The Origin of the Seattle Seahawks Logo

Erica Gamet

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I’m not a big sports fan—though I’ve enjoyed a summer of AAA baseball in my new hometown—and I don’t really care one way or the other about (American) football. I do, however find sports team logos an interesting subspecies of corporate design, especially as they relate to the history of the team or area they represent. I never really thought much about the history of the Seattle Seahawks logo, though I’ve always been keen on its incorporation of Pacific Northwest tribal elements.

Originally thought to have been generally inspired by the popular totem poles common among tribes in northern Washington and southern British Columbia, it appears the logo design is specific to a particular artifact. The iconic hawk’s profile with prominent eye and beak mimic the carvings on a transformation mask used by a tribe in that same region. The original logo’s designers referenced illustrations and photographs of regional tribes and artifacts when creating the logo for the NFL team in 1975.

Not only has the inspirational mask been identified, but the current location has been pinpointed. The mask, which opens up to reveal a human faced-mask, had been displayed occasionally at the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine, but always in the open position, obscuring the infamous profile. In further developments, the museum in Maine has agreed to loan the mask to the The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, once enough money is crowdsourced to make the exhibit possible. Even with my lack of interest in football, I find the ties binding one cultural icon with another to be interesting.