Let the Logolympiad Portfolios Begin! (Event 4 Added)

[scottyeagle]

As of Logolympiads of yore, I'm setting up a thread about my entries after the conclusion of an event.  It'll be part reflection/explanation about the entry and part seeking constructive criticism from the board, or so I anticipate.  With that introduction out of the way, I suppose the most logical place to begin would be Event 1, as it's the only event which has concluded.

 

EVENT 1:  LEAGUE LOGO

I wasn't especially happy with my entry for this event, and the results showed it as I received zero votes.  Looking at it now, the acronym one seems bare, while its only interesting element (the PFF fit into the laces) had to go away because of the rules of the contest, making the two logos appear disjointed.  The PFF in the laces would have improved the full logo, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference competitively.  That's what I think; now let me know what YOU think. 

[Dan O'Mac]

For me, it was the PFF in the laces that was the biggest drawback. This is was to be used as the primary logo for the league, and the league acronym blends in too much. Although the second logo with the full league name is better, it still isn't something I'd expect to be used as a league logo.

[Frenchie]

Interestingly, my opinion id the opposite of Dan O'Mac.

I loved the +PFF+ version, but found that the font didn't work as well in all caps for the fully spelled out version.

The brown colour was a bit of a turn off for me. I understand that it is the colour of the ball, and that a league logo does not have to be Blue, Red and White, but maybe a Maroon and silver, maroon and gold would have been more appealing.

 

 

[scottyeagle]

An interesting array of opinions in the (much-appreciated) comments!

9 hours ago, Dan O'Mac said:

For me, it was the PFF in the laces that was the biggest drawback. This is was to be used as the primary logo for the league, and the league acronym blends in too much. Although the second logo with the full league name is better, it still isn't something I'd expect to be used as a league logo.

 

I can see where you are coming from; I could have made it stand out more.  I intended to have the acronym clearly visible, but I still wanted it integrated into the football as opposed to plastered on elsewhere.  And what exactly do you mean by not expected to be used as a league logo?

 

8 hours ago, Frenchie said:

Interestingly, my opinion id the opposite of Dan O'Mac.

I loved the +PFF+ version, but found that the font didn't work as well in all caps for the fully spelled out version.

The brown colour was a bit of a turn off for me. I understand that it is the colour of the ball, and that a league logo does not have to be Blue, Red and White, but maybe a Maroon and silver, maroon and gold would have been more appealing.

 

 

 

I think the gripe about the font is fair; it may be a little too modern for the brown and cream aesthetic I was going for.  Speaking of which, I did really want to avoid RWB, and I've long held brown is criminally underutilized in the sports aesthetics sphere, which I realize this is opinion is unpopular for some.  I wanted something that would be unique; my hope was that the PFF would own brown.  The reason I avoided maroon and silver or maroon and gold was that a team in the league might have that color scheme and it would blend in too much on a uniform (I envisioned the logo being used as a patch somewhere on the front of the jersey).  Brown and cream wouldn't do that, although I guess its pairing with a color like black would be committing the mortal sin of using black and brown.

 

Ultimately, a common thread between these two criticisms is that, between the color, font, integrating the acronym into the laces, and the shape of the logo, I may have been a little too creative in my design as opposed to sticking to more time-honored ideas of how to construct a league logo.  Logolympiad makes you want to do things that will make you stand out from the competition, but sometimes that isn't necessarily a positive.  Oh well, food for thought going forward.

[scottyeagle]

Here's event 2, the NBA fantasy team.  I managed to get two bronzes and a silver for my efforts, which is better than nothing.

 

This was a toughie.  I wanted to give Louisville a classic-looking set to recognize the rich tradition of basketball in the Bluegrass State.  Initially, I tried to stay away from these colors, as I wasn't sure how much the state's most prominent universities would appreciate seeing an NBA team in their rival's colors, but I decided to marry them together after struggling to find a color scheme that didn't incorporate a different rival of one of the school's.  I avoided a horse theme for the team, as I figured that's where most people would go, so I opted for the riverboat culture of the 19th century to add a sort of vintage feel as opposed to a modern nickname (if that makes sense).  Logo is a pretty simplistic rendering of a steamboat, with the yellow and red referencing what is recognized as the oldest steamboat in operation; perhaps it's too simplistic, but I liked the whimsical nature of it.  I used a wavy pattern that would be unique in the NBA but isn't over the top.  I didn't really do anything with striping, as anything classic-looking that I tried wound up looking like clones of another team, so that most likely hurt me.  I also had a little fun with the design, throwing in some easter eggs:  Kentucky was the 15th state admitted to the union (hence the number) and the NOB reference notable frontiersman Daniel Boone. 

 

So there's my thoughts about my entry; I'd like to hear some areas for improvement and, if you so choose, I can toss up the entry I had set up before learning I could only use the city moniker.  Thanks a bunch, folks; it's been great to see a lot of great designs throughout this competition. 

[Bruins]

I actually liked a lot of the elements you had here, but i just couldn't get past how bare the jerseys were. If you had added some kind of unique striping such as using the pattern of the steam, i think that would have made this stand out a little more. The logo however, although simple, was very commendable i thought.

[bucknut42]

I like this set for the most part. Nice, classic look and color scheme to it. The one thing that gets me is that the curvature of the wordmarks on the jerseys are kinda trippy. I think it may be the combo of the font and the way the words curve, but I think this is a solid set overall. I know everybody has said it, and it's gonna turn into a broken record but the competition was really stiff. 

 

Additionally, I'd love to see what you had before you learned you had to use the city moniker. 

