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My (Personal) Football League Redesign


CJworks

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I'm impressed with the logos and the Arizona Cardinals-esque wordmark for the Arizona Cobras. What I'm not impressed about is the color scheme. The colors of Teal, Orange, and Navy Blue make them look like a glorified Miami Dolphins.

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As always good technique. Good style. The lighting effects on the secondary are very nice as well.

On the primary, it is a little confusing as to if that white area is part of the snake or not. If you closed off the bottom of the shield and connected the orange outline at the bottom so the white part of the snake doesnt run off the image, it might be clearer that the white part is in fact part of the snake. On the secondary, is there a reason for the small lightning bolt? It just seems random.

But this is another good concept. The colors dont bother me a whole lot. This wouldnt be my personal choice of colors, but it can be hard to come up with unique color schemes after a while and you did that here. Sure the colors dont scream Arizona, but with all things, the more familiar people become with something, the less they question it's reasoning, they just accept it. And youve been saying these teams have a history so if someone were to be watching this fictional team for 5 years, the colors would seem appropriate since they associate those colors with this team. If you really wanted to, people could question the color scheme of half the teams that really exist.

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Cobras are pretty good, not great. Most of the issues would require minor tweaks, but the major problem here is the color scheme. As others have mentioned, it screams "Dolphins". In a perfect world, this wouldn't be a problem. But when you take a color palette that specific and unique to one single franchise, especially when employed on a uniform with a similar style (white helmet, et c.), it becomes difficult to get around. I think a switch is in order, and another way to justify a new palette is that the teal/orange/navy combo doesn't really evoke the feeling one would expect from the "Arizona Cobras". That name implies a stealthy, partially camouflaged strike predator in a dry desert environment, and teal/orange/navy don't have that same "feel".

Couple of issues with the logos. First, the primary is a pretty good start as the overall shapes and forms are working well. The problems lie in the head/jaw area. The "squared-off" angles are especially troublesome as they clash with all the smooth curves and don't really exist on a snake. (One exception to this would be the thick navy section connected to and beneath the eye outline, which resembles Eye Black and is a fantastic touch.) Also, that ultra thin break-out orange stroke to the right of the snout is just too thin and different from all the other strokes and becomes a distraction. Finally, the snout/fangs area just doesn't quite look right. Something about the interplay between connecting the fangs with the white stroke (makes them look more like sharp points on a row of full teeth), the notch above that white, and the general shape of the snout make it look not-quite-snakey. Sorry I can't provide more input than to say that the area needs a touch up.

Secondly, and I'm not trying to be funny here... without the reference of the snake head and neck, the secondary logo looks like a football sitting in a pile radioactive dog poop. I love the idea behind the concept of the logo, the cobra protecting the ball, but for that concept to be evoked, we really need to see the head with the flared hood staring at us. Because right now it's just a ball that we don't want to approach for different reasons.

The uniforms I quite like. They do have a nice "modern execution of a classic style" vibe going on, and the snakeskin is a nice touch. (One thing that you could do is to try some curvier striping, to play off of both logos and a general "snakey" style.)

HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK

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Well, I like the Cobras set. The primary logo seems to have a "goatee" lookin' thing going, and I like that. I kinda also see the conjecture that the secondary seems to be missing the head. As for the colors debate, I don't have much of a beef. It does say "Dolphins" to me, but that's just a preference. Maybe what you could do is change the orange/red to a sand color. I don't think any team we know of is teal/aqua and sand. But, if those don't work for Arizona, maybe go with a desert green (like cactus green) and sand. Those would definitely be true to Arizona. The other option would be to change the red/orange to the kind of desert red you see in the grand canyon. That color is fairly unique and not used much in sports. It should pair nicely with the teal, or you could go desert red and orange and drop the teal.

Well done! I like it.

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I updated the Cobras in the original post, where I changed the color scheme and introduced a new LA Cobras-esque secondary.

#25 Motor City Mustangs

Up Next: #26 Milwaukee Rage

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For this franchis, I was really unsure with what I wanted to do. The team was named the Destroyers before the rebrand, and had a pretty simple identity (the uniform layout way basically the same). One of the members on here suggested the name Mustangs, and I actually liked the name as it payed homage to the Ford Mustang manufacturing in Detroit. I felt it was even better to go from "Detroit" to "Motor City"; Motor City Mustangs has a nice ring to it.

My initial thought was to go with black, red, and yellow, but blue and red seemed much more appropriate. The primary logo is a stylized version of a horse, which is used on the back of the uniforms and on the pants. The secondary, which is used on the helemts, is an M made up of a muffler and a C made up of a horseshoe. The tertiary really isn't much, just the mustang logo with "1964" across it (the date of the first manufactured Mustang), which is used on the front of the helmets.

There's not too much to the uniforms, just some simple striping.

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I'm only planning on having one more red and blue team, at least that's what I'm planning. I'd ;love to hear some comments, otherwise.

*UPDATED 8-10-11*

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I really like the new color scheme for the cobras. Looks a lot more southwestern.

And the Mustangs look INCREDIBLE!!! I love both the logos, especially the MC. Very clever and very well executed. The uniforms look great too. I love the striping and the number font.

Great work CJ. This is definitely one of the best yet!

