The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, a relationship that has defined the club’s visual identity since the franchise relocated to Northeastern Pennsylvania for the 1999-2000 season. The team’s logo and colors are built around a direct visual connection to its NHL parent club.
Design and History
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ primary logo depicts an anthropomorphic, muscular penguin skating with a hockey stick. The design is closely modeled on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ own skating penguin mark, though the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton version is noticeably more muscular and faces a different direction. The franchise has used this basic penguin concept since arriving in Pennsylvania, with the current primary logo in use since the 2017-18 season. [1] [2]
In August 2016, the team unveiled new home and away jersey designs for the 2016-17 season. The uniforms were redesigned to better align with the “Pittsburgh Gold” color scheme that the parent Penguins had recently adopted. The new jerseys featured the team’s familiar skating penguin as the primary crest, along with a red Wilkes-Barre/Scranton circle logo on the shoulders. [3] [4]
Prior to the 2017-18 season, the club adopted its current primary logo, which SportsLogos.net dates as running from 2017-18 to the present. [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The team’s official colors are black, gold, white, and red. The black and gold palette is a direct reference to Pittsburgh, whose sports teams have used those colors since the Pittsburgh Penguins switched from blue and white in 1980. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins explain that, as Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, the team takes its look from the parent organization, and that black and gold are the colors of all Pittsburgh sports teams. [5]
Red is an additional official team color that appears in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton uniforms, providing a point of distinction within the broader Penguins brand. The club’s own blog notes that “in addition to the famous black and gold, our uniforms also feature red.” [5]
The penguin imagery itself reinforces the franchise’s direct relationship with Pittsburgh. The club’s blog also notes that the inverted triangle shape used in some of its branding symbolizes the “Golden Triangle,” the nickname for Downtown Pittsburgh. [5]
Typography and Design
Public sources reviewed for this article do not identify a specific designer, design agency, or typeface for the current Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins logo or wordmark. The documented evidence supports describing the mark through its relationship to the Pittsburgh Penguins, its muscular skating penguin imagery, and its official black, gold, white, and red color scheme rather than assigning an unsupported designer or font credit. [2]
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