Logo redesigns certainly aren't uncommon. Brands are always trying to change their identity, to move their brand into the future and stay relevant. A curious case of this is the Baltimore Orioles franchise. They went from simple, to cartoon, to realistic, to cartoon again, in a kind of circle to fix tarnished image and to harken back to the old days in the 70s, when the Orioles were a dominant franchise in the MLB.
The logo strarted as a simple oriole bird, looking close to a drawing done by a 5-year old. Then 1966 rolled around, and the major change to a smiling cartoon oriole with a baseball cap seemed to breath life into the team, considering the 60s and 70s were the heyday of the team. Interestingly enough, some of the worst years in the franchises history was when they opted for the realistic logos from 1989 to 2012. It's hard for me to even call these logos. They're more like life-like drawings you'd find in bird spotting manuals, and they don't do a very good job helping the brand identity or giving a feel to the team. It's hard to get excited about a team that has a field guide on it's cap.
The revamp was major and part of what seems to be a country wide return to the retro. We love nostalgia, because it helps us to remember the best times in life, and this logo helps do that. It takes us back to the days the Orioles were dominant, and the change in orange helps to get people more excited about the team. The deeper orange is more intense, rather than the lighter and more cheerful orange from the previous logos, and it gives the Orioles a more competitive spirit. There's also the O on the Orioles cap, reinforcing another logo of the O's, and advertising it's own brand within a brand.
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