County Crests

sketchpad

Whats going on with county boards feeling the need to change their crest?
I'm from Wexford where we are on our third crest in 15 years.
Personally I loved the 'old three burning ships' logo with the epic motto 'per aquam et ignem' (through fire and water).
Now we have a dodgy looking pikeman and a bendy hurl set in a disproportionate crest.
Dont get me started on Kerry's current version.
Cork and Dublin got it spot on when updating their crests. They are both recognisable with their older version but look current.
Other counties who get it right include Offally, Sligo, Tyrone, Armagh, Galway & Meath.
While Louth, Carlow (maybe the worst of all), Kerry, Wexford, Kilkenny & Leitrim are borderline embarassing.
Thoughts?

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

AFAIK it's for copyright issues.

sketchpad

how do you mean? Someone was claiming copyright to the old logos??

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

sketchpad wrote: »

how do you mean? Someone was claiming copyright to the old logos??

I think that it wasn't possible to copyright the old crests, so anyone was able to use them. A lot of county boards then designed new ones.

This is just going off what I heard on here btw, think it was in the new jersey's thread.

sketchpad

THFC wrote: »

it wasn't possible to copyright the old crests, so anyone was able to use them. A lot of county boards then designed new ones.

This is just going off what I heard on here btw, think it was in the new jersey's thread.

that makes sense i guess. always comes down to money.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

sketchpad wrote: »

that makes sense i guess. always comes down to money.

Here it is, this is from someone on a club board.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=81743496&postcount=357

dobman88

I'm from Kerry, new crest is ridiculously embarrassing. How they paid a "designer" for that is beyond me. I refuse to buy the new jersey with that crest.

EDIT- My girlfriend just informed me you can buy the new jersey with the old crest in the Kerry GAA shop in Killarney (apparently)

sketchpad

dobman88 wrote: »

I'm from Kerry, new crest is ridiculously embarrassing. How they paid a "designer" for that is beyond me. I refuse to buy the new jersey with that crest.

EDIT- My girlfriend just informed me you can buy the new jersey with the old crest in the Kerry GAA shop in Killarney (apparently)

I think we should start a movement to use the old crests again. Let the county boards use what they want, we just wont buy any merchandise with new logos.

dobman88

sketchpad wrote: »

I think we should start a movement to use the old crests again. Let the county boards use what they want, we just wont buy any merchandise with new logos.

As much as I would like that to happen......it won't. People love a new fad. GAA will be as bad as Premiership teams bringing out a new jersey every season soon. It's a business now, not an amateur sport anymore.

Browney7

The worst crest has to be Louth's. The Boyne cable bridge is in Meath and its on the crest.

The Kilkenny and Tipp ones used to be similar back in the day.

Pretty sure its copyright issues alright. Sure look at the interprovincial rugby crests. All "new" crests.

Hammer Archer

Browney7 wrote: »

The worst crest has to be Louth's. The Boyne cable bridge is in Meath and its on the crest.

They've changed it in the last few years to have St. Brigid's Cross on it.
It was absolutely hilarious when they had that crest though :pac:

danceswithwolf

Laois' crest was a was a lion a la the actual county council crest, the when they switched to Azzuri they adopted some generic, cheap looking tourist board thing. Didn't make a lot of sense.

WesternZulu

I don't mind the newish Mayo crest...they broadly kept it the same as the old one.

Kilkenny's is one of the worst new ones!

Clareman

The problem with County crests is they can't be copyrighted so anyone could make a jersey with the official crest and nothing could be done and it would be lost revenue for the county board, like the rugby provinces got their own designs a few years back

Hibbeler

Hammer Archer wrote: »

They've changed it in the last few years to have St. Brigid's Cross on it.
It was absolutely hilarious when they had that crest though :pac:

To be fair I think that the current Louth crest is quite nice, it is a very simple and elegant design. Plus afaik their crest back in the day was a St. Brigid's cross so the current one obviously takes inspiration from there.

Also as regards the "Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge" as it is now called the river is the border so some of it must have belonged to Louth

klairondavis

Kildare's current version of the St Brigid's Cross looks awful. Our old crest with the snake on it looked the part.

Kerry's old crest was very nice alright as is the current Wicklow crest.

Frankie Lee

klairondavis wrote: »

Kildare's current version of the St Brigid's Cross looks awful. Our old crest with the snake on it looked the part.

We should release a jersey along these lines

Syferus

Like our (Ros) revised crest. Basically a vectored version of the original with smoother edges and better clarity on the symbols.

WesternZulu

Syferus wrote: »

Like our (Ros) revised crest. Basically a vectored version of the original with smoother edges and better clarity on the symbols.

It would have been a crime to not have the sheep's head in the new Ros crest...the county board done good!

KildareBlue

klairondavis wrote: »

Kildare's current version of the St Brigid's Cross looks awful. Our old crest with the snake on it looked the part.

Kerry's old crest was very nice alright as is the current Wicklow crest.

I like it, but quite a few across the county would agree with you. It's supposed to look as if there's a football and a hurl included as well, if I recall correctly. I'll always associate the snake with Naas myself, not the entire county. Then again, I'm too young to remember when that crest was used.

Frankie Lee wrote: »

We should release a jersey along these lines

Sure, why not?

Most county crests don't seem too bad, in my opinion. Carlow's is a bit unusual. The Kerry one doesn't compare to what they had before, but as far as I know, they had to change the crest in order to trademark it. I preferred the Galway football crest to their hurling one, which is what the current one is based on, but all in all, they could be worse.

angelfire9

Has the clare crest ever changed? The one I have on my '94 jersey is the same as the current kit so I'm thinking we've never changed??

Mal-Adjusted

angelfire9 wrote: »

Has the clare crest ever changed? The one I have on my '94 jersey is the same as the current kit so I'm thinking we've never changed??

That's actually a pretty good question. Iv'e always wondered what the three lions on the crest is suppose to mean, if anybody knows? I always thought that having Pol na Bron on the crest instead would be more fitting.

The only thing that irks me about it is that with that big banner (get it! ) over the main part, it always looks shrunken down when placed alongside other crests on tv and such. :mad:

beggars_bush

the longford crest was clearly designed by a 10 year old

sketchpad

My only problem is that some county boards are ruining tradition to protect against a problem that doesnt exist. I dont think GAA jerseys are high on the priority list for Asian counterfeiters. If the GAA really wants to corner the flag and braided wristband market it wouldnt take much to put te small man out of business.

And to make matters worse, the county boards are clearly doing it on the cheap without consulting the fans. I dont wont to harp on about the Wexford crest but I believe it was chosen from a primary school competition.

The_Kew_Tour

to me this will always be the Cork GAA crest.

Love this one and always looked well on our jerseys in the past.

purplepanda

The Wexford burning ships is the traditional Wexford Town crest whilst the Hook Lighthouse / Rampant Lion with Pike is the County Wexford crest.

The new Wexford GAA crest is pretty bad so I agree with the OP