My (Personal) Football League Redesign

[chestnutz]

Seriously love that Bruins set. After looking through them all, I think that's my favorite. Another thing I noticed was the abundance of soldiers/knights/indians/warrior type things.

[CJworks]

#23 San Antonio Desperados

Up Next: #24 Arizona Cobras

This team in particular was a bit tricky for me. Having 4 teams in the league with a southwestern theme (San Jose Outlaws, San Antonio Desperados, Cleveland Bandits, and Austin Lonestars), it was a little difficult to come up with an idea that wasn't already being used. The team has always been black and red just like Austin, as they were renamed after being named the New Mexico Diablos at the birth of the franchise. The "SA" star logo that GFB came up with awhile ago really sparked some ideas for me initially, but I never really followed through with it. The Lonestars already held the idea for the star. My second idea was inspired in the "Best Unused Logos" thread, with the discussion of the Patriots' logos. Personally, I think the flying elvis is stylistically great, so I kinda followed down the path of that belief. The primary logo, as well as the helmet, were derived from the Patriots.

The secondary, two crossed southwestern pistols, was inspired from 9erssteve's AFL Rebrand, and I felt that it fit this team quite well, so I tried my hand at my own version. The wordmark is custom, but I decided to use the Fort Myers Miracle number font.

Black and silver are quite dominant in the Desperados' uniforms. I used a consistant striping pattern all around, and I kept the "shoulder yoke" on the aways.

Home

Away

Altenate

That's the Desperados, comments are appreciated. Thanks!

[BengalErnst]

i personally really love the desperados alternate jerseys..overall very good job

[drdougfresh]

Love how everything on the uniforms flows. The striping, numbers, hell even the logo. They all look really good together. Nice work.

[JH42XCC]

Excellent work on the San Antonio Desperados set... especially with the alternate uniforms.

[Julius Seizure]

Outstanding work on the 'Rados, man! I've kept my eye on your league concept for awhile, and I'd have to say this is my favorite of your logos so far. I really dig the negative space that cuts into the brim of the hat. Imagine all the Spurs fans that would pack the stands to watch these guys! And they could wear the same colors (along with the red of course)

[hugevolsfan]

I love the Desperados primary! Great Job!

[dgnmrwrw]

Gotta comment on the Emperors set first, since I missed it. I really like the colors (underused combo, has a very steel/concrete/urban feel) and the uniforms (clean, also have a very sleek, urban feel). My only complaint would have been to just go ahead and keep the triple stripes yellow throughout the entire uniform package for consistency and to work more of that color into the set, especially on the white jersey (which is crying out for a little more color).

The logos for the Emperors are okay, not great. They both feel a bit more like generic illustrations than logos for a sports team. Also, the primary logo seems over-designed (with too many lines and strokes, especially the tiny, super-thin yellow highlights, which seem like overkill) which is also pushing it more toward the illustration realm as opposed to a logo. They're still pretty well rendered, they just don't quite work as football team logos for my taste.

Now the Desperados set is nearly the polar opposite of the Emperors. From a logo design standpoint, the Desperados' primary logo is easily the best one you've produced yet. It has fantastic economy of line. Look at what an evocative image you can create by restricting yourself as much as possible regarding what you present to the viewer. It's a simple black form with just a few carefully placed strokes and highlights, but it works so well. It's crisp and clean; has a fantastic sense of motion and dynamism; has a distinct visual style that flows throughout the logo; and it would be easily reproducible at a wide size or color range (and would look especially good on a helmet). Simply fantastic work on the primary logo.

I also really like the type on the "Desperados" part of the wordmark. It's strong and bold, and those tiny hatch-like marks on the angles somehow give it a very subtle Old West feel without being cliche. My complaint about the wordmark is that the "San Antonio" part is done in a similar but not-quite-the-same typeface, which is distracting. I'd just do the whole thing in one face. (It would also be nice to see that face in the uniform numerals, if possible.)

What I don't like about the Desperados package is the secondary logo and the uniforms. The revolvers again seem more like an illustration than a logo: it's just two guns laying on top of each other. It would work much better if it was framed somehow or presented a different way. The uniforms I'm not wild about for two reasons: First, the shoulder yoke seems too big and clunky to pair with such a sleek, elegant logo and the thin striping on the helmet and pants. Second, the disparity in the use of silver. It's all over the helmet and pants but completely absent from the jerseys. Address these issues and this would probably be your best complete set so far.

[jaha32]

I really like this logo. It might be my favorite so far. I also like the jerseys, particularly the alt. usually I agree with dgnmrwrw, but I like the crossing guns logo, if it's just going to be a simple jersey logo.

My only small complaint on the logo is the white highlight on the cheek. It seems that all your logos, especially the ones with faces, have highlights on them. I think sometimes lowlights are enough and sometimes highlights are unecissary. but i also know that after making 20+ logos, some tendencies are bound to show up.

All in all, this might be the best yet!

