Two-time MLS champions Seattle Sounders FC today announced a redesign to their visual branding system. The team’s new primary logo is shown above, and it will form the basis of a new jersey crest that will debut on the team’s jerseys when the new MLS season begins in February:
The new primary mark is supplemented by a variety of supporting logos, which you can see in this slideshow:
There’s an excellent explainer page that provides background on all of the new designs, and how they were developed, here — highly recommended.
The design work was done by the Seattle creative agency Column.
I think this is a huge downgrade. They’re going way too minimalist with this. I like this as an alternate crest (like when Arsenal use only the cannon on their third jersey), but as the primary crest it’s not good.
I prefer the cannon only to the updated crest we have now. And there is history of only using the cannon.
Was there something wrong with the old crest? With all the Euro-cosplay in MLS, I would have though holding onto iconography for a long time would mean something to clubs.
Exactly my first thought. Why mess with it? So confusing. Sales I guess?
Please just stop with this “Euro cosplay” crap. Its a damn tired narrative at this point my dude.
But so true
It’s pretty pathetic how hard much of the MLS tries to pretend it is European (stars above the crest, Real in Utah, football club/fc, Inter Miami) but this redesign is not example of Euro Cosplay at all.
Sigh – if you wanted to work in the snark-word “Euro-cosplay,” you might have picked the wrong spot. Clubs around the world alter their crests every so often – half the current PL, most MLS 1.0/2.0 clubs, Portland before the end of their first season…
It basically IS the old crest, but without the words on it and with a better/more arty Space Needle. I file it under “not as big a change as I thought it would be.”
I don’t mind the new crest but not thrilled, either. Minimal, yes, but the old crest was too busy with too little “there” there (why did it need a shield and a home plate?). I’m not sure I will like the largely rave green crest on the rave green shirt, but I’m willing to be patient to see it in 2024, first, before making a judgement. The new angry orca logo is adorable.
As a designer, however, what I’m most impressed with is the explainer. After sifting through so many Nike leaflets about how a “point” on the corner of a letter is supposed to reference the annexation of Puerto Rico or whatever, I appreciate that this explainer was about PROCESS. The postmodernism of symbology in so many of these explainers is silly. I came away with a greater appreciation for the design work because it didn’t need to justify every single curve and micro-symbol. Instead, it communicated the community engagement, the broad strokes, and overall design inspirations, and it all still makes sense. If only certain sportwear companies could follow suit…
Dont mind the crest much (although could use some more details for sure) but aw man i really dont vibe with the shade of green as much. Something about the colors just doesnt click for me. I can kinda see how the former green does kiiiinda give off a “yep this sure was put in place in 2008” vibe though, but still.
I do think the supplying logos are neat though, this does feel cohesive. I like the orca. The typeface feels pretty nice as well.
Rose City ‘Til I Die.
That is all.
Good day.
Feels just a bit too minimalist for my liking and the colors just feel slightly off but I really like the wordmarks and alternate logos.
LOVE the secondaries: wave, 74, orca, typeface. Great. Going to purchase merch.
Love the connections to the retro Sounders teams that has been missing since 2009 abortive relaunch as the Alliance/Republic.
The space needle crest itself is “meh”. Better than the last one though I guess. Too minimal and too Kracken though.
They have some real winners here, but honestly need to downplay the space needle in favor of the wave.
that orca!
I don’t think the wordmark is all that great, but I like crest and alt logos
So is the orca grimacing, or sticking his tongue out? I can see it both ways but I saw it as a tongue first.
Maybe it has seen a yatch.
I like it. Simple, not too complicated, and easy to identify from a distance. The departure from the heavy black lines of the old logo feels like an upgrade. The “1974” feels disingenuous since that was several clubs and multiple leagues ago (with a number of gaps where no team existed at all). But if the current Cleveland Browns get to claim a lineage that dates back to 1946, I guess the Sounders can do something similar.
Since it’s actually the supporters and not the club who initially pushed the lineage to the original Sounders club (lest we forget, “Sounders” was not even an option in the original naming poll), I’d say there’s good reason to use the 74.
I like it. A great nod to the past and current crest. I’m not a fan of “insert city name” FC. We’re the Sounders sure Seattle Sounders FC; but who even says FC around here? I get that the Sounders haven’t existed every year since 74; but the franchise never left town. It’s not like we’re harkening back to the Tacoma Stars…
Cheers
I love everything the Sounders have done here except the jersey crest. I like the crest, but don’t love it. It’s a huge, huge upgrade over the old crest, which personified all the worst elements of US football design, but it’s too simple. It’s like the American equivalent of that brief, much-reviled Leeds crest redesign. Which I also liked but didn’t love.
Huge improvement.
I’m very disappointed in my home team. This is all wrong. I will not be buying anymore apparel. That’s for sure.
The “SFC” looks like the logo of a bank. Besides the orca, the new look is too bland, too generic. A real shame for a city as strong as Seattle.
I swear when the Revolution unveiled their new logo a few years ago, they said the MLS required the team name to be on it…
An interesting statement, since the Timbers in specific devolved their logo into its current wordless version in 2016…maybe only Cascadia clubs have permission to deviate?
So at first view, I thought the flower was a rose, and wondered why Seattle was using a Portland moniker (Rose City) for a mark. So you have to go read that it’s a carnation…
Other than that, I’m really tired of Rave Green for Seattle. I’ll take British Racing Green, please. link
The interesting part is that almost everything on this branding & design study for the Sounders would fit almost perfectly for Santos FC, the Brazilian side where Pelé played.
I always hate it when modern teams take credit for previous franchises that they have nothing to do with.
These Seattle Sounders are completely unrelated to the original Seattle Sounders founded in 1974. It’s like they’re saying “Hey look, the team we stole our identity from… the one we infringed on their intellectual property and plagiarized the very name… we’re celebrating that on our uniforms by putting the little 74 there.”
If four guys from Seattle started a band and said to themselves… “Hey… were playing rock music…let’s call ourselves The Beatles” and then after swiping their name decided to put a little “1962” under their logo on the drum set would they be taken seriously?
No? Then why should any of these pro sports teams that claim some imaginary link to the original be taken seriously?
What a crock of shit.
I think that’s a bit unfair. These Sounders go back to an A-League/USL team that go back to ’94, and in turn were the revival of pro (outdoor) soccer in Seattle since the OG Sounders. Just because the first NASL went under doesn’t mean teams and their fans can’t at least inherit that history. It’s not like the Philadelphia Union lifting Bethlehem Steel’s identity for their second team, or San Jose’s claim back to the ’70s era team after playing three years as the “Clash,” at least to me.