The Maine Celtics are the NBA G League affiliate of the Boston Celtics, based in Portland, Maine. The franchise was established in 2009 as the Maine Red Claws and was renamed the Maine Celtics on May 24, 2021, when the Boston Celtics unveiled a new name and visual identity for their development team.[1]
Design and History
The 2021 rebrand replaced the Red Claws identity with a new primary logo that retained a distinctly Maine element: the lobster. The new mark recolors the lobster from red to green, placing it on a black and green circle with the team name encircled in white.[2] The logo contains the central element of the retired Red Claws logo, the fierce-looking lobster holding a basketball, now matching the dominant green color of the Celtics’ marks.[3]
The team also introduced a wordmark logo showing CELTICS in green with the first “C” designed as a lobster claw and a basketball placed within the second “C,” with MAINE written above in black.[4] An additional jersey wordmark similar to the BOSTON wordmark worn on NBA Celtics uniforms was also introduced.[2]
The franchise’s mascot, Crusher the lobster, remained after the rebrand but changed from red to Kelly green.[5] The Boston Celtics had purchased the Maine franchise in July 2019, and team president Rich Gotham described the renaming as “the next step in that evolution” toward aligning the G League club with the parent organization.[1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The original Red Claws name and logo paid homage to Maine’s lobster fishing industry, a major economic engine of the New England region.[6] The 2021 rebrand kept that regional lobster motif while shifting the color palette to green, directly aligning the franchise with the Boston Celtics brand and colors.[6] Maine Celtics team president Dajuan Eubanks said the change “directly align[s] our franchise name with the iconic Boston Celtics brand.”[1]
Typography and Design
The team’s official colors are green, white and black, as listed on the Maine Celtics’ own contact page.[7] The primary logo uses a circular crest format with the team name set in white lettering around the edge, surrounding the green lobster and basketball imagery on a black and green background.[2] The wordmark variant incorporates a lobster claw into the letterform of the first “C” in CELTICS, with a basketball design inside the counter of the second “C.”[4]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
