The Trail Blazer’s pinwheel logo has become iconic, which is remarkable considering it has changed multiple times over the years – different colors, different angles.
Portland released its latest update with an annotations:
1. 10 lines represent the game of basketball: two teams of five players, coming together at center court in competition. The movement and symmetry of the lines reflect the mechanics and fluidity of the game.
2. Each of the lines follow the same trail to the center of the pinwheel and are now connected as an added symbol of teamwork.
3. The updated pinwheel is reminiscent of our original 70’s logo that was constructed with evenly spaced lines and congruent edges.
4. The angle of the lines are now at exactly 45 degrees representing the 45th Parallel North that leads on a path to the Northwest region, our community and our hometown.
5. To honor the tradition of our 1990’s brand, we reversed the color scheme of the logo to feature our red on top.
6. We are introducing an updated font that is a modernized interpretation built from our rich history and reflecting the styles of the Northwest.
Turning the angles to 45 degrees to represent the 45th parallel is a cool detail. Flipping the colors to put red on top feels like change for the sake of change.
It’s just hard to generate much excitement over a logo that looks so similar to the previous version.
At least the Trail Blazers will probably sell some merchandise to fans who don’t want to look dated.