[JH42XCC]

OK, I think this is what the Universal Football League should look like... alignment-wise:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northern

• Dakota Rhinos
  
• Minnesota Bruins
  
• Montana Grizzlies
  
• Portland Huskies
  

Mountain

• Arizona (Tucson) Cobras
  
• Denver Avengers
  
• Las Vegas Crows
  
• Phoenix Skyhawks
  

Southwest

• Austin Lonestars
  
• Dallas Talons
  
• Houston Longhorns
  
• San Antonio Desperados
  

Pacific

• Los Angeles Aztecs
  
• San Diego Wildcats
  
• San Francisco Bobcats
  
• San Jose Outlaws
  

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

• Asheville Mountaineers
  
• Charlotte Prowlers
  
• New York Emperors
  
• New York Lightning
  

Mideast

• Cincinnati Vultures
  
• Cleveland Bandits
  
• Motor City Mustangs
  
• Washington Knights
  

Central

• Chicago Dragons
  
• Racine Rage
  
• St. Louis Rivermen
  
• Topeka Indians
  

Southeast

• Florida (Tampa Bay) Sharks
  
• Miami Pirates
  
• New Orleans Claws
  
• Tennessee (Nashville) Hornets
  

[GeoTheo]

OK, I think this is what the Universal Football League should look like... alignment-wise:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northern

• Dakota Rhinos
• Minnesota Bruins
• Montana Grizzlies
• Portland Huskies

Mountain

• Arizona (Tucson) Cobras
• Denver Avengers
• Las Vegas Crows
• Phoenix Skyhawks

Southwest

• Austin Lonestars
• Dallas Talons
• Houston Longhorns
• San Antonio Desperados

Pacific

• Los Angeles Aztecs
• San Diego Wildcats
• San Francisco Bobcats
• San Jose Outlaws

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

• Asheville Mountaineers
• Charlotte Prowlers
• New York Emperors
• New York Lightning

Mideast

• Cincinnati Vultures
• Cleveland Bandits
• Motor City Mustangs
• Washington Knights

Central

• Chicago Dragons
• Racine Rage
• St. Louis Rivermen
• Topeka Indians

Southeast

• Florida (Tampa Bay) Sharks
• Miami Pirates
• New Orleans Claws
• Tennessee (Nashville) Hornets

He has his reasons for not aligning his league geographically, which is fine, but I believe that if using geographic names, the league should be aligned geographically. I mean Miami in the Western Conference, Northern Division? New York Lightning in the Western Conference, Southern Division? San Jose in the Eastern Conference?

CJ, I love your work, and if you ever decide that you want a geographically correct league, let me know and I can make you some custom maps.

[MC2]

Wow, Desperadoes look amazing!

[JH42XCC]

just giving this a quick bump

[CJworks]

Thanks guys for the comments on San Antonio, I may go back and do a quick update on them later on.

#24 Arizona Cobras

Up Next: #25 Motor City Mustangs

The Cobras franchise orignially started off as the Mexico Cobras (where in my own little world, they played in El Paso). They packed up and moved a year later in '06 to Arizona where they kept the same nickname. Despite the lack of success this team has had, they had always had a Dolphins-esque red/orange and teal/green color scheme: that wasn't going to change here. This time around, however, I added in a dark navy, really only evident in the logos and outlining on the uniforms.

The whole process to create a logo that I liked was tough. I went through around 4 or 5 versions of the same basic logo trying to find a nice stylistic look. The primary was basically a mash-up of 3 looks that I had sketched, picking parts from each of them and blending them all into one happy rendering. I'm fairly happy with it, but I'll wait and see how you guys feel about it. The secondary was kind of farfetched, but I was going for a "protect your house" kind of look, with a snake's tail wrapped around a football, which also doubles as an egg. I'm fairly content with this one, it was an idea that I had when I was fresh out of them. The wordmark is a customized version of a basic Arizona Cardinal type font. The Cobras' font always had triangular serifs, so I kept them.

The uniforms are pretty simple but on a modern jersey cut. The "yoke" has a sublimated snakeskin pattern, and on the sleeves is a navy-orange-white alternating pattern, as well as on the pants. I couldn't really get a striping that I liked on the helmets, so I just left them with a solid shell and yes, a gray fasemask.

There's 8 teams left in the series, but only 3 teams left to do some sketches for. I'm aiming to finish this series within the next two weeks to finish off the summer.

Tear it to shreads, guys.

[drdougfresh]

It's a solid look, but there are a few things bothering me, mostly with the colors:

-That color scheme just says Dolphins to me. That was my initial reaction, and I can't stop thinking about how much it reminds me of that (especially since there's no navy uniform).

-This scheme doesn't really fit AZ at all. Teal works, as it is the state gemstone (turquoise), and there are other, more desert-y tones out here. But the orange and blue to me say tropical when paired with teal, and AZ is far from tropical (no matter how much I wish it were).

-The collar looks kinda funky too, it makes the head opening look massive.

It's a solid identity, I'm just not sure that the colors are really well-suited for the state.

[Brave-Bird 08]

Incredible logos and wordmark! really great.

Try a different color scheme though, maybe. Right now it's way too Miami Dolphins.

[GeoTheo]

I understand the history behind the colors, but its way too Dalphins. I would love to see more navy in the uniforms, espieally since its so heavily used in the logo. Other than that I think its a great set, I love the logo.

[MC2]

So freaking cool. You and Jaha should have a logo-off.

[mbannon92]

Love the logos, love the uniform design, not loving the color scheme. As the others have said, it's way too Dolphins. If you took the logos off people would probably think it's a Dolphins concept.

Change the color scheme a little and this will be one of your best concepts.

[BengalErnst]

love it..does look a little dolphin-y..but so what?