Trail Blazers Logo History: Comparing Design Changes
A focused guide to the Portland Trail Blazers logo history, comparing the pinwheel design changes across eras and their practical implications for vector asset use.
Contents
The Essential Answer
The Portland Trail Blazers' primary logo is built around a stylized, abstract pinwheel motif. Five elongated shapes, alternating in red, silver, white, and black, rotate around a central point to suggest motion and unity. The current primary logo, introduced in 2017, refines this pinwheel with simpler geometry and a new wordmark, while the franchise's most famous alternate mark remains the 'vertical pinwheel' introduced in 1990, which runs the pinwheel down the center of the basketball.
How the Logo Developed
The visual identity began with the team's founding in 1970. Cousins Harry Glickman and Frank Glickman created the original pinwheel concept. The initial mark featured five straight lines converging on a central circle to represent the five players on a basketball court working together. This design was simple and graphic, relying on the high contrast of red and black against a white background.
In 1990, the team introduced a significant redesign that became known as the vertical pinwheel. This design rotated the abstract mark ninety degrees and placed it prominently over a stylized basketball. The lines were refined, and the color balance shifted to include more silver alongside the red and black. This version dominated the team's branding for over a decade and remains a recognizable retro mark.
The most recent comprehensive update arrived in 2017. The team simplified the pinwheel back to a horizontal orientation, removing the basketball from the primary mark. The design team adjusted the geometry of the pinwheel, creating more distinct spacing between the five shapes. The color palette was deepened, and a new custom wordmark with sharp, angular cuts accompanied the symbol. This change was intended to modernize the asset for digital media and uniform applications.
Comparing the 1990 and 2017 Versions
When choosing between the 1990 vertical pinwheel and the 2017 primary mark for a project, the differences in scalability and asset complexity are significant. The 1990 version combines the pinwheel with a basketball, which introduces curved seams and a spherical shape. At small sizes, such as a social media avatar or a mobile app icon, the internal detail of the basketball can become visually cluttered.
The 2017 mark trades that complexity for clarity. By removing the basketball, the design reduces the number of distinct visual elements. The wider gaps between the pinwheel shapes improve legibility when printed in a single color or embroidered on fabric. The typography in the 2017 system also uses a cleaner sans-serif structure compared to the heavier, more condensed lettering often paired with the 1990 design.
| Feature | 1990 Vertical Pinwheel | 2017 Primary Pinwheel |
| Composition | Pinwheel over a basketball | Pinwheel alone |
| Color Balance | Higher proportion of silver | Deeper black and red |
| Scalability | Less effective at small sizes | Designed for single-color use |
| Typography | Condensed, blocky | Custom, angular sans-serif |
| Vector Editability | More subpaths and curves | Flatter, simpler geometry |
For a project that requires a retro aesthetic or a large-format print where detail is visible, the 1990 mark may fit the visual direction. For digital interfaces, modern uniform patches, or scenarios requiring precise single-color reproduction, the 2017 primary logo offers practical advantages in file size and shape recognition.
Practical Implications for Vector Assets
The availability of a logo in a PDF or SVG file does not imply permission to reuse it commercially. The Trail Blazers logo is a protected trademark. The decision to use a vector asset should be based on licensing rights, not merely the file format.
When editing vector versions of these logos, the 2017 mark is generally easier to manipulate because it uses fewer overlapping paths and flatter curves. That geometric simplicity reduces the risk of unwanted artifacts when converting the logo to a single color or scaling the design within a layout.