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The Battle of Seattle

 

"I love the smell of potential expansion in the morning".

 

The rumour of Expansion is great for the creative juices. It offers up a new entity; a clean slate; a blank canvas.

I'm gonna putter around with 9 different concepts. I'll explore the logos, uniforms, mascots, promotions and merchandise for each one. Some of the stuff, you'll have seen before in previous threads, but there'll be a ton of new material. It'll be a long one, so get comfortable, and let the "Battle of Seattle" begin...

 

x4EsMAx.jpg

 

First up...The Seattle Metropolitans...

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The Seattle Metropolitans

 

The "Metropolitans" were Seattle's team in the old Pacific Coast Hockey Association (1915-1924). They were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup, when they defeated the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association in 1917. As the "Mets", they could just re-work their funky old 1917 unis...

 

dZZjXuh.jpg

...which would be cool, but let's try something different.

I found a font by Josep Kelava of Australia called "Metropolis". It's a 1920-ish, Art Deco style that suggests skyscrapers...

 

a0SGFgn.jpg

I reworked the "M" to make it a bit more Seattle-specific, and for the secondary, I designed a different version of the old "S" with the cascading S-E-A-T-T-L-E letters.

 

rdmQLIK.jpg

 

As for colours...I'm a sucker for crisp and clean, one-colour-plus-white palettes. In the NHL we have red and white (Detroit), and blue and white (Toronto, Tampa), so why not a green and white entry. The "two-line" logo is reflected in the striping on the uniforms...

 

eOXke9R.jpg

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First off great to have your work back on here Sparky! Always a pleasure.

Second, finally someone else is gonna take on Seattle hockey. Haven't been as many concepts as I thought there'd be since the announcement of the name options.

Finally, I like what you've put together with the Mets; it's simple and clean. The Green/White is very classy looking IMO.

2014Event7_Medal.pngEvent5_Medal.pngSDLureFT1L2.pngwb9iz8.jpg

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7 minutes ago, hettinger_rl said:

First off great to have your work back on here Sparky! Always a pleasure.

Second, finally someone else is gonna take on Seattle hockey. Haven't been as many concepts as I thought there'd be since the announcement of the name options.

Finally, I like what you've put together with the Mets; it's simple and clean. The Green/White is very classy looking IMO.

Thank you h...it's good to be back...and I really like what you're doing with your Seattle Sea Lions concept. Keep up the good work. We could have a lot of fun with this...

2 minutes ago, Dan O'Mac said:

That's... very nice. I know what you had for the Kraken, and I like that concept more than your Mets, but the Mets is still very good.

Thanks Dan. I have a soft spot for for the "Krakens" (pronounced cray-kins). That concept will show up here later, but wait 'til you see what I have in store for the "Mets" mascot..

hint:...an old character returns... moohooohaha.

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I still love the Seattle Kraken as a name, but I think The Mets will ultimately win out since they could do a banner raising on opening night a-la the Senators. Your old Krakens concept inspired me to get better at illustrator a couple years ago to do concepts of my own, so that holds a special place for me.

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2 minutes ago, Midwest_surfer said:

I still love the Seattle Kraken as a name, but I think The Mets will ultimately win out since they could do a banner raising on opening night a-la the Senators. Your old Krakens concept inspired me to get better at illustrator a couple years ago to do concepts of my own, so that holds a special place for me.

Metropolitans can't win out since they aren't even considering it in their final list of 13 names. Even though they should've.

2014Event7_Medal.pngEvent5_Medal.pngSDLureFT1L2.pngwb9iz8.jpg

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This is wicked exciting Sparky, the NHL would be foolish to not take one of these ideas! The thing that makes your series so cool is the extra steps you take, I'm in the group that thinks, 'Oh, wouldn't it be cool if I added etc. etc. etc. Yeah that would be cool. Anyway...' But since you're actually willing to take those extra steps, it adds another level to your concepts that makes you one of my and most's favorites on the boards.

 

As far as the Mets, I love it. Probably the last expansion location that could get away with the faux-retro look, which can be both awesome and insulting. One thing I would add to the jerseys is some kind of funky quirk. Anything really, but something no other team uses to honor the original insane Seattle jerseys. Just a thought.

 

Will be glued to this thread for the foreseeable future.

