Washington Commanders Logo PNG
The Washington Commanders’ logo is stylish. Only the team it belongs to makes it sporty. After all, burgundy and gold signal royalty. In this case, the team inspires self-respect and conveys nobility, along with a desire for unlimited power in the sports arena.
The franchise now known as the Washington Commanders was founded on July 9, 1932, in Boston by George Preston Marshall. It first played as the Boston Braves, sharing a name and stadium with the city’s baseball club. In 1933, Marshall renamed the team Boston Redskins and moved games to Fenway Park. After poor attendance, even during the 1936 Eastern Division title season, he moved the club to Washington in 1937.
The first Washington season brought an NFL championship. Quarterback Sammy Baugh led the team to a 28:21 win over the Chicago Bears and became one of football’s early stars. In 1942, Washington won another NFL title, again beating the Bears. The following decades were far weaker: from 1956 to 1968, the team went winless, bottoming out in 1961 with one win, twelve losses, and one tie.
The team began to recover in 1971, when coach George Allen built a veteran-heavy roster known as the “Over-the-Hill Gang.” In 1972, Washington reached its first Super Bowl but lost 7:14 to the Miami Dolphins. The club’s main winning era began under Joe Gibbs, who was hired in 1981. Washington won Super Bowl XVII in 1983 against Miami, Super Bowl XXII in 1988 against the Denver Broncos, and Super Bowl XXVI in 1992 against the Buffalo Bills.
Ownership later changed twice at record prices: Jack Kent Cooke bought the franchise in 1996 for $340 million, and Daniel Snyder bought it in 1999 for $800 million. Under pressure from Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo, the club dropped the Redskins name in July 2020, played two seasons as the Washington Football Team, and became the Washington Commanders in February 2022. In July 2023, Snyder sold the franchise to Josh Harris’s investor group for $6.05 billion.
Meaning and History
The Washington Commanders’ sports career began in 1932, when it was known as the Boston Braves. It was then renamed the Boston Redskins, and later the Washington Redskins. However, after intense public pressure and from some NFL sponsors who considered the name pejorative, the club adopted a new name: Washington Football Team. This happened in 2020. The players spent two seasons under that name before it was renamed again. The rebranding took place in 2022 and was accompanied by a complete overhaul of the visual identity, including the logo.
What are the Washington Commanders?
Washington Commanders are a sports franchise formerly known as the Washington Redskins. The team was founded in 1932 and renamed in 2020. Its headquarters are in Washington, DC. The team’s home stadium is in Maryland. The team plays in the NFL’s NFC East Division.
2020 – 2021
The emblem features a wide rectangle with centered text. The logo is verbal and uses only the team’s name. Golden letters sit on the maroon field. The words are arranged in two levels. The first row contains the initial fragment of the name. Type it in capital letters with one-sided serifs directed to the left. The second line contains the rest of the name and the actual year the franchise was founded. There are small glyphs.
2022 – today
The modern Washington Commanders logo is maroon and yellow. It consists of a large glyph, the first letter of the football team’s name. The sign is enlarged, so it looks like a block of text. The stylized “W” is painted burgundy inside and gold outside. At the top left, the side elements have a single spike and a sharp notch pointing left. Below is the sports club’s full name, divided into two levels.
The word “Commanders” is highlighted with horizontal lines, superscript, and subscript. These stripes reference the District of Columbia flag. Small print on the first line reads: It highlights the team’s close ties to Washington, where it is based and headquartered, even though the franchise plays its home games in Maryland.
At first, “W” was a separate sign not included in the official emblem, but then it became an independent identity element. Because of the structure’s design, it looks like a wide ribbon bent in three places. Unusual serifs, turned to the left at the tip, add a sense of similarity to the glyph. Together with the angled cuts, they convey the players’ progress and purposeful forward movement.
In addition, the Washington Commanders’ emblem is a tribute to the military. As the team’s representatives note, military rank signs inspired the logo, so the massive letter takes the form of an inclined stripe. Such block structures are typical in sports environments, but here the graphic symbol is supplemented with text, which is less common.
Font and Colors
As the developers intended, the logo’s typography reflects the players’ professionalism. The word “Commanders” means “high and proud.” It is set in all caps and stretched upward.
The Washington Commanders logo uses several fonts for the main text, including the team’s name and slogan; the Athlete Modern font is used for the team’s name and slogan. Eriq Jaffe designed this typeface, a modern take on the classic Athletic typeface from the 1930s.
Athlete Modern is a Sans-serif font, characterized by its lack of serifs and modern look. This typeface features simple, clean lines and strong contrast between thin and thick letterforms.
Overall, the Washington Commanders’ logo typography is modern and clean, fitting for a professional sports team. The sans-serif font creates a recognizable, easy-to-read logo that is easy to identify across various media formats.
The Washington Commanders’ official color scheme is burgundy and gold. Despite the identity change, the franchise retained these colors and used them in its new logos.
Burgundy, the team’s main color, symbolizes strength, energy, passion, and dynamism. It also represents ambition, determination, and courage, which reflect the team’s core characteristics.
Gold, a secondary color, appears in the team’s logo and uniforms. It symbolizes confidence, nobility, success, and wealth.