Blue Jackets Logo Redesign: Comparing the New and Previous Designs

What the Blue Jackets logo question is asking

The search for a new Blue Jackets logo is a question about the Columbus Blue Jackets club mark: the NHL team’s primary crest and the generations that sit beside it. The useful answer is which drawing you are looking at, how it differs from the mark it replaced, and which version is fit for a given use. This is a sports-identity problem, not a generic apparel icon named “blue jacket.”

The identity is built on Union-era “blue jacket” symbolism. Across official generations you still see a five-pointed star, a cannon, crossed hockey sticks, and a navy, red and white palette, often with a gold or bronze cannon. Those motifs are the through-line. What changes is how tightly they are drawn, how much interior illustration they carry, and how clearly the silhouette holds when the mark is small.

Scope matters. The primary crest — star, cannon and sticks — is the subject of this comparison. The Stinger character, wordmarks, numerals and shoulder patches belong to the same system and are separate drawings. A file that looks sharp on screen is not automatically true vector geometry, and a logo that can be found in public is not, by that fact, cleared for reuse.

Which versions sit on the table

Readers usually meet three official families, plus any later official redraw issued after the long-running star crest.

• Character-led primary (Stinger): a mascot body built around a star, with a hockey stick and a large number of small interior parts. It reads as a personality, not a civic seal.
• Illustrated patriotic crest: a more pictorial cannon and star, often sitting in a badge-like or circular field, with heavier rendering, more interior edges and more period texture.
• Simplified star primary: a navy five-pointed star as the containing shape, with a flatter gold or bronze cannon, white crossed sticks and a red interior that reads as a C or inner star. This is the workhorse mark on ice, broadcast and most current merch.
• A later official lockup, if one has been issued after that simplified star: treat it as a new generation and run the same checklist below rather than assuming it is only a color tweak.

When people say “the new logo,” they usually mean the simplified star relative to Stinger and the illustrated crest, or a still-newer official file set against that star. Confirm the generation from the drawing itself: count the outer points, read the cannon as a flat shape or a shaded illustration, and see whether a character or a geometric star is doing the silhouette work.

Gap: this article does not include matched side-by-side specimens under controlled viewing conditions, and it does not report print, embroidery or screen tests. Visual judgments below describe the established official families in ordinary viewing. Geometry, color values and performance claims are not lab measurements. If you are holding a specific new file, compare it to a same-size official previous file on a neutral ground before treating any difference as fact.

Meaningful differences: geometry, type, space, color, scale and editability

Shared criteria matter more than slogans about “modern” or “classic.” Put comparable files at the same displayed size, on the same background, and look at construction, not marketing copy.

Criterion	Earlier marks (Stinger and illustrated crest)	Simplified star primary	What it changes in practice
Geometry	Many interior edges, character contours or a fully rendered cannon; silhouette is irregular.	Closed star silhouette; cannon and sticks as flat interior shapes with fewer highlights.	Fewer tiny parts survive reduction, vinyl cuts and embroidery. The star’s five points become the alignment device.
Typography	The drawing itself carries little or no letter; the wordmark is a separate lockup.	Still a pictorial crest; club lettering lives in a companion wordmark, not inside the star.	Do not treat the crest as a logotype. Pairing, tracking and case come from the wordmark file, which must be inspected on its own.
Spacing	Mascot outlines and pictorial badges create uneven padding; optical center is harder to guess.	Star points set a regular outer rhythm; interior cluster sits in the star’s optical middle.	Easier to align with wordmarks, numbers and partner logos. Watch the gaps between sticks, cannon and star points so they do not collapse into one mass.
Color	Broader or more pictorial color, including green-leaning Stinger applications and heavier metallic rendering on early cannons.	Navy field, red interior, white sticks, gold or bronze cannon, white negative space.	Fewer spot colors and more predictable one-color and reversed versions. Metallic cannon paint is a reproduction choice, not a requirement of the geometry.
Scalability	Detail and thin interior strokes break down first on helmets, app icons and stitched caps.	The outer star still reads when interior parts start to merge.	Prefer the simplified star for small digital, uniform and favicon use. Keep illustrated heritage marks for large-format and throwback work.
Asset editability	Complex overlaps, blends or shading that often arrive as raster or as paths that only look vector.	Flatter fills and clearer figure/ground, which are easier to keep as true outlines.	Flatter construction is easier to recolor, outline and prepare for print. Complexity is not proof of quality in a production file.

Editorial reading, not a measured test: the simplified star trades narrative texture for a civic, repeatable silhouette. The earlier marks look richer at poster and arena scale and cost more in stitch count, file complexity and consistency across a kit. That tradeoff is the core of the redesign, not a change of subject. The club is still a star, a cannon and crossed sticks.

What to inspect in a vector file

Readers working with assets should judge the file, not the filename. Extension and the word “vector” in a title do not establish live geometry.

• Open the crest and confirm the star, cannon and sticks are outlines or live shapes, not an embedded bitmap sitting in a vector wrapper.
• Check whether the star points are a single closed path or a pile of overlapping fragments that will misbehave when you cut, offset or change fill.
• Separate spot or brand colors from RGB previews. Navy, red, white and cannon gold should be distinct swatches if you need accurate print.
• For the wordmark, see whether type is outlined. Outlined letters are safer for handoff; live type requires the named font and is easier to edit.
• Convert leftover strokes to fills before cutting vinyl or sending embroidery, and confirm the interior gaps around the sticks still open at the smallest size you will use.
• Keep heritage Stinger or illustrated-crest files in a labeled historical set so they are not dropped into a current-day lockup by accident.

Which version to use

The recommendation depends on the job, not on which drawing looks newer in isolation.

• Current club representation, broadcast, uniforms, apps and most production: the official simplified star primary, in the club’s current color specs, from a file the club or a licensee actually issued.
• Heritage nights, editorial contrast, throwback merch and large-format storytelling: the illustrated crest or Stinger, clearly labeled as a historical mark and not mixed into a current lockup.
• A newly issued official redraw: use that supplied file. Do not rebuild it from a photograph, a screenshot or a fan concept.
• Small sizes (icons, caps, helmet stamps): choose the generation with the strongest closed silhouette, which in the official set is the simplified star.
• One-color, reverse and single-stitch jobs: test the star as a solid shape first; drop interior cannon and stick detail only after you see whether it still reads.

Fan concepts and unofficial “redesigns” are useful for studying geometry. They are not substitutes for the official mark. Permission to reproduce any of these drawings is a rights question. Availability of a download does not grant it.

A practical next step

Place the candidate “new” file next to the previous official crest at the same size, on white and on navy. Confirm generation by silhouette (character, pictorial badge or geometric star), then check interior construction, color count and whether the paths are truly editable. If the new file is an official issue, use it for current work. If it is a heritage drawing, keep it in that lane. If it is an unofficial concept, treat it as study material only.

Untested here: stitch counts, exact spot-color matches, minimum sizes in millimeters, and any specific post-star official redraw that is not in front of you as a comparable specimen. Those answers come from the production file and the club’s current art specs, not from a filename.