 

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 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8/      Check Out My: Little Big League MLB ProjectDribbble

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1 hour ago, Midwest_surfer said:

That’s ridiculous. Why would you not go with a name that’s already on the cup? I can already hear the anger from Connecticut if they go with the Whales

Because ‘Metropolitans’ is a stupid name from a bygone era that just sounds bad in modern parlance. It’s fine for throwbacks or whatever but there’s a reason Vancouver didn’t go with ‘Millionaires’ and Winnipeg aren’t called the ‘Victorias’. 

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Guest darkpiranha

Woo hoo!   Nothing better than an epic Sparky thread!  And this looks like it's going to put some of the others to shame.  

 

I love all the logos you posted above already.  My personal favorite is the Krakens, because it's got some shapes we don't see in the NHL, a color scheme that I don't see anywhere else in sports, and some potential branding and iconography that aren't anywhere else in sports.  While I love the history and tradition of the Metropolitans, there's already a Mets in sports.  Let's have something to where when you hear the name, there's only one possible team it could be referring to.  

 

All that said, I love the individual elements for the Metropolitans, but I don't know that they come together in one package.  I really love the art deco look of the M, but the S is a completely different style.  Sure it's a secondary, but at the moment, it's literally half of all the branding on the uni we're seeing so far, which puts things out of whack (for me).  Curious to see how the full wordmark looks in the art deco font, and if there are more elements that reflect the art deco sensibilities to further establish that that look is the primary while the vintage S is for historical secondary purposes.

 

 

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I may well be in the minority on this, but I simply cannot stand the "S" logo featuring the so-called "cascading S-E-A-T-T-L-E letters". I feel that the layout of the letters looked ridiculous in the logo that the original Seattle Metropolitans used and that they still do today. I'm reading the word from right to left, then left to right, and then right to left again - in my opinion, it makes for a visually clunky logo.

That said, I'm looking forward to this series, sparky.      

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Guest darkpiranha
7 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

I may well be in the minority on this, but I simply cannot stand the "S" logo featuring the so-called "cascading S-E-A-T-T-L-E letters". I feel that the layout of the letters looked ridiculous in the logo that the original Seattle Metropolitans used and that they still do today. I'm reading the word from right to left, then left to right, and then right to left again - in my opinion, it makes for a visually clunky logo.

That said, I'm looking forward to this series, sparky.      

Agreed that if you're starting totally from scratch, with no history, that logo would never even make it to napkin sketch stage.  BUT... It's part of a storied..? history, and as goofy as it is, it makes it a viable logo.  The Canadiens CH would never fly today or even be imagined.  Or the Cleveland Browns.  Or the Packers.   But as much as I might hate the Browns' entire identity, I have to give it up for the history...    Hmm... that would actually make an interesting thought experiment, trying to see which, if any, classic logos would even have a chance of being created if there weren't decades of history behind them already.

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On 2018-01-30 at 1:56 PM, coco1997 said:

This is super ambitious of you. Can't wait for more!

 

On 2018-01-30 at 1:57 PM, Dan O'Mac said:

The Hockey Cod? (still really loves the Hockey Cods)

 

On 2018-01-30 at 2:14 PM, Midwest_surfer said:

I still love the Seattle Kraken as a name, but I think The Mets will ultimately win out since they could do a banner raising on opening night a-la the Senators. Your old Krakens concept inspired me to get better at illustrator a couple years ago to do concepts of my own, so that holds a special place for me.

Thank you guys... Surfer, it's great to hear that I "inspired" you to get better at illustrator. Good luck with it and thanks for letting me know!

On 2018-01-30 at 2:18 PM, hettinger_rl said:

Metropolitans can't win out since they aren't even considering it in their final list of 13 names. Even though they should've.

You might be right h, although I think that somehow, "Metropolitans" is still in the running.

On 2018-01-30 at 2:19 PM, Bruins said:

One thing I would add to the jerseys is some kind of funky quirk. Anything really, but something no other team uses to honor the original insane Seattle jerseys. Just a thought.

Thanks Bruins...I'm planning a "funky quirk" sort of thing with the alts later...

