Although the Washington Redskins logo has gone through a sequence of changes over its more than 85-year history, the core visual theme – an image of an American Indian – remained the same.
Washington Commanders, the club, which for most of its history has been known as a Washington Redskins, is the NFL team with one of the most numbers of not just logo redesigns, but with complete rebranding and renaming.
The ex-Redskins have a glorious history. The Washington Commanders had their heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s. During the 11 years of head coach Joe Gibbs’ tenure, the team made the playoffs eight times and four times in the Super Bowl, where they won three times: in 1982, 1987, and 1991.
After the conclusion of the 1930 season, the Newark Tornadoes team leaves the NFL, and sells the franchise to the League, resulting in a new Cleveland Indians team in 1931. Initially, the NFL decides to locate the team in Cleveland permanently with new owners. However, no suitable owners were found in Cleveland, resulting in the franchise being transferred to Boston in 1932. George Preston Marshall, Vincent Bendix, Jay O’Brien, and Dorland Doyle become owners of the new team.The club got named Boston Braves, which was changed to Boston Redskins already in 1933.
In 1937 the club moved to Washington, where the most significant and successful period of its history starts. Having the Washington Redskins name for decades, the club had to change it in 2019, due to the growing scandalous mood of the population, as it was claimed to be racist.
In 2019, the Washington Redskins changed their name to the Washington Football Team after facing allegations of racism and threats to break their partnership contracts. It was a temporary measure, to make up a new image and identity for the club, and in 2022 the new name was finally introduced, the Washington Commanders.
The club, known as Washington Redskins for more than eighty years, had its visual identity constant and based on the portrait of a Native American man, though in the middle of the 2010s their name and emblem were claimed to be provocative and offensive, so the legendary team left its roots and legacy behind, and changed the name to Washington Football Team in 2020.
The football club was born in 1932 under the name Boston Braver and its first logo was created in the same year. It was a red and white badge with the image of a Native American man in profile, with a large feathery headpiece. The body of the image was executed in red, with white color used for the inner lines and details.
The club was renamed Boston Redskins in 1933 and the logo was redesigned for the first time. The new emblem featured a monochrome portrait of a man, who was now facing right and had only two white feathers in his black hair. The image was enclosed into a double circular frame in black and orange.
With the relocation of the club to Washington and its next name change in 1937, the new logo was introduced. The Native American man got its color palette evolved and now had a more natural skin tone. The feathers’ color was switched from white to red and the frame was now in dark gold.
The framing was removed from the logo in 1952, and one of the feathers in the man’s hair gained a yellow color, which added energy and power to the whole image.
The redesign of 1969 switched the color scheme of the emblem again, repeating the original badge, but making white the main color, and red was used for the outlines and a small part of the background on a circular badge. The emblem gained a thick white circular frame again.
In 1965 the portrait of the Native American man was removed from the Washington Redskins visual identity. The new badge was composed of a minimalist and elegant image of an arrow with one feather attached to it. The new color palette featured yellow and white colors and a thin red outline. The sharp lines of the new logo evoke a sense of expertise and professionalism.
The new Redskins logo, created for the club in 1970, was composed of a white circular badge in a thick burgundy frame with a bold letter “R” inside. The letter was executed in a custom serif typeface and had massive shape and smooth contours. Two enlarged feathers in white and red were attached to the left side of the frame.
The Native American man came back to the team’s visual identity in 1982. With the renewed color palette, composed of white, yellow, brown, and black, the badge started looking brighter and more energetic.
The man changes his direction and is now turned to the right. The color palette of the logo got one new shade — burgundy, which was used for the bold sans-serif inscription, placed under the circular badge. It was the last version with the image of the Native American man, created for the legendary football club.
Though the visual identity concept and the team’s name were dramatically changed in 2020, there is still one thing, which links the new club with its roots — the yellow and burgundy color palette of the logo. The new composition featured a bold burgundy rectangular badge, located horizontally, with a custom yellow lettering on it. The enlarged “Washington” nameplate had its letters’ ends elongated and sharpened, white the “Football Team EST. 1932” tagline was written in a delicate yet confident sans-serif typeface.
The icon, used by the Washington Football Team, featured a solid burgundy square with a yellow letter “W” on it. The letter is executed in the same custom typeface with sharp elements, the main nameplate is written in.
In 2022 Redskins introduced one more emblem, which is meant to be used along with the previous version of the logo and fully based on it. It is the same sharp letter “W”, which has already become iconic but slightly refined. The new emblem shows it drawn like a folded ribbon, with bright yellow as the main color, and burgundy for the contours. As all the elements of the “W” are outlined, the bars look bolder and there is less negative space seen between the elements. The modern emblem is used on a transparent background and has no additional elements with it.
The helmet design of Washington Commanders is super chic and stylish due to the use of a matte metallic texture of its burgundy background. The solid helmet with no stripes and the mask in the same shade is decorated by a heavy geometric letter “W” in bright yellow, set on the sides. The sharp contours of the four elements, which form the character, add brutality and strength to the elegance of the helmet’s palette.
There is also an alternate version of the helmet design, which features a matte black background and a yellow number on the side, while the letter “W” is drawn in a smaller size and placed on the center of the helmet.
Washington Commanders have three styles of uniform, with two of them executed in the official palette of the team, composed of burgundy, gold, and white. The color version of the uniform is made up of burgundy jersey and burgundy pants with yellow details and thin white stripes on the sleeves. The whole uniform is decorated with burgundy elements with some gradients on the sleeves and the chest. But the most stylish and exquisite outfit of the Commanders is the Alternate one, set in plain black, with small yellow accents.
Since 1997 the Commanders have been playing on the FedEx Field, a stadium in Summerfield, which was expanded in 2005, and renovated in 2012, and has a capacity of 67,617 seats.
Before moving to FedEx Field, the club used to play on several different grounds. For more than thirty years, it was Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, and for three years in the 1930s, — Fenway Park. The very first deacon of the club was played in Boston, on the Braves Field.
The Washington Redskins logo features a solid sans-serif all-cap type. Being absolutely clean and legible, it manages to stay unique and recognizable due to a couple of unusual elements (for instance, shorter ends of the “K” and “R” characters, the unusual central bar in the letter “E”).
The color scheme, which includes burgundy, yellow, white, brown, and black, has remained fairly consistent throughout the years. However, not all the colors were present in each version of the logo.
BURGUNDY
PANTONE: 195 C
HEX COLOR: #773141;
RGB: (63,16,16)
CMYK: (20,100,60,30)
GOLD
PANTONE: 1235 C
HEX COLOR: #FFB612;
RGB: (255,182,18)
CMYK: (0,25,100,0)