Wildcomet

This is just a one-off post for a little fun. With all the talk of a possible USFL-XFL merger and there being two Houston teams currently, the general consensus is that one of them will need to go in one way or another.

In my mind, it would make sense to keep the Roughnecks in place as they've been playing there and building a local fanbase (no shade on the Gamblers, I don't doubt they have their followers in Houston also, but its hard to maintain a fanbase from afar when another team is right there playing). Plus Roughnecks is such a Houston area name while Gamblers can work for a lot of areas. There's also the issue of Canton, OH vying for a team after being a good USFL hub host. Ohio does have some history with gambling, with riverboat gambling along the Ohio River, so I thought they could be a good future home and mocked up a quick logo for a relocated Ohio Gamblers. Right now all I have is a logo for them, but I thought I'd share it. Part of me considered changing the gold star to bronze or the shade of the Hall of Fame jackets to represent being the home of the Hall of Fame, but I left it for now at least. Hope you all like.

This really deserves commendation; it's a very good concept and nails what can be (at least in my opinion) a really difficult art style. If I was a sports novice and had no familiarity with the NHL, I would not be able to tell you which logo is not for an actual team. It holds up against the rest of the league very well in my opinion.

Here's a league map for how the league would look with these teams added:

...and here's my mock 2034 Thursday Night Football broadcast schedule:

Thanks again for taking the time to look at my work, I hope those who did enjoyed it!

Well it looks like this thread is good to go, so I'm going to post some graphic sheets to see all the similar works in one place to wrap this up. There will be a post after this with my 2034 League Map and a mock game schedule to see how these teams look among the rest of the NFL.  Thanks to all those who checked this out and gave likes or C&C, I appreciate it!

Alright, let's take a look at the NFL's future 40th franchise, calling Salt Lake City home- the Utah Raptors!

The name inspiration here is pretty self-evident; the colors came from desert sunsets, while the off-white Sea Salt color inspired by the Great Salt Lake. This gives the league a unique look among the 40 teams. The U logo has a notch in it to hint at the state shape, while the Claw Map logo is more explicit in the reference. The main logo is inspired by various renderings of what Utahraptors are thought to have looked like.

The helmet features the main logo on both sides, with mirrored orange outlined sea salt claw marks on both sides of the front of the helmet. Those claw marks also make an appearance on the sleeves and pant legs, along with sublimated dinosaur scales on the upper part of the jerseys fading into the base jersey colors. The Raptors get the honor of being the first team to be approved for a non-white away jersey, as they instead go with the technically not-white sea salt color for road games. 

I'll wait a few days for any C&C that could lead to any logo or uniform revisions, then officially wrap this up if there isn't anything. Any thoughts anyone wants to share will be appreciated, thanks for checking out my work!

On 8/19/2023 at 11:31 PM, Yee Yee Go 'Stros! said:

Just found this entire thread, but better late than never!  For SA, while I like the Alamo outline in theory, I don’t think it really works that well for the shape of the wordmark.  Perhaps use the Alamo for an alt logo?  Or even add it behind the armadillo on the primary?  

Thanks for the feedback! I did decide to rework the wordmark; the alamo is still referenced in there but much more subtly. I switched from the Alamo shape to a more traditional arc along the top, and removed the armadillo shell. After that I added in orange/teal outlines around the letters, with the divide between the outline colors being based on that Alamo outline. Admittedly its hard to see that shape since the letters are broken up, but I'm thinking of it as an easter egg. I also while I was at it made an additional secondary SA monogram logo.

Let's go ahead and share the next one, but still feel free to share any thoughts on the last couple concepts that were put out.

Let's meet the San Antonio Armadillos! I've always thought that an armadillo makes for an excellent football team mascot given its armor, and from what I read they are native to the San Antonio area and it gives some nice alliteration. The colors were inspired by the Spurs, including some of their City Connect uniforms. Including the teal and orange also helps differentiate them from the Raiders. The logos are a full body armadillo for the main logo, and an armored football for the secondary logo. The wordmark again incorporates the armadillo armor into the design, and the letters are raised at different heights to match the outline of the Alamo.

The helmet sports the main logo along with a black and orange stripes down the center. The stripes on the sleeves, socks and pants are inspired by the pattern of the armor in the logo. Silver gives the team a unique color for their primary home jersey in the NFL, while their color rush de-emphasizes the black and silver to  make what would be one of the league's brighter alternate sets.  The jerseys also all feature the main logo under the collar.

