What does the Rebel Alliance logo represent?

Question

This insignia is pretty common and recognizeable, but I'm not sure I have any idea what it represents. It looks sort of like the shape of a ship, but the Rebellion doesn't have any ships of this shape that I can recall.

So, what is it?

Answer 1

In Disney Canon its origin is currently unconfirmed. But it's likely based on Sabine Wren's personal Starbird graffiti tag and/or the Jedi Crest.

In Star Wars: Rebels, Mandalorian weapons expert and painter Sabine Wren uses a stylized Starbird (based on a mythological bird similar to the Phoenix, which can never die and renews itself in a nova) to tag Imperial ships and propaganda on Lothal.

Sabine later joins the similarly-named Phoenix cell lead by Commander Jun Sato, part of the fledgeling Rebel Alliance lead by Bail Organa and

Ashoka Tano

However, by Season 2 the show hasn't reached the point in history where the familiar crest comes into general Rebel use, but the design of Sabine's Starbird is clearly intended as an origin of the cleaner crest we know so well.

The visually-similar Jedi Crest obviously predates Sabine's logo, and was worn by Jedi generals on the shoulders of their armor during the Clone Wars.

We can therefore speculate that the final Rebel design may be a combination of these two - evoking both the rebirth and rebellious spirit of Sabine's Starbird, and the history and hope of the Jedi Order.

(The Legends canon explanation is based on the Marek Family Crest, but the Marek Family is no longer part of canon.)

Out of Universe:

The Rebels version of the Starbird logo was designed by concept artist Chris Glen.

"I'm probably most proud of the Rebels' phoenix logo. I made it one day on a whim while working on really early versions of the Ghost ship, and it's remained unchanged all the way through marketing. It's meant to hint at the Rebel Alliance symbol that will appear in the later films." ―Chris Glenn, Star Wars Insider 154

Answer 2

It is the crest of the Marek family. At the end of The Force Unleashed videogame,

the Rebel Alliance adopts it after Galen Marek's sacrifice.

Answer 3

We now have canon confirmation of the origin of the Rebel Alliance symbol.

The Jedi on Jedha use a 'starbird' symbol that looks essentially identical to the Rebel logo. It notes that the Rebellion have recently adapted it for their own use.

_{^{Rogue One: Visual Dictionary}}

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Interestingly, the new Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded edition contradicts this slightly, stating that the logo is based on two elements; The three-pronged symbol favoured by Saw Gererra and the Starbird graffiti tag designed by Sabine Wren.

The starbird crest is itself, in turn, based on the historic symbol for the Jedi Order, seen in the "ancient books" that Rey liberates from the First Jedi Temple on Ahch-To.

Production designer Rick Heinrichs spoke with story group executives Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee about the logo, figuring out how much leeway he had to come up with the various structures.

"Is it okay to use the rebel icon symbol if you do it obliquely, hopefully not hitting it on the head too hard? It's hard to know exactly how subtle you can be with this stuff," Heinrichs wrote. "It's an unfolding universe, and we want the audience to recognize it and be comfortable in it—for it to feel — but also to create something new that they haven't seen before."

_{^{'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' - the Rebel Logo Was Born out of the Ancient Jedi Text}}

Answer 4

The trident-like top image shows a great resemblance to the symbol seen in a few Clone Wars episodes, for example on Saw Gerreras' shoulder.

He's going to be in Rogue One, which brings me to the conclusion that we might see him in Rebels as well. After all, Rebels is supposed to tie in to Rogue One at some point and what better way to do it than bringing back a freedom-fighter like Saw and showing the origin of the Rebellion logo?