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Wow, you can really crank out the concepts. I love the cobras recolor, looks amazing! As for the Mustangs, I don't care for "choppy" rendering of the horse. To me its too rough and makes it look less horse like and more dog like. I like the MC logo and the uniforms are nice.

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Something about the way the mustangs' mouth is open looks strange to me. I'm not sure what it is really. I'd suggest shutting the mouth, but then it might lose some expression. Sorry that wasn't all that helpful, just my thoughts.

The new Cobras secondary is so sick, I really like the new color scheme, and it's a really dynamic logo that invokes a lot of movement.

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I agree with chickenfish on the mouth. Something doesn't look quite right with it. I love the set though, and it's a good look for my hometown! Couple complaints: I think you should use that tertiary logo somewhere more noticeable, and I am not a huge fan of the horseshoe mixed with a muffler. I get what you were going for, but it seems really forced to me.

Excellent update on the Cobras, BTW.

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Cobras look great with the new colors. As for the Mustangs that Tertiary is great. It should be the scondary IMO. Also I love this series so I hope that you can get it done.

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Love the new "not-so-Miami Dolphins-ish" colors of the Arizona Cobras, as well as the new secondary logo inspired by the old Arena Football League team, the Los Angeles Cobras.

Also, pretty good work on the Motor City Mustangs. Only changes I would consider is to promote the "Ford Mustang 1964" logo to secondary status and tweak the "horse's head" primary logo so it looks less like "a cross between a dog, a wolf, and a donkey". Other than that, the Mustangs look really good.

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I like the new secondary Cobra logo. It really has more of a cobra feel to it with the pattern on the snake skin.

The Mustang primary needs a little work. It seems way too hairy. Horses have short silky hair and this seems hairy and long like a yeti or something. The mane is fine, but the neck, jaw, and mouth area have too many hair jags. Once you fix that it will be much better.

The secondary is clever. Does the M have a thinner outline than the C on purpose? I think they should be the same width.

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The Cobras update is pretty nice. I'm not completely sold on the new colors (there doesn't seem to be a clear focus, it's more like you did a quick tweak; and I still don't get an "Arizona Cobras" feel from it), but they seem to work well on the uniforms (much better hierarchy of colors in the duds, with all the emphasis on the green), and they are better than the previous set.

The logo updates are good too. The primary still has some quirks I'm not fond of, but it's improved and a solid logo. The new alternate is quite nice, though it needs a round of refinement (it needs more green, probably in the interior of the A; and the outline is obviously a quick offset path, evidenced by the notch knocked out on the left).

I feel like the Mustangs is a bit of a miss, mostly because it's all over the place stylistically. Right now, it looks like each of the four marks you presented (primary logo, secondary, tertiary, and wordmark) all belong to different brands, with the only connection being the color scheme. Some of it is smooth and sleek and metallic, some is jagged and busy and almost furry.

The primary logo is especially problematic. I think you went a little overboard with the jagged motion lines and highlights, along with the skew on the shield and the notches cut out of it. All of the frenetic activity creates a bit of an overdesigned, overcomplicated mess.

The secondary logo is probably the strongest of the set, both in terms of concept and execution. That said, there are still some major problems, most notably that it's incredibly derivative of both the Detroit Pistons and Bowling Green Hot Rods. So it's a good idea, but I feel like we've already seen it twice. I'm also not sure that the very disparate styles of the M and the C are coming together.

Again, the bottom line here is that there are a lot of okay (not great) ideas that feel like they need a lot of refinement, and you really need to pick out a visual style and attempt to apply it throughout the package. I think your most successful "moment" in the entire identity is the smooth curves and rounded metallic highlights of the M from the secondary logo. It's well rendered, has its own style, and evokes a very specific piece of Americana that works perfectly with the team name. If you can rework that piece so that it becomes its own mark and isn't essentially identical to the Pistons and Hot Rods, you'd have a good start which you could then employ throughout a sleeker, maybe more "corporate"-feeling mustang primary logo. And eventually the entire package. Good luck.

HURRICANES | PANTHERS | WHITE SOX | WOLFPACK

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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

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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.

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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. ;)

Literally my favorite logo, Had the AFL still had the Cobras, I would have figured out how to contact them because this logo needs to have a legitimate team. The only flaws I can see are the Cobra on the Secondary, there is a notch right under the body of the Cobra where it crosses to make the A. beyond that, the colors are not my tastes. But to each there own.

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Can't wait to see the remaining teams. Been following this league since the first post, albeit silently. I don't post much. Caught my attention because I too used to draw and make up teams back in the day similarly to how you kept track of the teams and history.

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I went ahead and updated the Mustangs in the original post:

-I reworked the mustang like dgnmrwrw had suggested. I went with more of a metallic "hood ornament" look to match the style of the secondary logo. For the sake of comparison, here's the old and new logos together.

-Tweaked the "MC" logo, including some outlining issues.

-Reworked the mouth as well, as it seemed to be getting alot of attention.

-I made the running horse a bit more prominent in the uniforms, using it on the back of the jerseys.

I had actually finished this concept months ago, but looking back at it now I feel that the updates were worth the attention.

I'll have the Racine Rage up in a few days, I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with a logo that I like.

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