Hope everyone likes, but any C&C is very much appreciated. The next and final team in this series will be the team in Salt Lake City. Thanks for checking this out!

Still feel free to share any comments on Serpents concept, but I am going to put out the next TWO concepts I have to share today.

First, are alternate uniforms for the London Lancers. It occurred to me that if the Guards are going to latch onto the Monarchs for an alternate uniform look, that the other London team may wish to do something similar, and while there was only one London NFL Europe Team, the Lancers could choose to embrace the UK's other team, the Scottish Claymores. The imagery and colors for them work out as a pretty close fit to the Lancers, same as the Monarchs did for the Guards, so it's a pretty straightforward adaptation of the Claymores' NFL Europe uniforms in the Lancers colors.

Next is the 6th expansion team, the Portland Cascades!

I'll admit I sort of recycled and modified a logo I created for another project (the thread for the International Challenge Hockey League is where you can see the original I produced for that project) for this team, but I felt it fit really well here with some color/design changes. The brand as a whole is inspired by the Cascade Mountains and the forest/wildlife found within.  I focused particularly on the Elk imagery for the helmet and secondary logos and wordmarks with the antlers being featured throughout.

The antler graphic also features on the jersey sleeves. I gave the collars a pine needle style pattern over the dark brown base. I tried it in green but it was too hard to see, so I went with the tan color. The home was originally going to have the dark brown pants, but I changed it in part to break up the pattern that had been pointed out about giving teams dark home pants.  the multi-colored blocks along the sides of the jerseys and pants were inspired by the change in seasons in the region and give them a look I had not used yet.

Hope you all enjoy. Barring any revisions to the teams I've already shared, I have two teams left to complete the project. There will also be some sheets showing all the logos, helmets, etc. together to see at the end.

I appreciate the C&C for the last couple posts! Now it's time to start the next batch of new teams, what would be the NFL's 3rd international team, the Mexico City Serpents.

The team's name references the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent. The primary and helmet logos are based on figures of Quetzalcoatl found at archaeological sites, as well as the font style. Being the first team in a place where English is not the primary language, I wanted to make sure to give them a Spanish wordmark alongside the English one (I don't speak Spanish well, so please forgive if the translation is not perfect. I did my best). This one was fun to make, as I've never really worked with this art style before, and translating the depiction into a logo was an interesting task. I had some concerns about referencing a native culture for the concept, but after researching some of the teams that exist in Mexico City it appears multiple local teams use(d) this type of imagery, so locally it doesn't seem to be an issue from what I can tell.

The swirl-block pattern in the logo is found throughout the uniforms on the sleeves, pants and the helmet center-stripe, and a modified version is in the font also (thinned out so that it doesn't interfere with reading the numbers/letters). I decided to give this team the 'white-out' color rush uniform and white helmet thinking that- being so close to the equator- all white uniforms would be preferred. While the team has an official home uniform, I see them using either their color rush or away uniforms at home due to the heat like the Cowboys. Since the pattern I used was rather intricate compared to the usual striping on uniforms I kept the design pretty clean otherwise so it wouldn't appear cluttered. 

I'm still hoping to get some feedback on the Archers update when people get a chance, but I wanted to take the chance to share a bit of bonus content; alternate uniforms and a new Faux-back Logo for the London Guards.

I had the couple mentions on how I could have revived the London Monarchs... While I am happy with my London teams, I did have the thought that there was no reason the Monarchs couldn't be sort of brought back at least by one of the teams in the same way the Titans are bringing the Oilers look back this year. From that, led to these alternate uniforms and helmet from the London Guards, their "Heritage" home and away uniforms honoring the Monarchs. I recolored the Monarchs logo to the Guards colors, which really just meant changing blue to black, and otherwise did a faithful recreation of the Monarch's NFL Europe uniforms. 

I also had some fun with giving the Guards a VERY Pat Patriot inspired "Geoffrey Guard" faux-back logo. I know this is basically a redone and moderately modified version of the old Patriots logo, so it could never be used for real... but it was a little something for fun, haha. Hope you enjoy! The next content I share should be the next team, which will be Mexico City's franchise.

This looks like a really cool series. I greatly enjoyed the first few here, and am looking forward to the rest! I don't really have any critiques to give right now, other than maybe echoing that the Power Rangers unis could have used the Lightning bolt logo somehow, but the idea to base their uniforms off the Megazord was brilliant in my view. Also loving your version of the Batman logo, looks like it could pass for a movie version of the logo.

