Yeah, it looks like the branding that was applied to the crate they put Ark of the Covenant in in the first Indiana Jones movie.
Interesting they got rid of the soccer ball on it. I'm sure that was met with "oh yes!! Finally a respectable crest!!" from many kids painfully oblivious to the host of clubs (including some of the world's most prominent) that feature a ball(s) on their crest.
Well if you google the Nazi "crest" you'll see that it has a very similar motif - it's just that the eagle's talons are grasping a swastika instead of a ball. And in some renditions the swastika is enclosed in a circle, so it is very similar to that initial DCU crest. That might have had something to do with the removal of the ball.
I don't know where all this Nazi nonsense is coming from... bald eagles are native to North America, they were not used by either the Germans, or the Roman Empire before them. The United States government, on the other hand, frequently uses bald eagles on seals, for the US, the President, various agencies, etc. And they are based in Washington DC, just like DC United... crazy coincidence. The ball was removed because there was no need for it, not because it looked like a swastika enclosed in a circle, because it didn't look anything like that. The DC flag is one of the best city flags in the US. The San Jose flag is crap, but the sun thing on the "City of San Jose" branding is decent, and at least the previous Quakes crest incorporated that. Now we have a muddled mess instead.
Hey don't blame the design firm, they have to give their customers what they want, no matter how bad it looks...
It's not that it is a bald eagle, but, that it is an eagle in a pose reminiscent of how the Nazi's used it. Throw in the red, black and white coloring and it is not difficult to see a similarity.
I raised the issue and stand by my assessment. I'm not saying the DCU crest IS Nazi-inspired, merely that it looks that way, which it obviously does. There are objectively identifiable elements that support the assessment, including, as JazzyJ notes, the color scheme. Review some photos of Nazi war eagle flags and architectural adornments and see if you still call the resemblance "nonsense." By the way, the Timbers Army is in the habit of waving the Japanese war flag, which also has ugly connotations. Albeit the color scheme is altered, but nothing else. How many rainbow gay freedom flags does it take to cancel one Japanese war flag? And yet it is the San Jose Ultras who are subjected to prior restraint on patriotic tifo. Wouldn't want to offend anyone with an historically correct use of the word "slave." MLS is synonymous with abject hypocrisy.
I'm not going to link to the Nazi crest, but google it, and then compare, no so much the new one but the original one that Goodsport referenced. Couple things to note. The U.S. based bald eagle images generally have the wings in a pointing upwards position (like the new crest). The pointing downwards thing as above, not so much. That was often used in the Nazi images. Also, the U.S. bald eagle itself is usually gold or brown, not jet black, and the other color besides black that you see on the Nazi symbols is red. So it is again reflective of DCU's color scheme. Finally, if you actually look at the Nazi images the talons on the ball is highly evocative of the Nazi talons on the swastika. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. Again, as Goodsport pointed out, we are hardly the first people to call this out. Ron Newman (first Kansas City Wizards coach?) was aghast at the original logo. Like Washington D.C. United? Yeah. When I saw that first logo I thought, "Oh Christ, it's the Third Reich!" I was ducking my head in case they started bombing us again. But my daughter didn't see it at all -- I suppose it's an age thing. I'm glad they changed it, it looks a lot better. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/15355/sa-qa-ron-newman.html
We had a team of 6-year-olds this season that other teams were complaining about, so I was asked to discreetly check on them. I was told that the team name was the Stormtroopers and I said "they're not behaving, what would you expect?" They were actually not that bad, but I did watch some of them goose stepping across the grass, which I found pretty creepy. I'm sure they picked it up, name and walk, from Star Wars, but I still had to wonder that not a single parent had objected.
I don't need to google it, I am familiar... 1. You said "not so much the new one but the original one"... Well we were talking about the new DC United crest and the one it replaced (that's the one everyone associates with DC United, as it was used from 1998 - 2015). The one you posted wasn't even used in 96, this one was used from 96-97 before it was replaced. With three stars/balls underneath the eagle, it already looks far less like the swastika under the Nazi eagle than the version you posted. But yes, that logo from pre-MLS days does look a bit Nazi-ish. 2. The Nazis hardly came up with the eagle, it has featured prominently in the symbolism of almost every major civilization, pretty much everything is either a lion or an eagle. Just in that part of the world (as opposed to this part of the world where we use... the bald eagle specifically) the eagle is associated with Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, the Roman Empire, Charlemagne, etc. etc. and currently by like a dozen European countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_(heraldry) 3. You said "The pointing downwards thing as above, not so much. That was often used in the Nazi images." and "jet black" If the problem is wings pointed downwards on a jet black eagle... That's the current non-controversial logo of the German football federation. If THE GERMANS can use that without it being a problem, what exactly is the issue with DC United using a bald eagle that is mostly black? At least it's not just red and black, there's also a third color... waitaminute lol Having said all that, I don't expect someone who is biased by their own fandom to be objective when it comes to design, but I really doubt that most people who are into design and have no stake in either logo would prefer the new Quakes crest to the new DCU crest...
