Rating Ducks Logos

I finally got around to finishing off the downloads of all the images I had hosted on Photobucket. This will mean none of the old images I once linked to this blog will work any longer, but when companies exponentially raise rates on their image hosting services with no improvement to the services they offer it's hard to justify paying those new rates. Thanks to the unfortunate decision, I've been downloading images when I have time and I finally finished that effort tonight which leads me to the lede image above.

According to the newspaper section above, the five images you see were the initial logos that were being promoted back in 1992 for the 1993 debut of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim! While none of the five are the actual logo that the eggplant-and-teal squad would wear on the ice, there are some interesting designs on that page. Let's blow them up one by one and take a look at what could have been for the Mighty Ducks.

Of the five logos, this one would seem to be the most "professional" when it comes to the actual duck being used. I don't mind this logo, but the weird arched "Mighty" over the "Ducks" horizontal feels like something you'd see on a diner or restaurant. The duck itself may not have worked with the colour scheme they landed on, it certainly is the least cartoonish of the bunch as you'll see. Overall, this logo gets a 4/5 quack rating.

Look, I get that Disney has a fairly long list of ducks who have found their places in their cartoons - Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Daisy, Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge McDuck, etc. - but there's no reason that an NHL logo should look cartoonish in any way. If this was a minor-league team, I can understand it. As an NHL logo? No. The fact that it incorporates cartoon duck hockey players with what feels like a generic clip art outer circular design makes this one rate low with a 1/5 quack rating.

A very collegiate "D" containing the face of a sinister Donald Duck-like character? This is a ton of "no". While it was no secret that Walt Disney would own the Mighty Ducks after their hit movies, incorporating a somewhat murderous Donald Duck into a rather listless "D" with motion lines is simply a bad logo. I would expect this from a beer league team, not a pro hockey team and certainly not an NHL team. 0/5 quack rating.

As stated above, Walt Disney owned the Mighty Ducks franchise after spending $50 million for an expansion franchise in December 1992. If I spent that kind of money on a hockey team, I'd want to put my name on it too and it seems the Walt Disney Corporation took it a step further than they should have in using their logo as the Mighty Ducks logo! Adding that beak and eyes on the right side of the logo actually detracts from the Disney logo, and the NHL would never allow one of its teams to be branded with another company's logo. Despite the unmistakable Disney logo, this Mighty Ducks logo only receives a 2/5 quack rating.

This Mighty Ducks logo feels a little cartoony, but I actually don't mind the "MD" lettering with the puck coming through the "D". Being that ducks fly, the logo feels like pilot's wings which kind of skews away from the essence of the Mighty Ducks name, but this logo would work well as a shoulder logo or secondary logo on jerseys. As a primary logo, it just doesn't have that aura about it to instill pride or awe in those who see it, but I'd use it on the shoulders for sure. A 3/5 quack rating.

The newspaper splash was quick to point out that these were just five potential logos that might be used, and that there would be more. It also noted that the mascot would be "more fierce-looking than Donald Duck", so it's pretty clear that logos two, three, and four probably wouldn't make the cut in the final analysis being that they had cartoonish elements to them. As we know, Wild Wing would become the mascot of the Mighty Ducks, and the final logo was much better than any of the ones shown above.

How would you rate the five logos? Do you agree with the ratings I gave them? Sound off in the comments below to tell me just how wrong I am when it comes to my design sense!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!