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nas1787

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Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I posted a concept here. I became a bit exhausted with soccer concepts, and so needed a bit of a break. But today I've got a concept for another football code.

The CFL expansion thread that was started here a couple weeks back, despite being light on actual concepts, generated quite a bit of discussion. I've often thought about where the CFL should expand next after Ottawa, with Halifax seeming to be next in line. But something that surprised me was the number of comments I've seen touting Kelowna as a possible place for a CFL franchise. I was intrigued.

Kelowna is the largest city in BC's Okanagan Valley, a region with close to 400 000 inhabitants. As Canada's only true desert, it enjoys hot, sunny weather throughout the summer, perfect for vineyards and tourists (I'd be willing to bet the population of the Okanagan doubles in summer). A pro football team seems like a perfect addition to the summer economy of this region.

I decided early that the team should be named after the area rather than the city of Kelowna, in order to appeal to a wider audience. Given that, the name Okanagan Lakers seemed like a great choice, as Okanagan Lake stretches through a large portion of the valley, and rolls off the tongue quite easily. I should mention that this name was also put forward by a number of people in the other CFL expansion thread.

With a name like Lakers, blue seemed an obvious start for the colour scheme, representing both the lake waters and clear skies. From there, I thought that yellow is a colour under utilized in the league, and could represent the hot desert sun. A while back, ColorWerx had a thread where he suggested new colour schemes for teams. I went through that thread and found his proposed scheme for the Tampa Bay Rays.

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A sky blue helps differentiate from other blues like Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto, and the addition of a dark grey helps modernize the look. Perfect.

The problem with a name like Lakers is finding suitable representative imagery (something the LA Lakers don't even try to do). From some Google image searches I came up with ideas like anchors and waves, neither of which interested me much. I looked through the NFL logos on the mothership and noticed the Bucs flag logo (TB again!). Most boats have flags, boats float on lakes. It's a bit of a stretch, but that's ok.

That's my thought process, here's the outcome so far. I'm planning on some uniforms eventually, but I'd like to nail down the logos first. C&C much appreciated!

TL;DR: I made a CFL expansion concept for the city of Kelowna, BC!

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I like this. Black, Light blue, and yellow is my favorite color scheme. That, along with a nice, clean logo makes it a strong concept. Can't wait to see the uniforms.

I've got a dribbble, check it out if you like my stuff; alternatively, if you hate my stuff, send it to your enemies to punish their insolence!

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Thanks everyone. I'm hoping to use all 3 logos (or at least 2) in some fashion.

For the uniforms id like to use yellow as the primary colour in the home jersey as that would be unique to the CFL. I'm thinking grey pants and blue helmet and socks. I don't know a tonne about football aesthetics, beyond that monochrome is generally frowned upon. So suggestions are welcome.

And I'd certainly like Ogopogo to make an appearance somewhere. I just need to find something that works within my abilities.

I hope to have jerseys tomorrow. If anyone has thoughts on how to improve the logo set, please let me know!

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A couple of ideas, nas...

Would a black drop shadow (a la N.Y. Rangers) behind the OL letters, give that logo a bit more oomph ?

...And, the back part of the flag logos could be a tad smaller, IMO. The front part of the flag (especially the OL flag), should be more prominent.

Also, the OL on the flag could curve a bit to match the curve on the flag.

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Thanks for the feedback. Here are a couple updates.

In the first I took Sparky's advice and made the back of the flag smaller, gave the OL a drop shadow, and curved the OL ever so slightly.

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In the second, I dropped the serif OL in favour of a sans serif OL to match the wordmark, while also making the back of the flag smaller.

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What becomes apparent is that with a rectangular flag, the serif OL fills the space better. The sans serif version needs something else, or the shape of the flag needs to be reworked.

I think the drop shadow on the OL really helps make it pop.

Maybe the answer is to update the wordmark to a serif font to match the OL lockup.

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Maybe the answer is to update the wordmark to a serif font to match the OL lockup.

You got it right here. Just change the wordmark. Also, take the striped flag, and work that into your srtiping on the set of uniforms if you can. Loving this so far, hopefully this becomes a more than 1 team concept.

:wub:(dance):boogie:(bow):jawdrop::censored:(sleepz):puke::woot::sleeping::hockeysmiley::therock::oops:

I think I like smilies too much!

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Maybe the answer is to update the wordmark to a serif font to match the OL lockup.

You got it right here. Just change the wordmark. Also, take the striped flag, and work that into your srtiping on the set of uniforms if you can. Loving this so far, hopefully this becomes a more than 1 team concept.

Agreed. I think a serif font would fix everything.

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Here's an update to the wordmark. I kept the idea of the original intact, but substituted a block font which has an O and L similar to the OL logo. I also gave it a slight skew to match the OL logo.

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And here's my first crack at the uniforms. I continued the italicized lettering into the numbers, as well as the drop shadow as suggested by Sparky. I want the home jersey to be yellow to stand out against other CFL teams, and I originally thought that adding blue pants to that might be a bit bright. But as I look at my solution, the grey pants might be too dark. I also maintained a separation of yellow and blue throughout the striping and numbering, always having grey in between. What do you think?

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I modified the popular template originally attributed to Andrew Harrington for photoshop (and getting rid of the nasty Nike cut/collar). The helmet template is by marble 21.

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Hi all, thanks for the great feedback. I just wanted to finish this off with a nice overall presentation of the concept. I tried out a few of the uniform suggestions and ended up here. Hope you like it. I may revisit CFL expansion a little later, as I ultimately would love to see a 12 team league. But for now, I'll leave it here.

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