Remembering Logo Designer Keith Flynn of Flynnagain

The sports logo community lost a true friend last week when Keith Flynn of Flynnagain Productions died this past Tuesday, October 9th.

In addition to being an excellent logo designer, Flynn was a great friend both to the design community at large as well as this site. He was a frequent contributor to our community forums posting under his company name of “flynnagain” for well over a decade. Flynn would share his real experiences designing for sports teams at all levels of play to those who were just starting in the industry, offering advice for those sharing design concepts, and directly answering any questions, comments, or critiques logo fans might have had about his work.

If you’ve ever thought for a second about Canadian junior hockey you’re definitely familiar with Keith’s work, but it didn’t stop there. Flynn also did the logo for the Canadian National Baseball team, several National Lacrosse League and NBA D-League clubs, worked with the Minnesota Twins on a sleeve patch as well as with Roger Clemens on his personal “Rocketman” brand, and scores of minor hockey league teams scattered throughout the United States.

At the junior hockey level, the Oshawa Generals, Brandon Wheat Kings, Owen Sound Attack, Guelph Storm, Belleville Bulls, Peterborough Petes, Sarnia Sting, Saginaw Spirit, Flint Firebirds, Regina Pats, are just *some* of the team logos Flynn designed, he even did the league logo for the Western Hockey League.

Flynn grew up in Ontario, Canada, starting his professional art career at just 13-years of age as an editorial cartoonist for the Thamesford Towncrier, “the $20 a week helped keep me in MAD Magazines and hockey cards”, Flynn would recall later on his website. From there Flynn studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and after a few design jobs with retailers he “caught a lucky break” when a colleague was hired on to work with Major League Baseball, leading to an opportunity to do the logo for Baseball Canada.

“There wasn’t really one thing that got me into this, but when I looked at some of the logos out there I thought I could do a better job,” Flynn said to the Mississauga News in 2009.

Over the next two decades, Flynn continued to design, his most recent was just unveiled a couple of months ago, the new logo for the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League.

I’m sad to say I never got the opportunity to meet Keith in person but we chatted plenty of times via email or through the forums. A few years ago we had made plans to get together and work on a featured post together about his career in design, plans that unfortunately had to be put on hold when he got his diagnosis. “One-in-six million have this cancer…”, Keith told me at the time. “Maybe I should get a lottery ticket? :)”

Back in the earlier days of SportsLogos.Net, when I was really struggling to cover the bills to keep the site running on a month-to-month basis I was surprised to see a letter in the mail from Keith, it was a cheque to help cover the cost of two months of our server fees. That’s the sort of guy he was. Thank you, Keith.

Keith Flynn was 57, he is survived by his wife Colleen and three children, Amelia, Kevin, and Alicia. We will all miss him.