Good morning, and Happy New Year! I hope your 2024 is already off to a good start.
As you know, Uni Watch will be celebrating its 25th anniversary — or universary, as I’ve been calling it — on May 26 of this year. And as you can see above, we’re marking the occasion with a new logo, which was created via a collaboration between membership card designer Scott M.X. Turner and myself.
Let’s go into FAQ mode:
So is this a “25th season” logo, or a “25th anniversary logo,” or what?
It’s both! I deliberately worded it so that it would be appropriate for this entire 2024 calendar year. The way I see it, all of 2024 is akin to our 25th “season,” and our 25th anniversary (or universary, or birthday, or whatever) will take place within that year.
The 25th anniversary is traditionally the silver anniversary, so why doesn’t the logo include any silver?
We tried that, but silver looked too grey on the screen. I decided to just stick with the basic Uni Watch colors.
What do the two white stars symbolize?
One star is for this blog and the other is for my Substack. Nothing. They’re just two white stars that were included strictly for aesthetic reasons. There’s no hidden “storytelling” in this logo.
Why doesn’t the logo include the words “Uni Watch”?
I was looking at some recent team anniversary logos and noticed that many of them don’t include the team name. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to take that approach with this logo. Any Uni Watch fan will immediately recognize this as a Uni Watch logo (and non-fans wouldn’t care one way or the other), so I figured there was no need to waste valuable space with the site name.
You could have saved even more valuable space by changing “A quarter-century” to “25 years,” so the slogan wouldn’t be so long.
We already have that big “25” in the center of the design, so I didn’t want to echo it with another “25.” Also, “A quarter-century” feels a bit weightier, a bit more majestic, like it has a bit more gravitas. True, the extra letters pushed the slogan’s wraparound length to Saltalamacchian levels, but I still think it looks handsome.
Will you be putting this logo on any merchandise?
Yes. T-shirts, hoodies, and stickers are now available in our Teespring shop. If you’re interested in other Teespring-able products (coffee mugs, pint glasses, water bottles, etc.), let me know and I’ll get moving on that.
In addition, I’ve ordered some embroidered patches and will start selling those as soon as they arrive from the manufacturer (which I’m pretty sure will be in a day or two). Here’s digital mock-up — not an actual photo — of how they should look:
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I think that covers it. Enjoy watching the Winter Classic, or bowl games, or whatever you have planned for your New Year’s Day!
Happy New Year! Love the logo! Let the festivities commence!
Happy New Year and happy 25th from someone who has been following since Page 2!
Even though it’s not official, I am going with the 2 stars representing Biscuit and Waffles.
Ha! I like that… I’ll go with it as well.
Happy New Year, Paul, and to everyone!
“Saltalamacchian.” This is why we love you! Merry New Year!
Yes! Saltalamacchian got an actual LOL out of me. Cheers, Paul!
The logo looks great. Simple, clean, tells the story succinctly. Good job!
Very nice design! I’ll wait until the patch is available and grab one along with a tee. I’m overdue to send some support to my favorite website.
Happy New Year and congratulations Paul!
I can’t believe it has already been 10 years since I collected all of thos 15th Anniversary T-shirts!
Happy New Year, Paul and a fellow uni-watchers! I’m looking forward to a fun and action-packed 2024! (Well, as action packed as the obsessive study of athletics aesthetics can get.)
I like the idea that the new logo operates as both a 25th season and 25th anniversary logo. As I see it, from now through May 26th, it’s like a 25th season logo, since we’re in the 25th season until we hit that date. From May 26th through the end of the year, it’s a 25th anniversary logo.
I’m just glad the years match up. I strongly dislike it when a team releases logo a celebrating some milestone year in their franchise’s history, such as a tenth season, and then puts years in the logo that represent a 9-year differential at first glance, e.g., “2015 – 2024.” Just ditch the years in the design if you want to celebrate an ordinal instead of an anniversary!
Happy New Year and 25th, Paul!
Joy of the near year to all, and what an exciting start to the 25th anniversary! I await the patch with bated breath. And if crockery is ever considered, I would enthusiastically look to replace my fading 20th anniversary plate. I’ve eaten my one-egg-over-easy breakfast off of it daily for almost five years now, and run it in the dishwasher every day as well, so the fading is definitely my doing.
You run your dishwasher every day?
Happy New Year… Uni Watch and Watchers!
Logo would make a great magnet-just saying ; )
Totally agree! Teespring doesn’t make magnets, sadly, so I can’t get them done on-demand, but maybe I’ll order up a batch to sell myself.
You scan the logo, print it and glue it to an existing refrigerator magnet. Done and done.
The logo would look great on an Oxford Pennant mini pennant as well.
I certainly like the design! Congratulations on the silver anniversary year/season.
Happy new year, everyone!!
Happy New Year! That is one clean logo. Job well done!
Nice
Happy New Year and what a great logo!
Brilliant logo. I am impressed by your restraint in not storytelling the hell out of the logo. I would think the 2 stars represent the 2 bowling league championships from back in the ’90s, or because one of the cats is a Gemini or something even more bizarre.