If there was anything that would help get me writing about things other than being a new dad and how I’m often operating on a sleep deficit and spending the expected amount of time changing diapers, it’s a good old fashioned dunking on a rebranded logo. And the Los Angeles Rams Formerly of St. Louis did just that, futilely trying to get people to pay attention to them and not think of them as another dead franchise that inexplicably cannot survive in a sports-crazed market like LA.
Honestly, in spite of the harsh tone and the likely critical things I’m going to say about it, the overall logo isn’t that turrible. It says “LA” and then there’s a horn of a ram in it, the point is made, and the objective is completed: LA Rams.
The problem is, I can’t not see a glorified news station logo when I look at it. The very first thought that came to mind when I saw it was that it looked like it had to be an NBC affiliate’s news logo for Los Angeles. Like it was born to be a news station logo, not the primary identity of a futbol americano franchise in the NFL, one of the most influential and wealthy sporting entities on the planet.
I mean seriously, the image above is a quick shop job I did to illustrate my point. If this whole post wasn’t talking about the logo, would anyone stop and think twice about the logo tucked in the bottom corner of any news broadcast? It fits so seamlessly and could easily be used in any broadcast throughout all of Los Angeles.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that LA just can’t get a break when it comes to professional football. They’re such a massive market, yet the NFL just inexplicably can’t seem to get their shit together out there. Even the Knicks were once good in New York, but LA just can’t seem to get people to take the NFL seriously there. I mean look at the memes that the LA Chragers became when they unveiled their low-effort logo that lasted all of like two days before it was ridiculed to literal death.
I can’t say I bothered to see if the Rams’ new logo was nearly as ridiculed as the Chragers’ one was, but to this snooty graphic designer, all I’ll ever see is a fictitious news station’s logo, waiting to be permanently positioned in the bottom corner of a television screen during a broadcast.