On 2018-01-30 at 4:01 PM, Chromatic said:

Because ‘Metropolitans’ is a stupid name from a bygone era that just sounds bad in modern parlance. It’s fine for throwbacks or whatever but there’s a reason Vancouver didn’t go with ‘Millionaires’ and Winnipeg aren’t called the ‘Victorias’. 

I have a little more respect for the name after I read this excellent article on the Mets in the NY Times (here). It's quite the story of how the Patricks basically put together a team of hockey mercenaries and then demolished the Montreal Canadiens to be the first team in the U.S. to win the Stanley Cup..."in Seattle of all places!"

On 2018-01-30 at 6:51 PM, B-mer said:

Man, I love a sparky chewbarky thread. Can't wait for the Totems. The Mets logo is really nice. Great start. 

Thank you B-mer...I'm thinking of using the Seahawks colours on the Totems...

On 2018-01-31 at 1:39 PM, darkpiranha said:

Woo hoo!   Nothing better than an epic Sparky thread!  And this looks like it's going to put some of the others to shame.I love all the logos you posted above already.  My personal favorite is the Krakens, because it's got some shapes we don't see in the NHL, a color scheme that I don't see anywhere else in sports, and some potential branding and iconography that aren't anywhere else in sports.  While I love the history and tradition of the Metropolitans, there's already a Mets in sports.  Let's have something to where when you hear the name, there's only one possible team it could be referring to.All that said, I love the individual elements for the Metropolitans, but I don't know that they come together in one package.  I really love the art deco look of the M, but the S is a completely different style.  Sure it's a secondary, but at the moment, it's literally half of all the branding on the uni we're seeing so far, which puts things out of whack (for me).  Curious to see how the full wordmark looks in the art deco font, and if there are more elements that reflect the art deco sensibilities to further establish that that look is the primary while the vintage S is for historical secondary purposes.

Hello darkp!... I agree with you on your sec logo observation. I've made a change...

On 2018-01-30 at 10:19 PM, Zeus89725 said:

Not a fan of the secondary Mets logo. I wish the jerseys had some waist striping, too.

I hear you Zeus...I've beefed-up the waist stripe and changed the secondary. Thanks.

On 2018-01-31 at 3:01 PM, Brian in Boston said:

I may well be in the minority on this, but I simply cannot stand the "S" logo featuring the so-called "cascading S-E-A-T-T-L-E letters". I feel that the layout of the letters looked ridiculous in the logo that the original Seattle Metropolitans used and that they still do today. I'm reading the word from right to left, then left to right, and then right to left again - in my opinion, it makes for a visually clunky logo.
That said, I'm looking forward to this series, sparky.      

 

On 2018-01-31 at 10:28 PM, darkpiranha said:

Agreed that if you're starting totally from scratch, with no history, that logo would never even make it to napkin sketch stage.  BUT... It's part of a storied..? history, and as goofy as it is, it makes it a viable logo.  The Canadiens CH would never fly today or even be imagined.  Or the Cleveland Browns.  Or the Packers.   But as much as I might hate the Browns' entire identity, I have to give it up for the history...    Hmm... that would actually make an interesting thought experiment, trying to see which, if any, classic logos would even have a chance of being created if there weren't decades of history behind them already.

It's a good debate guys...How many established logos wouldn't fly in today's market. Many wouldn't make it past the first sketches! The old Mets' "S" defies all modern design principles.

darkp's right on this one. the "S"'s history makes it a contender in spite of its ungainliness.

 

Okay...you guys are right... the sec doesn't match the primary. I kinda took the easy path which doesn't work so I went back to the drawing board and had another look at some "ArtDeco" elements...

bcA2ZUk.jpg

 

After reading the above-mentioned article, I figured that the nod to the "Metropolitans" was just as much an acknowledgment to the event, as it was to the team... so I created more of a "Tribute" logo, featuring the year of the historic Stanley Cup win, a couple of crossed hockey sticks, and the letters "M" and "S". I also tightened up the primary a tad...

 

zaZlARt.jpg

 

I beefed up the striping on the unis...they were looking a little too "Leaf-ish", so I put the side-arm stripes up on the shoulders...

 

5RvA3Ma.jpg

 

L4aaILW.jpg

 

The 1920-ish vibe could be an interesting look for promotions, merch, etc....

I photo-shopped up a "Rocketeer" poster to demonstrate...

 

FOw2fSO.jpg

 

 

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