The Cleveland Indians aren’t the only team in town that needs a redesign. For as long as we can remember — even before the orange was more orange — Aaron Sechrist has been talking about rebranding the Cleveland Browns. If you follow him on Twitter, you know this is true. It turns out even he got tired of hearing himself yell into the void.

“I got tired of tweeting at and about the Browns, and really the Browns in general,” he says. “So I finally put some muscle behind my mouth and played around with what a new pro football team identity in Cleveland could look like with an actual chance to establish a new tradition of winning and good football.”

What would that look like? Good question.

The answer, or at least an answer: The Cleveland Guardians (a name which probably sounds familiar as one of the options bandied about in similar conversations about the Cleveland baseball team). Images and explanation below.


As a lifelong Clevelander I say this with honesty and love for my city and the people in it: I believe that The Browns moved to Baltimore in 1995, re-named and re-branded; drafted and developed a handful of Hall of Fame players, won two Super Bowls over the next decade or so; and never came back home.

With complete respect to the brave players and coaches that have worked and tried their hardest within a myriad of different impossible systems to succeed, the organization that returned to Cleveland in 1999 has been, well; not good. It’s certainly not the same team that left town in 1995 and has fascinated me
in all the wrong ways since then.

That combined histories of The Browns and Ravens, coupled with a historically worst streak of losses would suggest that re-naming and branding this organization would lay the foundation for a better future of Cleveland pro football.

The conceptual new identity that I commissioned myself to design is inspired by the statues of the Guardians of Transportation that watch over the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, linking both sides of Cleveland. The statues were created in the spirit of progress in transportation.

With additional logos that cue off the Cleveland city flag as well, The Cleveland Guardians’ identity signifies progress, pride and building a bridge to new generations of fans that have been lost via decades of losing and an evolving culture.

What say you, Cleveland?

This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2018.

Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.

16 replies on “Here’s One Local Designer’s Suggestion for Rebranding the Cleveland Browns”

  1. The Browns definitely need to be re-branded. However, I’m sorry, but this is BUTT ugly! Also, there are more than enough teams using red in their colors, we just don’t need another one.

  4. Changing the name might bring a change of luck.
    Keep the colors, and call them the Bulldogs…Guardians sounds pretty lame.
    Use the orange-and brown “Mean Bulldog” logo. But not on the helmets!

  7. A change is needed lose the brown and orange . if you want to keep Brown in the name. Brown Bombers
    Put a B 17 on the helmet or a B 52 Go with a brass and green and gray, color theme.

  8. Too many teams use the colors red and black. Our Brown and Orange identify our team. Get rid of the name “Brown’s” and replace it with a dog related name. Cleveland Dawgs! Cleveland K-9’s. Cleveland Bullmastiffs (make Swagger the mascot). This way we keep the Dawg Pound section and we the fans still get to bark on Sunday.

  9. Any one that would consider changing the name one our team after all we went thought to keep our team is an idiot!
    Our team did not go to Baltimore and not come back.
    They got our players they wanted to keep and a franchise to name. They did not even keep the coach.
    Cleveland football is the CLEVELAND BROWNS!
    To suggest the name or colors are jinxt is just completely f___ing stupid.
    I hope nobody paid this moron for wasting his time on this rediculous idea!
    Go BROWNS!
    Im liking what I see happening in the front office!

  11. Those logos are clearly Orange and Brown. It’s a good idea though you will have plenty of haters claiming they care about the team.

    I don’t like changing the name but using the guardians’ likeness is a pretty cool idea.

  13. They’ve already changed the colors…Ms. Haslam wanted a brighter orange like Cincy and Denver…Go back to ‘Seal Brown’ and ‘Burnt Orange’ !!!

  14. Tear down clown stadium, rebuild into shape of toilet bowl and flush whole organization into Lake Erie. Or, better yet move this laughing stock franchise. Where is Art, he’d know what to do.

  16. you’re high. why not call them the Wildcats and see if Goldie Hawn is available to coach. this city was built by men of great character like Paul Brown and built on the back of men line Jim Brown. We won championships in the orange and brown, lots of them, ok maybe not a Superbowl but we fought to keep our name and colors when we were betrayed. let’s keep the colors, find a quarterback and a veteran to learn from for a Year before we send him to his untimely death like every other qb who has not yet had a time to develop. this team has young talent, draft picks and money to spend to find veteran mentors, for once in a long long time we have the building blocks, its time to execute, not change colors.

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