JJW logo

Ever since I can remember, I've been fascinated with letters.  Not only words and writing (we'll save that for another day), but the shape of them.  The fonts, the geometrics, the symbolism, the effects and manipulation...

One of the earliest memories of letters were the initials on baseball caps and other sports gear.  In the 1960s, teams did not have three and four-color computer-generated artwork embroidered on their hats like today.  It usually was an initial, occasionally two or three.  I always wondered why teams chose looks for their identity.  Why did teams like Detroit and Oakland decide to use Olde English style fonts...

...while other teams like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington use script?

Why did the Cubs use a perfectly round "C" logo while Cincinnati had a wishbone?

Why did Cleveland have the same wishbone "C" in different colors?  Why did the Minnesota Twins, of all teams, have a wishbone "C" on their caps?  And the Chicago Bears also had this letter.  Was there no other font out there to use?  Couldn't someone buy an Olde English one?

(just to let you know, Minnesota's cap initials stand for "Twin Cities.")

Later, I saw teams manipulating a letter to include symbolism, like the Atlanta Flames adding fire to their A, or 

This logo also includes another course I loved: geometry.  It is a series of three circles: the red one, the yellow which is twice the diameter as the first, and the blue which is three times the diameter as the red.  The circles form the letter W, and the negative spaces form two J's.