The San Jose Sharks recently released a handful of new wordmark and lockup logos ahead of the 2021 season. They’ve also retired a handful of secondary designs that hadn’t gotten much wide use lately. Here’s a rundown of what’s changed!

If you’ve been on the Sharks’ website recently, you may have noticed a new header design.

Though it may look like a relatively generic font simply serving to display the team’s name, it is in fact their new wordmark—officially released earlier this month.

San Jose’s new suite of logos comes in a variety of layouts and color options, as you can see here.

That’s what they look like over teal. I’m not sure the black contrasts enough with the teal, but it does hint at a dark shadow of a shark lurking beneath the ocean.

And here’s how the colors differ over a white background.

And this is how they appear over a black background.

All of these color options are necessary because there is no natural outline surrounding the letters.

When you look at the stacked wordmark, there are two versions—as seen below—where “SAN JOSE” varies in size.

I’m guessing the top version plays better for smaller applications while the bottom version is more useful when the logo is printed at large sizes.

There’s also the wide version of the wordmark and all of its color variations here. This is what you see in the header of their website currently.

These are all fine designs, if not slightly generic. There are plenty of sharp corners reminiscent of shark teeth and they’re very legible.

Of course no Sharks wordmark will ever top their original.

Here’s a quick look at some of the wordmarks from the 2007 redesign that are now officially retired.

The Sharks have made a small tweak to one of their many secondary marks.

This version of the “SJ” logo removes the gradient of teal shades in the waves. Everything else is the same.

I also noticed that some other secondary marks that were released in 2007 are no longer included in the Sharks’ official brand guidelines.

It’s worth noting that the two logos that featured in the most orange are now gone. It seems pretty clear the Sharks are steering clear of that secondary color as much as possible going forward.

So there you have it. Have an opinion on the Sharks’ new wordmarks?