Although the ice hockey team Calgary Flames has around forty years of history (under its current name), it has gone through only two logo modifications so far. This may be attributed to the fact that the emblem is clean, meaningful, and instantly memorable, so it probably wasn’t necessary to introduce any profound upgrades.
Meaning and history
The club was established in 1970 under the name of the Atlanta Flames. The earliest Calgary Flames logo sported a red and white “A” with a yellow outline and flames going up in the center. This emblem was soon nicknamed the Flaming “A.”
1972 — 1980
The very first emblem for the club was introduced in 1972 and stayed with them for eight years. It was a stylized contoured letter “A” with an abstract flame on it. The emblem was executed in a dark red and white color palette, which made it look very powerful and professional.
1980 — 1994
In 1980, the team was sold to a group of Calgary businessmen, and it was announced that the club would relocate to the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Shortly after, a new logo called Flaming “C” was introduced. Here, the “C” had flames along its left edge, which created the illusion of motion. The shade of red was a bit more saturated than on the original emblem. The Calgary Flames logo was developed by Patricia Redditt, a local graphic designer.
1994 — 2020
The update was a subtle one. Red and yellow became a bit lighter. Because of this, the image lost some of its contrast, so the designer decided to provide the “C” with a thin black outline to make it stand out.
2020 — Today
Font
The wordmark features the name of the team in a simple sans serif typeface. The letters are italicized. The most distinctive feature is probably the unusual outline, due to which the text appears to be in flames.
Color
The most visible colors of the palette – red and yellow – seem to fit the name Flames perfectly. Black and white are used as secondary colors: black creates an outline, while white is the background color.
RED
PANTONE: 186 C
HEX COLOR: #C8102E;
RGB: (200,16,46)
CMYK: (2,100,85,6)
GOLD
HEX COLOR: #F1BE48;
RGB: (241, 190, 72)
CMYK: (0,24,78,0)
PANTONE: 142 C
BLACK
HEX COLOR: #111111;
RGB: (17,17,17)
HSB: (40,0,6)
CMYK: (73,67,66,83)
WHITE
HEX COLOR: #FFFFFF;
RGB: (255,255,255)
HSB: (206,0,100)
CMYK: (0,0,0,0)