In Italy and more generally in Europe, with exceptions, we are used to rather didactic sports logos: they are what we see and they stop there. Recently, the big football clubs are simplifying them more and more to better adapt them to commercial and digital uses. However, in certain logos – many North Americans, but also some Europeans – there are still details, curiosities and precautions that not everyone pays attention to. Like, for example, a robot in the head of a bull, a hammer to recall a mining past or the rhombuses of a nautical flag.
Milwaukee Bucks
The logo used by the 2021 NBA champions has been in use for nearly a decade. Two other elements are hidden in the deer in the center of the crest: the Milwaukee “M” at the neck and the profile of a basketball between the shorter central horns.
Dallas Mavericks
Also in the emblem of another NBA team, the Mavericks, there is a letter “M” that some notice immediately and others do not. It’s on the horse’s forehead and almost looks like a brand, albeit with the term maverick originally they meant the youngest cattle not yet branded by the owners.
Schalke 04
In the coat of arms of the German football club Schalke 04 the quantity of elements present can make one in particular escape: the letter “G” surrounding the acronym in the center, which is the initial of the city where the team is based, Gelsenkirchen . The inside of the ‘G’ also resembles the head of a hammer, a link to Gelsenkirchen’s mining past and the team’s nickname: ‘the miners’.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles’ current crest has been in use since 1996 and has since been the only left-facing crest of any National Football League (NFL) team. By orienting it to the left, the designers were in fact able to insert the outlines of the letter “E” on the right side of the coat of arms, which still today is often not noticed if it is not explicitly indicated.
Atlanta Falcons
Remaining in American football, the Falcons have a crest facing right – as is predominantly used in western sport to accommodate the reading direction – which with its entire profile forms the letter F.
Sampdoria
Sampdoria was founded immediately after the war from the merger of the Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria companies. Precisely from this fusion was born one of the most famous football shirts and subsequently the emblem with the black shape that many still do not distinguish. It is the “baciccia”, a typical Genoese fisherman of the past with a pipe in his mouth and hair in the wind.
Chicago Bulls
It is rare to find logos still in use that have remained unchanged since their origins or nearly so. One of these is that of the Chicago Bulls designed by Dean Wessel, who began working on it with the idea of making a much more aggressive bull than it turned out: not succeeding was probably his luck, given that the bull’s gaze was more resolute than aggressive, and in the sixties this restraint was especially appreciated. But there is a curiosity: if you turn it upside down you can see a frowning little robot reading.
Tour de France
It is an institutional logo and perhaps also for this reason the figure of the cyclist riding a bike included in the word “Tour” may not be so clear at first sight, while for others it is an obvious element.
Tour of Italy
The Giro d’Italia logo, like that of many other cycling races, features the same prevailing element, a cyclist riding a bike. In this case, however, the wheels are joined together to form the infinity symbol: a clear reference to the spiral-shaped Endless Trophy to which the name of the last winner is added at the end of each edition (also the in which the cyclist in pink was drawn refers to the shapes of the trophy).
South-Tirol
Among smaller football clubs it is not uncommon to find casts of more famous crests. Not so small teams do it in Italy too: the Sassuolo crest was made on the basis of that of Barcelona and hasn’t changed since, while in Serie B Südtirol has an element in particular that recalls that of Bayern Munich.
In fact, in the center of the coat of arms there is a ball with a football goal net in the background which recalls the so-called diamond flag, the symbol of Bavaria, which in del Bayern Monaco logo has the same position. The inspiration from Südtirol is not accidental, given that the South Tyrolean club has never hidden that it is inspired by Bayern Munich in its corporate management linked to the territory and spread among various shareholders.
Hamburg
Remaining in Germany, there is nothing hidden in the coat of arms of Hamburg, but it is the coat of arms itself that needs explanation, given that the colors of the city are different (red and white) and those rhombuses on a rectangular background they seem to mean nothing in particular. However, they refer to a flag that in seafaring jargon is called the “Blue Peter” and indicates the letter “P”, or that a ship is ready to leave. Given the city’s connection to shipping, Hamburg adopted it as its coat of arms from its earliest years.
– Read also: The complicated story of a perfect logo
