The History and Evolution of The Golden State Warriors Logo
On July 17, 2010, the Golden States Warriors unveiled a new logo which they have been using to date. The team has consistently used California Golden yellow and Warriors Royal Blue in their logos, and the current one came after 18 months of collaborating with Adidas and NBA. So, let’s take a look at how the Warriors logo has evolved since its establishment.
First logo
The Golden States Warriors’ history dates back to 1946 when they were founded in Philadelphia and thus adopted the name Philadelphia Warriors. They began using their first logo in 1947; it was a cartoon figure of a Native American drawn in blue color.
On his head, he had a yellow feather whose tip was also blue. The basketball he was dribbling was yellow and beneath it were three blue lines. Across the image was the wordmark “Warriors” in yellow.
Philadelphia Warriors
In 1952 the Philadelphia Warriors changed their logo to have their name in the logo. They retained the cartoon Native American dribbling the basketball, but in this one, they did away with the yellow color since everything was in blue. The wordmark “Philadelphia Warriors” was scripted across the image such that “PHILADELPHIA” was in a banner derived from the “W” in “Warriors.”
San Francisco Warriors
In 1962, the Philadelphia Warriors moved to San Francisco Bay Area and changed their name to the San Francisco Warriors. They then modified their logo to have the yellow making a comeback. They did away with the Native American and instead adopted an Indian headcrest in blue and white lines, resting on a yellow background and encircled by a blue line.
The wordmark “SAN FRANCISCO WARRIORS,” in blue and on a white background surrounds the circled headcrest. The “I” in “Warriors” is an arrow and the entire image is encircled by two blue lines separated by a yellow color.
In 1969, the San Francisco Warriors changed their logo doing away with the headrest and instead, having the Golden Gate Bridge drawn in blue and set on a yellow background, with a thick blue line encircling the image. Above the circled Golden Gate Bridge is the wordmark “The CITY” in blue, referring to the city of San Francisco.
Golden State Warriors
In 1971, the San Francisco Warriors changed the geographic moniker to Golden State, and hence the team came to be known as the Golden State Warriors, a name they have retained to date. They consequently changed their logo to have an outline of California State in blue and a blue star depicting the Bay Area.
To the right of California State outline, is the number 14 on a yellow background and blue outline almost encircling the number and California State outline. The wordmark “GOLDEN STATE” sits atop the circle while at its bottom, there is “WARRIORS.”
In 1973, the Golden State Warriors logo did not change much from the previous logo and only changed the wordmark such that “WARRIORS” now rested at the top of the circle and “BASKETBALL” sat at the bottom.
In 1976, they changed the logo’s wordmark to the one they had used in 1971. However, there were a few modifications inside the circle such that instead of a yellow background for the number “14”, they used a yellow basketball.
From 1989 until 1997, the Golden State Warriors used another version of the 1976 logo in which they changed: the yellow color to a darker shade, the font of the wordmark “GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS” and blue color also went a shade darker.
In 1998, the logo changed again completely. This time, the “WARRIORS” is in a light shade of orange with a blue and dark red outline. The “W” in “WARRIORS” is extended to be a lightning bolt which is held on to by a blue masked man and behind him, there is an orange basketball. They used this logo until 2010.
Present day logo
The Golden State Warriors went back to using yellow and blue in a logo that was almost similar to the one they used in 1969. The Bay Bridge Eastern Span is in yellow and blue against a blue background and in a yellow circle whose border is a medium-thick blue line. At the top of the circle, the wordmark “GOLDEN STATE” is present while at the bottom rests “WARRIORS” which is in a different font.
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