[_DietDrPepper_]

My originally was gonna put this as my bronze choice until (don’t know who made it) team #23 beat out yours. My only complaints really are the imo boring and over used color scheme, I like the creativity and thought behind the font but as bucknut pointed out it was kinda busy and trippy. Definitely wasn’t a bad team design over all, lookin pretty good

[Whittier S]

One of my big problems with the NBA set is the wordmark. Typically, when creating a wordmark for a team, the name of the location is smaller than the name of the team, creating a visual hierarchy. Since you didn't do that, your wordmark felt unbalanced to me. Also, though the typeface fits the theme well, I don't think it works with all that arcing.

[Krz]

This gave me too much of a Brooklyn cyclones vibe

[SSmith48]

Just like many have said, if the uniforms had some kind of striping, I probably would have liked it a bit more. Maybe some more refinement on the logo would have helped as well. But hey, you did better than me!

[scottyeagle]

22 hours ago, Bruins said:

I actually liked a lot of the elements you had here, but i just couldn't get past how bare the jerseys were. If you had added some kind of unique striping such as using the pattern of the steam, i think that would have made this stand out a little more. The logo however, although simple, was very commendable i thought.

I thought about using the smokestack on the shorts and have the steam stripe carry onto the jersey, but I was concerned about how it would affect the color balance but I chickened out.  The same with a blue wave on the side panel, but I wasn't sure how to make that work on the blue jersey without it looking weird. 

 

22 hours ago, bucknut42 said:

I like this set for the most part. Nice, classic look and color scheme to it. The one thing that gets me is that the curvature of the wordmarks on the jerseys are kinda trippy. I think it may be the combo of the font and the way the words curve, but I think this is a solid set overall. I know everybody has said it, and it's gonna turn into a broken record but the competition was really stiff. 

 

Additionally, I'd love to see what you had before you learned you had to use the city moniker. 

 

Yeah, the curve might have been a little strange because I put the entire text on a path as opposed to adjusting them individually.  I also added my Kentucky concept after all the quotes for your viewing pleasure. 

 

19 hours ago, BellaSpurs said:

My originally was gonna put this as my bronze choice until (don’t know who made it) team #23 beat out yours. My only complaints really are the imo boring and over used color scheme, I like the creativity and thought behind the font but as bucknut pointed out it was kinda busy and trippy. Definitely wasn’t a bad team design over all, lookin pretty good

 

I understand where you're coming from with the color scheme, but blue, yellow, and red is actually a unique colorway in the NBA.  OKC comes close, and Golden State lacks the red.

 

8 hours ago, Whittier S said:

One of my big problems with the NBA set is the wordmark. Typically, when creating a wordmark for a team, the name of the location is smaller than the name of the team, creating a visual hierarchy. Since you didn't do that, your wordmark felt unbalanced to me. Also, though the typeface fits the theme well, I don't think it works with all that arcing.

 

Fair enough with the arcing; was looking for a unique component to add to the set.  As for the wordmark, I understand your viewpoint; however, as I was looking at NBA wordmarks on the mothership, they treat the location and team name equally, so the wordmark does fit in the context of the NBA (which is what I was trying to do). 

 

7 hours ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

This gave me too much of a Brooklyn cyclones vibe

 

Wasn't something I thought about but yeah.  Not necessarily a bad thing though.

 

5 hours ago, SSmith48 said:

Just like many have said, if the uniforms had some kind of striping, I probably would have liked it a bit more. Maybe some more refinement on the logo would have helped as well. But hey, you did better than me!

 

You're probably right. 

 

Now here's my initial concept which I couldn't use because I used Kentucky instead of Louisville.  Inspired by the largest discovered cave on the planet, it's actually a concept I had already created for a fictional basketball league I never completed.  Stalagmites and stalactites on the side panels.  Coincidentally ended with a similar looking font in my Louisville Pilots concept.  Enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

[_DietDrPepper_]

Now, that’s something I’ve always wanted to see, nobody seems to acknowledge us. WE HAVE A HUGE CAVE... and horses? Idk im getting off topic. I like that design much more than the pilots especially because of the uniqueness of it.

[Dan O'Mac]

Now I want someone to make the "Kentucky Spelunkers" 

[scottyeagle]

I'm glad people liked my Mammoths concept; I agree it was a lot more creative than my Pilots one. 

 

And now for something completely different:  Event 3!

This has been my most successful entry thus far, garnering 2 golds, 1 silver, and 2 bronze votes (thanks to everyone who voted for me).  All the cool kids are into fauxbacks these days, so I decided to resurrect an old uniform of the Isotopes' predecessor in the Pacific Coast League, the beloved Albuquerque Dukes, Frankensteining the Dukes wordmark.  Of course, I couldn't tell anyone with my entry that it was a fauxback, so that connection may have been lost to some of the voters, but overall I'm happy with this concept. 

[Whittier S]

The wordmark killed it for me. I can only see it as Isoto Pes.

[scottyeagle]

The original read as DuKes to me, so it's really just paying homage to that.  I probably could have made it more of a descender though, and as soon as Logolympiad concludes I'll go back and rework some of my entries. 

 

Any additional comments before Event 4 voting concludes tomorrow?

 

[scottyeagle]

Cool.  Here's event 4: 

I got skunked.  Goose egged.  I'm not too mad about this, because there was some amazing competition in this event (as has been for every event thus far), but it's a little frustrating because I thought this was a pretty solid wordmark (maybe the points at the end of the E were the problem?).  Oh well, that's what alcohol is for I guess   Tell me what you think and provide some ideas to improve upon it. 

[Krz]

I like the “e” but the yellow Wilmington part was what I didn’t like, just looks a little unfinished

[_DietDrPepper_]

Sorry for me it’s just, boring, there’s nothing I see bad, but nothing that made it pop, just uneventful. It’s not a bad logo the “E” looks fine, just sadly forgettable among the great competition.