the logo is simple and memorable enough to become a lasting symbol that can represent the organization for many years and not fade with passing trends.
3. Although they may not be immediately apparent to the average fan, the name and logo have strong relevant characteristics that can be associated with it such as determination and strength.
4. The saw blade imagery leverages history and nostalgia to create additional pride and loyalty.

In the end the double-edged sword that is the rabid emotional attachment that fans have for their team will ultimately swing back in favour of the REDBLACKS and the fans will loyally wear the REDBLACKS crest, as it comes to symbolize a shared experience, memories and camaraderie over the years.

Source by David Dayco