Norfolk Tides

100

I think I'm losing my mind.

I'm looking at this logo critically, and can see almost nothing good about it. First, there's the color scheme: I don't like a green-and-orange color scheme in the first place (heck I'm not a fan of an anything-and-orange color scheme as a general rule), and in my opinion neither of them goes with grey. This logo features all three of them, and throws in black and a second shade of green to boot. I think someone may have been thinking black could tie the other colors together, but it can't.

And then there's the seahorse. Seahorses, if you've never seen one, are cute. They tried to make something cute into something ferocious. We know how well that generally works. It usually just makes the something even cuter. This was no exception.

Then they gave the thing a trident with an "N" (for Norfolk, of course) on it. Okay, I'll acknowledge that the "N" in the trident is actually clever. But given the size of a typical seahorse, this is not a trident that is going to hurt anyone. It's probably about the same size as (maybe a little bigger than) those kitschy plastic swords used like toothpicks to put cherries in drinks at restaurants that really ought to know better. And if the trident reminds you of little kitschy plastic swords instead of an actual weapon, then it doesn't work either.

And then there's the background. Presumably it's supposed to look like water. It's the only thing in the logo that could possibly represent a tide. But what it actually looks like is a small portion of the poster for the musical Wicked.

And yet for some reason I kind of like this logo.

I really don't know why. Maybe it's all the green (I like green). Maybe it's that the seahorse sort of blends into background (which would normally be a fault) in such a way that the whole thing becomes sort of abstract, which allows me to ignore the problematic details. Or maybe I'm losing my mind.

In fact, the more I like it, the more problems I find with it. There's no real reason for the anchors in the logo. The way the trident touches the outer circle at both ends makes it look like someone drew a prohibition sign but made it grey instead of red. The font in which the team name is written seems inappropriate for a nautical theme.

And yet, I still like it.

Am I cutting them some slack because they're an O's affiliate? Because I've been to Norfolk and like the area? No, I don't think so. I wasn't especially nice to the Bowie BaySox, who are an O's affiliate. I was fairly mean to my local team. So that's not it. Besides, I'm not cutting them slack. That's something you do if you don't like something but want to be nice. I actually like the logo.

There's no other explanation, is there? I'm losing my mind. Hopefully they'll let me bring my laptop to the insane asylum.

Final Score: 100 points.
Penalties: Humanoid, 30 pts; Colorful, 31 pts; Irrelevance, 39 pts.
Bonuses: None.