Yeah, yeah, we know. The swastika was also an ancient symbol used in many cultures, but, has been completely stigmatized because of its use by the Nazi's. US Army's 45th Infrantry Division actually had it as its symbol up into the 1930's. A California fruit company label from before Hitler stole it......And Coca-Cola...and some playing cards.
You wrote, in your previous post: Where is "all this Nazi nonsense" coming from?" That original, apparently changed crest, that you admit "looks a bit Nazi-ish". The link / quote I referenced is from a native Englander who presumably lived in England during the war. It apparently had a powerful impact on him. Once the association is made it tends to stick, even if they changed it later. Besides, sure everyone knows about the relative commonness of the eagle as a symbol, but the thing about art is it is not "calculated" or "rationalized", it is felt / perceived. We don't look at the eagle and think "the eagle appears on 33.5% of all crests and is therefore not evocative of anything in particular!" or "oh, that looks like a bald eagle, I see what they did there with the white head(!), the bald eagle is distinctively American, therefore this symbol references America!". You look at it and you get a feeling or a reference that is not calculated but simply felt, and there may be many, many things that factor into that. There's a good chance you don't even notice the white head; I didn't. TBH I didn't really see the association at first but after Don G referenced it, I looked at a page of Nazi symbolism and I could see it. Again, it's not a calculation but a "sense" or feeling. I think what it is mainly is the red and black (the Nazi flag was red and black) in combination with the eagle imagery. Once you use red and black you are potentially heading in that direction. [In retrospect I was wrong about the gold - if they'd have used it, it would have probably weakened the association, not strengthened it]. Then the addition of the eagle to the red and black, now you have something that may evoke Nazi imagery in some people. The original crest with the talons on the ball is really evocative of the Nazi crest however, and again, once the association is made, it tends to stick in the mind whether they changed it or not. Again, this is about art and perception. These things are not calculated. FWIW, in the German football federation crest, you'll notice that they tend to de-emphasize the red. It is mostly black, with gold being the second most prominent color. Black, red, and gold / yellow are the colors on the German flag. So they are going to appear. Again, it is not necessarily easily explained. It does not evoke Nazi imagery to most people. Why? It is not necessarily easy to answer. I would say lack of emphasis on red and black, certainly the eagle not clutching a single item with its talons, the multiple circular imagery around the eagle, etc. The direction of the wings - looks like it is more of an historic Germany coat of arms thing. The Nazis tended to turn the wings more to the side (more like the current DCU logo). But again, it is about perception. The downward turned wings in the original DCU logo may have evoked Germany, then together with the ball on the talons, the red and black, the connection may go beyond Germany and start to evoke Nazi Germany specifically. FWIW2, Amazon recently got into some hot water for an ad campaign where they plastered what was perceived as Nazi imagery on subway seats. It is an eagle (but wait, everyone uses an eagle!) with talons grasping a circle containing the iron cross (the iron cross is not a Nazi symbol per se but a symbol of the German army that I think is actually back in use today). http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/24/9793096/amazon-pulls-man-in-the-high-castle-nazi-subway-ads
Since the show is about an alternate ending to WW2, where the Axis is victorious, the imagery actually was Nazi symbolism.
Yeah, that's what they were going for, for sure. They just couldn't use the swastika because that would have obviously been verboten, so they went iron cross instead. But otherwise it is essentially the Nazi crest. In DCU's case, I doubt that there was any intention, even with that original canned one. But there may have been some subliminal things going on there with the designer. Or maybe something in-between, like they wanted it to look bad-a$$ and war-like, they looked at a bunch of symbols and certain things kind of came through. It is the same with art creation as art perception. It is about feeling and perception and not necessarily about calculation and rationalization.
It's ironically quite ethnocentric to see a heraldic eagle and assume it's the reichsadler or see a swastika and react as if it's the hakenkreuz.
I just want the sunrays thing incorporated into the next iteration of Quakes logo. Those sunrays are very unique to our city and a great design mark.