Logo

A striding horse set atop an oval that includes the checkerboard pattern on the Maryland flag will serve as the logo for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes. The Maryland Jockey Club unveiled the 2013 logo Friday. The Baltimore-based Leffler Agency handled the design for the 14th year in a row, this time under the auspices of its new creative branding division, brandNU Marketing. According to the a release from the MJC, which owns historic Pimlico Race Course, the logo draws clubhouse artwork derived from a nineteenth century painting of racing at the track.

A federal judge last week threw out a Baltimore security guard's copyright infringement case against National Football League Properties, saying there was no evidence the NFL had licensed the use of the Ravens logo he'd designed to a software company. Frederick E. Bouchat has been credited with designing the Ravens' first logo, known as the "Flying B logo," and is awaiting compensation. In this most recent case, Bouchat claimed he wasn't getting credit for the use of the logo in some Madden NFL video games.

As the end of the Major League Baseball regular season drew to a close this year, something that hadn't happened in a long time came to pass: the Baltimore Orioles made it to the postseason, winning the wild card playoff with the Rangers and then dropping their divisional round playoff with the Yankees. All-in-all, the 2012 season was a success for the Orioles, who hadn't make the playoffs since 1997. Some credit the team management, some the players, most likely both. This is baseball, though, a sport notorious for its legendary superstitions.

The Under Armour logo painted on Federal Hill with the blessing of the city Recreation and Parks department apparently violated an ordinance prohibiting advertising in public open spaces, including parks. The logo, painted on the grass with water-based paint, appeared Thursday and was removed Sunday after complaints from residents about advertising on the prominent historic site. Under Armour, an athletic gear company headquartered in Tide Point, contacted Recreation and Parks spokeswoman Michelle Speaks-March about painting the logo on the hill to welcome participants in a volleyball tournament held at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Someday, Burleigh Manor seventh-grader Lauren Shen might go to Google and see what the Internet search engine is displaying to millions of users throughout the country: her artwork. Lauren, 12, is the state's winner in a Google-sponsored national contest called Doodle 4 Google, which challenges students in kindergarten through 12th grade to create their own version of Google's ever-changing home page logo. The altered versions of the logo are known as "doodles. " Google launched the contest in 2008 and also holds it in other countries.

Horse racing Ben's Cat wins 8th in a row; Preakness logo unveiled Ben's Cat, the undefeated son of Parker's Storm Cat, held on to earn his eighth consecutive victory in Wednesday's $36,000 allowance feature at Laurel Park. Sent to post as the 6-5 favorite under regular rider Julian Pimentel , Ben's Cat withstood a late rally from long shot Fonda Ronda Won to win by a half-length. Ben's Cat completed the mile in 1 minute, 39.08 seconds and paid $4.40. The victory boosted his career earnings to $199,980.

If the Orioles really want to turn things around, maybe they should start with their upside-down-and-backward apostrophe. The team's players sport two caps, one with a bird and one with a typo. The latter is on the "alternate cap" that's usually worn once or twice a week. It reads "O's," with the apostrophe flipped so the little round part - the "ball terminal," typographers tell me - is at the bottom instead of the top. It should be "O's." Baseball is a sport steeped in tradition and nitpicky rules.

Baltimore's expansion CFL team lost its name in court before its first game. It also lost merchandise that could not be sold because it bore the banned name.But it seems to have a winner of a logo -- a stylized horse head with flowing mane.Now the merchandise is nickname-less, but it doesn't seem to have hurt sales."I think sales have been pretty steady," says Tom Renedo, manager of licensed merchandise. "The logo's going to stay."He says the biggest sellers have been T-shirts, media guides, coffee mugs and lapel pins.

South Carroll High students Todd Parks and Rebecca Aura each received a $50 gift certificate from Cranberry Mall at the Carroll County Board of Women in Business and the Trades meeting Thursday for logos they designed.The logos were designed for Nontraditional Employment for Women, a federally funded program to place women in occupations dominated by men. Program participants will be chosen through the county Job Training Partnership Act.Program objectives include training 17 Carroll County women for nontraditional work and successfully placing 12 of them in nontraditional occupations.

The first network for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered viewers has unveiled a roster of programming and a start date: Feb. 17. LOGO, the newest digital cable network from MTV Networks - with the motto "different together" - will "reflect the diversity that is our community," said Brian Graden, head of MTV and VH1 entertainment. "We know there is going to be a backlash," says Matt Farber, executive creative consultant for LOGO. "We're prepared and we believe that all we're doing is reflecting an audience that does exist."