The ice hockey team San Jose Sharks has modified its logo not less than four times throughout around 30 years of its history. However, its core hasn’t changed that much. The updates only made the logo more professional and refined without touching the central visual metaphor – a shark crushing a hockey stick.
San Jose Sharks, a hockey club from California, was born in the 1990s, and its first emblem, introduced in 1991, was a brilliant example of contemporary logo design, able to reflect the character and strength of the team. The composition of the logo remained unchanged after its first redesign in 2013, though with the appearance of the new color in the visual identity palette, it became more powerful and energetic.
The original version I the San Jose Sharks logo was introduced by Terry Smith Creations in 1991 and stayed unchanged for more than twenty years. The composition of the visual identity featured a black shark with a broken hockey stick between its tech. The image was placed in a triangular frame, pointing down, with the shark’s contours coming out of the geometric outline to the right, creating a sense of movement and dynamics.
The alternate version of the logo, used by the hockey club at the same time, was composed of a gray fin placed on a sea-blue circle with white elements and a black outline.
In 2013 the logo was redesigned by Terry Smith, redrawing the shark’s contour and switching its color palette from plain black to the dark turquoise and black mix. The hockey stick was also a bit refined, becoming lighter and shorter, with its lines softened. The shark itself became more futuristic and “mechanic”, looking dangerous with its orange severe eyes.
The additional logo versions of San Jose Sharks include an orange and blue rhombus with a black shark fin (this icon replaced the circular one from 2001), the full emblem with a bold sea-blue inscription placed diagonally under the shark, and a version with gradient shades, where all the components remain the same as on the primary logo.
There is also a second line of the emblems for the team, created by Terry Smith in 2016. It features a black and dark green shark with its mouth opened, executed in smooth etched lines with sharp fins and teeth. The animal can be used on its own, or with a bold stylized “SJ” monogram in outlines italicized sans-serif.
The 1999 logo update was a subtle one – its most notable part was a shift in the color scheme. The light orange hockey stick of the earliest logo was replaced by a more saturated shade of orange.
The following redesign was a more profound one. The shark’s position and look were changed in a way that made the creature appear much scarier than before. Now, teal started to play a more prominent role: it appeared not only as part of the triangle but was also the color of the top of the shark’s body.
Probably the most eye-catching and unusual letter on all the team’s wordmarks is the “A,” which has a particularly recognizable top part. It looks like the text has been drawn by hand rather than put up out of an existing typeface.
The color combination used on the San Jose Sharks logo is unique and instantly memorable. The emblem is dominated by black and Deep Pacific teal, while Burnt orange is used to create accents. White is preserved for the background and small details. The shade of teal is pretty similar to the Pantone 3155 C color, while the shade of orange resembles Pantone 152 C orange.
TEAL
PANTONE: PMS 3155 C
HEX COLOR: #006D75;
RGB: (0, 109, 117)
CMYK: (100, 9, 29, 47)
ORANGE
PANTONE: PMS 152 C
HEX COLOR: #EA7200;
RGB: (234, 114, 0)
CMYK: (0, 66, 100, 0)
BLACK
PANTONE: PMS BLACK 6 C
HEX COLOR: #000000;
RGB: (0, 0, 0)
HSB: (28, 100, 0)
CMYK: (75, 68, 67, 90)
WHITE
HEX COLOR: #FFFFFF;
RGB: (255, 255, 255)
HSB: (42, 0, 100)
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 0)