When I first saw it, I didn’t love it. After a bit, it’s growing on me more and more, especially after learning its origins. I have never been to Cleveland and have never heard of the ‘Guardians of Traffic’ or even noticed them in Major League (a comedy about the Cleveland Indians, among other things). Also, I read that Corey Barnes made a good case for ‘Guardians’ a year ago.

Apparently, the Guardians was one of several fan favorites going into the announcement. The name is inspired by the four art deco statues, the Guardians Of Traffic, that appear on a bridge near the team’s stadium. It’s also apparent the team wanted something that worked well with the “dians” part of the original name. I would have bet they were going to go with “Spiders” for historical and obvious cool logo reasons.

However, the new logo looks decent. It’s not Seattle Kraken-good, but it’s a cool script, even though it kind of looks like the Milwaukee Tool logo. The winged “G” baseball (the “Guardian’s Fastball,” per the team) reminds me of a bad video game graphic, and I dislike it a lot, but it isn’t the Chief Wahoo caricature, so there’s that.

I do like the new ‘C’ mark. It’s a blend of the current ‘C’ mark mixed with the new Guardians type. It’s far better than the “Fastball” logo. The jerseys with Cleveland across the front should have been in the same font as the Guardians script, so it kind of throws the whole look off.

Doing a complete brand change is difficult. I think they pulled it off pretty well. Next up… hey there, Washington Football Team …what’s it gonna be? Red Tails? Renegades? Redhawks? Generals?