What they got wrong
Similarity to Chargers
For someone who lives in Los Angeles but doesn’t closely follow sports, it’d be easy to mistaken the Rams’ new logo for one representing the Chargers. That’s not good for the Rams. When the logo leaked on the hat, many wondered if it was simply a combination of both teams for the opening of SoFi Stadium. Again, not a good sign for the Rams’ brand.
The horn resembles a lightning bolt, and the coloring without the royal blue is also similar to the Chargers’ scheme. This feels like a huge mistake by the Rams.
Which L.A. Chargers logo do you like better? pic.twitter.com/9r8K7h0XvF
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) March 24, 2020
Generic look
When the logo was unveiled, Twitter had a field day. Some likened it to a morning news show’s logo, while others compared it to something a gas station would use on its sign. That sort of reception is never good, and it shows how generic the logo looks on the surface.
Yes, it has underlying meanings that tie to the Rams and L.A., but a logo shouldn’t need explanation.
New Rams logo looks like it belongs on a local TV morning show. pic.twitter.com/1bb2744Guy
— Joe Flint (@JBFlint) March 24, 2020
The gradient
The gradient is hardly the worst part of the logo, but it also doesn’t do much for it, either. The transition from white to yellow is supposed to signal the team transitioning from its past to the future, but it makes the logo look uninspired and almost like something out of a create-a-team tool in a video game.
Rounded design of the ram head
The ram head had so, so much potential. As it is, the logo isn’t terrible. It’s unique and modern, but the edges are just … soft. The only sharp line is at the top of the right horn, while every other edge is rounded and unintimidating.
A revamped logo has been circulating on social media with a much sharper look, including a yellow eye, harder angles and a pointier horn tip. It’s a subtle tweak, but it makes the logo look more finished and along the lines of other NFL logos.
Hey @RamsNFL, we fixed it for ya. Took literally 5 minutes. pic.twitter.com/Jcb1mVPhbl
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) March 23, 2020
Lettering as the primary logo
Most of the best logos in sports feature some sort of mascot, not an abbreviation. Hardly anyone looks at the Giants’ logo and thinks it’s one of the better marks in the league. The Rams’ new logo will never be viewed as one of the best in sports. Their old ram head logo was seen that way, but no longer.
That’s a telling sign of how this logo will be received down the line. On the flipside, had the Rams nailed the ram head logo, it would’ve immediately been seen as one of the best in football.
Ignoring fan response
After the logo on the draft hat leaked, the Rams had two options: Push forward with that as the primary logo, or pivot and release something different. They chose to stick with Plan A and revealed that very logo to fans a few weeks later.
The Rams had the chance to take fan input into consideration and release a different logo, but they refused to do that – and understandably so. They took years to develop this logo, so why would they be OK to throw it out the window?
That being said, they could’ve simply called the ram head their primary logo, introduced the L.A. mark as a secondary logo and fans would’ve never known the original plan. It would’ve appeased fans with the correct colors and gone with the theme of sticking with the ram head, too.