Colts looking for new horse

[Gothamite]

I'll agree with you on the spiky mane (and even the four colors), but the full-body version looks a lot more complete than most of the competing designs, even on this thread.

I'd have swapped the white and blue, so as to work better against a blue background, but it's still my favorite so far.

Do still love your helmet, though.

[kmw_29]

The eye on the horse is too big, too defined, and just does not look good. Perhaps if this was fixed it would help. It is definitely the most promising of the logos from the other board, but still needs work.

[TruColor]

This whole thing just depresses me.

One thing (and here I am after-the-fact) is that most of the designers should have made note of the actual Colts' Blue before even coming up with their respective entry. The Colt's Royal Blue is pretty dark:

A lot of these entries were designed with the assumption that the Colts use a much brighter Blue. Mixing Black with this color just isn't going to work well.

[MEANS]

Colts blue is Speed Blue -PMS 654, so I agree Pantone, avoiding black is a good idea for these logos unless the blue is not against the black.

[TruColor]

Colts blue is Speed Blue -PMS 654, so I agree Pantone, avoiding black is a good idea for these logos unless the blue is not against the black.

"Speed Blue"??? What the heck is that?

And - I was trying to avoid actually listing the Pantone/PMS...although if the Colts don't care, I don't care.

[hecticbro]

Far, far, far, far from it. Just because it has a black outline and white highlights doesn't make it NFL caliber, or anything like the Bengals' tiger. It looks like it was traced in Adobe Illustrator. It looks like one of my preliminary designs when I first started in Illustrator.

NFL Caliber? Hardly. It needs more work than where it is now.

These entries look like NFL caliber:

More specifically, andrewharrington's:

Are NFL Caliber.

Had I vectored my sketch...possibly

Those three are all pretty good, but I wouldn't go with the first one because it doesn't look like a horse to me. The head is way too thin. The middle one looks good, but doesn't seem like it would fit as an NFL logo. The stance is weird and maybe even effeminite. The last one would rock as an NFL logo though (especially the one without the helmet)

[Slickster]

A knockoff of this?

[Sterling84]

The eye on the horse is too big, too defined, and just does not look good. Perhaps if this was fixed it would help. It is definitely the most promising of the logos from the other board, but still needs work.

I don't get the love for this one either. I mean, if it's a matter of degrees, then sure. It's one of the best two on the Colts board.

But the eyes are messed up, the spikey mane is rendered as if by another person when compared to the tail....and all that others have said.

The blue is a poor choice for the horse color, particularly with a black border. But at least the blue and black are used consistently. The light blue and white (particularly the light blue) are a mess. The tragic (but common) random swooshy highlight makes another appearance. The artist wants to use light and shadow but is timid. What is the light blue on the near cheek doing? (The cheek in shadow?) Is the white eyebrow local color or highlight? The concave diamond on the forehead is awkward..the sliver of light blue at the far edge of the face. It's just not very well done.

From the neck down, you've got a solidly drawn (if unfortunately colored) animal. Very accurate, dynamic pose...the whole bit. The head is a mess.

I recognize this syndrome. I , with every other budding artist I ever encountered, used to fall victim to it in high school. The psyche out of drawing the head and/or face. Completely overthought and overdrawn cause you want it to look PERFECT. In the process you forget that drawing is always the same. You draw a horses a** the same way you draw its face. And the same goes for people. It's just light, hitting form. Period.

To be perfectly frank, none of these are really NFL-worthy. Mine included. Some are really nice conceptually. DOn't get me wrong. And some are executed within maybe 15-20% of being NFL worthy. Particularly Andrews. But I can't help thinking even his harkens to other profile horsies we've seen before. Not in terms of plagiarism, but in terms of having been down this road before.

And that isn't Andrews fault or anyones fault. This "contest" is a stupid idea. Andrews concept and some of the others are all anyone could expect given this blind set of instructions.

The first thing anyone in Indy should be doing is sitting down and talking about what the team wants. We've all drawn in our fairly modern tonal style. That doesn't really jive with the Colts retro image. Are they laying the groundwork for a change with this alt? SHould the alt BE retro in nature? I'd be careful adding grey, silver, black or a second shade of blue to one of the strongest identities in sports.

Yeah, I had my idea. But I don't think I'd have recommended it if I were their vendor. My recommendation might even be "are you sure you want to do this?" We have to be delicate. Fresh, but have it look like it's been there for 50 years at the same time.

This.....sorry. This is just dumb. Good job everyone. I mean that, nice concepts. But nobody should have to work like this. "Come up with something we like". Really? Based on WHAT exactly? Our intuition? Opinion? What a disgrace.

[leggman01]

But nobody should have to work like this. "Come up with something we like".

which apparently is really bad logos...

