Athletics Primary Logo
The Oakland Athletics have had a long and storied history in Major League Baseball. The team has seen many different iterations of its logo throughout its time in the league, but one thing that has always remained constant is its iconic primary logo. This logo features an elephant holding a baseball bat with two crossed bats behind him, set against a white background with green lettering spelling out “Athletics.”
This original design was created by John McGraw for the Philadelphia Athletics when they were established in 1901, making it one of the oldest logos still used today by any professional sports team. Since then it has gone through several minor changes over time to keep up with changing trends and styles while maintaining its core identity as an integral part of the A's brand image. In recent years there have been some more significant modifications such as adding black outlines around certain elements or switching to modern font styles like italicized letters instead of blocky serifs used on early versions; however, these alterations are mostly subtle tweaks rather than drastic redesigns so as not to lose sight of what makes this particular mark so special - namely that it is steeped deeply within baseball history itself!
The Oakland Athletics' primary logo stands proudly amongst other classic designs from across all major American sports teams because it represents both tradition and innovation at once; something which can be said about this organization's approach towards success since day one! It serves not only as a reminder for fans everywhere that no matter how much change happens within our world today – some things will remain timelessly true: a passion for the sport runs deep here & we'll never forget where we came from either!
1993 - Present
The current logo is large “A’s” in green with gold trim on a white background inside thick green circle with wordmark “OAKLAND ATHLETICS.”
1983 - 1992
In 1983 Oakland unveiled a new logo that was a yellow “A’s” inside a white background with a thick green border. On top the “A’s” is the wordmark “OAKLAND” and on the bottom “ATHLETICS.”
1971 - 1982
The next Oakland logo is a kelly green “A’s” on bright yellow baseball with a green border and with thick white seams from a baseball. A pair of white sneakers hanging to the left of the “A” and the wordmark “The Swingin’ A’s” in black and green.
1968 - 1970
The original Oakland logo, is a white baseball with yellow seams and a green outline. A large scripted “A’s” in green on top of the baseball.
Todd Radom Design: Sports Logo Case Study #10
The visual world of Major League Baseball in 1962 was a fairly drab affair. Home uniforms were uniformly white, all road uniforms were gray, and the core color for every one of the 20 MLB clubs was either black, blue, or red. Enter Kansas City Athletics' owner Charles O. Finley. Variously described as caustic, flamboyant, overbearing, and petty, he was also a self-made millionaire, a marketing genius, and a man with plenty of innovative ideas. In January 1963, Finley unveiled a plan that rocked the colorless world of professional sports and propelled it into the jet age, at least as far as aesthetics are concerned.. It's best to keep it short and sweet. Read More...
1955 - 1967
A carry over from Philadelphia and the final logo for Kansas City. A white with blue trim elephant standing on a white baseball holding a baseball bat with its trunk, a orange banner reading “A’s” in white on its back. The letter “A” stands for the team nickname Athletics.
1954
The final logo for Philadelphia Athletics is a white with blue outline elephant standing on a baseball with three legs. The elephant is holding a bat in it’s trunk. On the elephant’s back is “A’s” in white on a orange background. The baseball and elephant are on a orange diamond.
1939 - 1953
The 1939 logo featured a detailed black line drawing of an white elephant, holding a baseball in it’s trunk. With an emblem of “A’s” in white with a red background.
1930 - 1938
New design of the mascot elephant, now in white with a light blue thick outline. This elephant is on all four legs.
1928 - 1929
Back to the old english style letter “A” in light blue with a white and blue outline.
1924 - 1927
Another drawing of an elephant, now is white with black trim. Again on his hind legs.
1921 - 1923
New artist rendering of the an elephant up on his hind legs. Now in a lighter blue color.
1920
The 1920 logo featured the first drawing of an elephant as the logo, done in the color dark blue.
1902 - 1919
In 1902 the Athletics changed to an old english letter “A” in a dark blue.
1901
The original Philadelphia logo was a block letter “A” in the color blue.
