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Don't change the club emblem

Gareth67

First Grade
Messages
8,677
Welcome to my Ted talk.

I will attempt to convince you that changing our club emblem to a modernised monotone digital corporate logo is a bad idea.

The idea to “update” the corporate logo of The Dragons sounds like the brainchild of an out-of-their-depth sports administrator who’s just attended a marketing seminar and now loudly complains around the offices that no-one cares about finance in here. Rugby league is a business, they’ll say, and businesses need to refresh their branding every so often because it demonstrates reinvigoration and a new vision… or at least that’s what they read on LinkedIn last week. However the reality is that rugby league is not entirely a business. It’s not the business that people become passionate about, it’s not balance sheets that they argue over, and it’s not business that draws crowds. There’s something much deeper than that in this game - a communal connection across generations - and to neglect its essence too much in favour of business is to fail at both. We saw this in the disastrous multiple homes strategy back in the mid 2010s when we played at an empty Stadium Australia a few times a year.

Changing the logo to a supposedly cleaner, less busy device was kicked off by Souths however many years ago, when people started seeing that rabbit sticker on every second car and wanted to copy it. Since then the Panthers, Eagles, Raiders, Dogs and the brand new Dolphins have all followed suit. Therefore, it would not exactly be a revolutionary innovation for us to do the same now – we’d just be following the leader. Way too late – as usual. The cachet of this fashion trend is well and truly gone. We may as well get Ed Hardy to supply our training gear because that shit is lame.

2C5TVCp.jpg


Supposedly the other rationale is an attempt to mimic the big American sports teams, particularly in the NFL, where they have refined the logos to a minimalist symbol in order to stand out on the players’ helmets. Who can ignore the iconic star of the Dallas Cowboys, or the simple G of the Green Bay Packers. However, these are still very much “franchise” logos, and franchises by their very nature are flexible, portable, and, importantly, disposable. The Rams logo still looks like a Rams logo whether they’re in St Louis or LA, and the jolly roger of the Raiders has dropped its anchor in LA and Oakland and Las Vegas. Perhaps removing St George and Illawarra from our logo and shifting permanently to Nevada might finally get us an invite to the Las Vegas event.

oakland_raiders_helmet_logo_by_stupidbear190rises_dftd844-fullview.png


Another apparent reason for “streamlining” the club’s crest: digital platforms! You can’t have busy emblems on Instagram I suppose, perhaps it becomes indecipherable above those inane training montages that we post every Tuesday. Never mind that the 9 of the 10 most-followed clubs on Instagram are European soccer clubs – with the number one spot held by Real Madrid who have had essentially the same emblem since 1941. Speaking of soccer, the most watched sports league in the world is (surprisingly not the NFL who we are trying to mimic) the English premier League. The current leader of that league has a logo that looks like this:

Manchester_City_FC_badge.svg


I dunno, maybe old fashioned club crests are fine in that league? Because the clubs in that league are linked to traditional geographic towns and regions, creating a historic connection through the generations? Crazy stuff. Of course those “clubs” are really multi-million dollar shelf companies owned by billionaires with players from anywhere but those home towns living in obscene wealth in gated communities … but nevertheless... my point stands.

Yes we’ve had this logo since only 1978, but from a design perspective it was a progression from the original emblem from the 1950s, rather than a radical re-design. It was a club crest. I maintain that we are a football club with a crest. Not a franchise with a logo. Hopefully we keep it that way.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

9b301e3e5217e1dd6e9aa34d97effd2a
Must say that Teddy still looks well , but those other 2 characters ugggh !
 

Victoire

Juniors
Messages
1,006
Just read the eye-rollingly wanky Instagram post by the graphic design firm that created this new branding, and it seems we may have been very close indeed to losing the supposedly "outdated" club emblem. The 20-something graphic designer from within that firm who's obviously attended a $50 marketing seminar even pointed out apparent flaws and problems with the club crest. Thank jebus that someone within the club's management (so rare to be paying tribute to them) declared the on-field emblem off limits to these pimply faced nerds
 

R&WTILLIDIE

First Grade
Messages
5,672
Just read the eye-rollingly wanky Instagram post by the graphic design firm that created this new branding, and it seems we may have been very close indeed to losing the supposedly "outdated" club emblem. The 20-something graphic designer from within that firm who's obviously attended a $50 marketing seminar even pointed out apparent flaws and problems with the club crest. Thank jebus that someone within the club's management (so rare to be paying tribute to them) declared the on-field emblem off limits to these pimply faced nerds
The only issue with the emblem is the word “illawarra” on it
 

Jubilee

Juniors
Messages
353
Just read the eye-rollingly wanky Instagram post by the graphic design firm that created this new branding, and it seems we may have been very close indeed to losing the supposedly "outdated" club emblem. The 20-something graphic designer from within that firm who's obviously attended a $50 marketing seminar even pointed out apparent flaws and problems with the club crest. Thank jebus that someone within the club's management (so rare to be paying tribute to them) declared the on-field emblem off limits to these pimply faced nerds
Lost all faith in these people years ago when they brought out the then new Commonwealth Bank logo. It is still ugly and I still don't understand it.
 

RedVee

First Grade
Messages
6,855
So St George is killing the Dragon is confusing?
Where is the commentary around the Rabbitohs using a rabbit logo? Rabbitohs sold dead rabbits…

same argument?
 

Jubilee

Juniors
Messages
353
So St George is killing the Dragon is confusing?
Where is the commentary around the Rabbitohs using a rabbit logo? Rabbitohs sold dead rabbits…

same argument?
I always find it confusing they don't want to be called "the rabbits" but they have a rabbit on their jersey.
 

AyiosYiorgos

Coach
Messages
14,076
Lost all faith in these people years ago when they brought out the then new Commonwealth Bank logo. It is still ugly and I still don't understand it.
Comm Bank Logo, represent the Southern cross, each point on the yellow bit is the placement of the southern cross or its Toast with vegemite on it..
 

AyiosYiorgos

Coach
Messages
14,076
So St George is killing the Dragon is confusing?
Where is the commentary around the Rabbitohs using a rabbit logo? Rabbitohs sold dead rabbits…

same argument?
Yes our logo is confusing "StGeorge is killing the Dragon", we were known as the Dragon Slayers but over time it became just Dragons, which is dumb because "StGeorge is killing the Dragon"
So maybe we should have called our selves the StGeorge Saints or StGeorge Knights..

As for the Rabbitohs i couldnt give a rats about them and their logo..
 

UnknownDragon

Juniors
Messages
12
Come on… the new logo is the way of the future. Our logo is so outdated. Look at all the big clubs in the world of soccer etc… it’s all a simple logo, our current one is so old and there is way too much going on.
 
Messages
667
Come on… the new logo is the way of the future. Our logo is so outdated. Look at all the big clubs in the world of soccer etc… it’s all a simple logo, our current one is so old and there is way too much going on.
Google "What saint killed dragons"

"Think of St George and you're probably picturing a heroic knight slaying a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon. As the country's patron saint (England), today St George's story is as iconic as his white and red flag".

Dragons were ferocious mythical creatures that only St George could slay, no one else. Having St George as our name and a Dragon as our emblem makes perfect sense to me.

I.E don't mess with the logo, it's not outdated - Its timeless
 

RufusRex

Post Whore
Messages
62,924
Please update the title of the thread to:

Don't change the club emblem AGAIN ...

The current club shield come into being in the late 70s after someone thought that the emblem we won 11 in a row under etc was old/outdated/in need of change. The very emblem you are advocating now shouldn't change because it is our heritage representing the 100+ years that we have been St George and St George Illawarra.
 

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