[ShinyHubCaps]

To be perfectly frank, none of these are really NFL-worthy. Mine included. Some are really nice conceptually. DOn't get me wrong. And some are executed within maybe 15-20% of being NFL worthy. Particularly Andrews. But I can't help thinking even his harkens to other profile horsies we've seen before. Not in terms of plagiarism, but in terms of having been down this road before.

I knew that mine, for instance, was overly complicated, and I had previously said that there should probably not be anything other than blue and white. However, to address the point in the quoted area, the question is not whether our logos are NFL-worthy. It's that each and every one of them is better than at least two of the Top 5. Their Top 5 certainly isn't NFL-worthy, so that skews the perception right there.

[josh_cat_eyes]

I hope everyone thats is voting realizes that they are wasting there time right. They have probabaly already picked the winner and are just doing the voting cause they said they would. They dont have to actually tell anyone what the final vote count because you cant see the amount of votes each entry has, and if they do announce the vote count, they will most likely make it look like the one they wanted won. I say #1 wins.

[Jigga]

I hope everyone thats is voting realizes that they are wasting there time right. They have probabaly already picked the winner and are just doing the voting cause they said they would. They dont have to actually tell anyone what the final vote count because you cant see the amount of votes each entry has, and if they do announce the vote count, they will most likely make it look like the one they wanted won. I say #1 wins.

Most of the time I spend on the Interenet is a waste anyway, so I'm happy to waste it trying to muck up this pathetic contest.

Hell, posting this was a waste of time.

[rams80]

Interestingly the thread got locked. Who wants to bet "louiswu" was O'Grady?

[kmw_29]

Voting has ended. Time to see which joke entry won.

[rtrich11]

Voting has ended. Time to see which joke entry won.

No, it's time for them to tell us which one THEY picked.

It's likely going to be #1, but I'd love to hear about the actual tallies.

Now for the Colts lies to begin... How they will spin this all into something different.

[DDR]

I guess they could give all the finalists $1,000 and a pair of season tickets and then just pick the one they want to use. Or did they ever explicitly state that they will use the logo that gets the most votes?

[crown]

I'm pretty pissed at the moment.

I feel the finalists are pretty bad and were not worth the opportunity to win the contest

I felt mine was better than many of the entries.

i emailed the colts stating my disappointment with the link to my entry hoping they'd reconsider

feel free to email them yourselves if you feel the same

http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=informat...namic&id=83

I have emailed them several times but no response.

[Gothamite]

Interesting.

Makes me think of Dimah the Wonder Horse.

Seriously, I wouldn't expect a response. They knew what they wanted, they knew what they were getting into, and I would be very shocked if they responded to every email they got on the subject - lots of opinions out there in the world....

[Lightningfan]

Damn it, 'Drew--you beat me to it.

(As i sit here doodling possible logo ideas for this here contest...something I ain't exactly known for, either, I might add...)

That's like a lifetime achievement award right there...even if it is only a "foot-in-the-door" type deal on the surface--at first. But as you get older, and have children (like me), and they grow up (and maybe become football fans), and see the Colts and, if they still are using the logo they choose as the winner, see said logo, that's something you can sit on your daughter or son on your knee and tell them their daddy (or momma, if there are any female designers in this community) designed that logo, and watch their eyes well up with pride...yours too.

(And suddenly I'm reminded of a certain sig someone in here once had with a little baby and the quote "Daddy...can I draw logos when I grow up?" Who was that, by the way?)

Look--for those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure of having kids, this may seem a bit much...but ask the parents, and soon-to-BE-parent, in this community--this makes a LOT of sense.

You assume everyone in this forum is either a parent, or will be some day. Pretty big assumption, I would say.

US pop is aprox 300 million. As we speak there are aprox 150 million people who have kids in the US out of aprox 220 million adult pop. which equals 68%. The other 80 million Americans are school age of which vast majority are childless. Aprox 68% of those will have kids at some point. Or another aprox 55 million. This means of the current living pop in US of 300 million, aprox 205 million will have kids in their lifetime.

bucco_B isn't assuming anything. He is telling you the odds are most will have kids.

[Lightningfan]

Far, far, far, far from it. Just because it has a black outline and white highlights doesn't make it NFL caliber, or anything like the Bengals' tiger. It looks like it was traced in Adobe Illustrator. It looks like one of my preliminary designs when I first started in Illustrator.

NFL Caliber? Hardly. It needs more work than where it is now.

Are you serious? You really think this Bengal tiger looks NFL caliber?

It is in the NFL, however, it has a few dramatic flaws.

The head and body are a complete mismatch. The head looks like it was stuck on as a after thought. Like two different people came up with two logos and they stuck the head from one design onto the body of the other.

Too much white in head and/or not enough in body. Google Images for Bengal Tiger and you will see what I mean.

PS: I do like the premise of this logo, the two shapes(head and body), and the use of just the head as a secondary. They just need to match the head to the body better. I would lessen the white in the head a little and add a little white blend in the body.