almost

Sometime in the early 1990's, the Cleveland Indians management decided to update their logo to something politically correct. They contacted various American Indian/Native-American organizations to see what they would come up with. Enter me. I recently graduated college and started doing some graphic design work with my friend Seb. It was just some small jobs here and there, I kept my day job at Twin Value. One of the small jobs was for the NAICC, North American Indian Cultural Center, to design the program for the 20th Anniversary Spring Pow Wow. When the Cleveland Indians contacted NAICC, Claire of the NAICC, contacted me and asked if I would design some logos. Note, this was before desktop publishing was widespread and most everything was done by hand. I didn't have a computer. My roommate had one I could use for simple text but not artwork. I did my work with markers, matted them, put them in a nice hand-made box and sent them in.

Some days later, I get home from work and find out Seb and Claire have been trying to reach me to tell me that TV and radio reporters have been calling. Our logos were in the top choice and Cleveland Indian management and the various American Indian organizations were meeting at that moment to decide what will be the new logo.

I never spoke to any reporters. The meeting had disintegrated, one of the organizations didn't even want the name "Indians" used, and wouldn't back down or compromise. I guess the Cleveland Indians management decided they couldn't please everyone and kept their current identity system.

A few weeks later, Claire sent the logos back to me with a note from Bob DiBiasio.

The next summer I saw the Cleveland Indians put out some jackets with the vintage and even more politically incorrect Chief Wahoo. Hmmm… was that a little F-U to somebody?

Here's the vintage Chief Wahoo that was resurrected after all this.

I think he's taunting me.