War On Logos #1: Goin’ Fishing
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Spongebob Squarepants… and this delightful logo:
Much to the dismay of fans of the New York Islanders (with very few exceptions), this fisherman was introduced in 1995 as the team’s new logo. Unlike other teams at the time who only introduced nasty third jerseys, the Islanders instead chose to completely rebrand themselves, getting rid of the old logo and replacing it with this guy. They also ditched the fan favourite colour of royal blue and replaced it with navy, even adding teal to the mix.
Where to begin… first of all, this logo does not in any way say ‘Islanders’, even though there is a great big wordmark with the team’s name on it right there. More noticeably, what’s with the fisherman? I’ve never seen one wearing a bright teal coloured hat and coat before. He also seems to be a fan of girls’ makeup… I mean, look at his skin: he’s applied so much fake tan that it’s turned bright orange, making his grey beard really stand out! And what exactly is he guarding the net for? I think he’s either hiding his good friend Spongebob Squarepants in there, or his secret stash of makeup. The only likeable thing about this logo is the waves at the bottom: too bad they don’t really go too well with a hockey team’s logo, and would seem more fitting for a swimming pool or something.
Along with this logo came a set of new jerseys, which had horrible wavy patterns on it: the whole rebranding was so bad that fans all over the NHL mocked it… even the Islanders’ own fans! And so midway through the 1996-97 season, the logo was removed in favour of a (slightly) updated version of the Islanders old logo, and then returned to old style jerseys the following year.
So what happened to it afterwards? Some say that it resides in that pineapple under the sea with Spongebob. I think however that it was dropped into the deepest ocean on the planet, hopefully leaving no evidence.
Whoever designed this horrible thing needs to be shot at with plenty of pucks… or at the very least, slapped around the face several times with a wet fish.