Here's my second pass with St. Louis after a solid day of tinkering and drawing. I leaned away from the arch-centered logo but did manage to sneak it into the new main logo, featuring a Green Arrow inspired archer figure holding an arrow in the bow.  This time I decided to embrace the influence of both the AAF Orlando Apollos and AFL Los Angeles Avengers logos, which are some of my favorites, but I did also purposely do some things differently to (at least try to) make it my own.  Originally I avoided this direction in part out of concern I would make something too much like those. While probably less creative, I think it's better, especially as a football logo. The bow here is a repurposed and modified version of the arch I did in the first version I shared.

On the helmet, I used the new logo with a gold outline around it to help it stand out more, and with that I felt a gold facemask was a better fit than the navy blue one. I also changed the number font on the jerseys so its less squatty, and changed the pants to feature the arch, with the same three-stripe pattern from the sleeves running vertically underneath it (with changes to account for the different pants color). I also added a gold stripe in the collar to help it pop just a bit more and get that color into the uniform.

Thanks again to those who offered advice on this one, generally I think this brand is much improved now. C&C will of course still be appreciated. Hope you all like!

4 hours ago, ~Bear said:

On the Archers, there seems to be a lot going on. I think having a bow-and-arrow and the Gateway Arch making an "A" is creative, but I don't really think it works here. To be blunt, an arrow was NOT the first thing to come to mind, so I'd make that point a bit sharper. Also, the color scheme looks muddled on the logo. This shows up on the helmet as well, in which the logo gets lost because it's so narrow and the outline blends with the red shell. At the very least, I'd put a different logo on the helmet. For me personally, I think the arrowhead A alternate logo is the strongest in this set and maybe something to work off of, since you still get to incorporate both the idea of archery and the Gateway Arch. 

 

That being said, I do like the uniforms. The striping is unique in a good way. The number font is a little small, but I don't hate it. I'm not sure the beveling is needed in the yellow numbers, though. The color scheme works a whole lot better here and feels a lot more cohesive. 

5 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

It might seem counter-intuitive, but I don't think the Gateway Arch needs to be forced into the leading visual for a brand called the Archers.  I'd give a nod to it elsewhere.

 

For example, emphasize the bow-and-arrow -- maybe do an arrow-focused helmet, akin to Florida State's spear -- and incorporate the arch in more subtle ways, like on the sleeves or along the sides of the pants. 

 

 

Thanks for the advice on this one so far! Being honest, this team name came to me right away as did the colors, but I had struggled with how I wanted the logo to look. The arrowhead secondary logo at one was actually going to be the primary at one point, but when I put it on a helmet and on a sheet with the KC Chiefs logo it just felt too similar to use an arrowhead logo with red & yellow in such close proximity to them, so I demoted it to the secondary logo. I am actually going back to the drawing board, and kind of embracing the archer direction I initially avoided to instead lean into the arch imagery, so I will be reposting this with at least a new logo and helmet at some point.

Here's the last team of 2028, the St. Louis Archers!

The name comes from the arch primarily as I'm sure many would guess. I struggled a bit with making a logo I liked; I wanted to feature the arch, and I was trying to avoid a person shooting an arrow because of how similar that could end up to the Orlando Apollos logo. I settled on a main logo of the arch and a bow shape connecting and overlapping to form an A shape, with an arrow lined up in the bow.  The colors are derived from the St. Louis flag, and connect well with St. Louis' sports history while giving a pretty unique look in the NFL.

I decided to keep the uniform here with a pretty clean design; with the bright colors I figured they could do the work. I took a swing on giving the team an all-gold Color Rush uniform.  It's definitely something that will stand out, and hopefully the shade of gold help them avoid looking like bananas on the field, lol.

Let me know what you think! Barring any revisions I'll be moving on to the 2nd set of four teams next. Thanks for stopping in!

Alright, here are the revisions I've come up with the past couple days. Hope you like!

Chicago: Fairly small changes here. I reversed the home & color rush jersey numbers to the dark blue with a light blue outline, and added TV numbers to the sleeves of the jerseys.

London Guards: This one got the most work and took most of the time. I shortened the name officially to Guards, and reworked the badge and guard logos. The badge was meant to invoke Euro football crests, but to make it more clear I changed the bottom area to have a football shape directly in the logo. It also got some general simplifying. I did some research on 'face' logos (faces are not my strength) to redo this. My first run was inspired most by the WFL Chicago Fire, this one took inspiration from a variety of designs I saw in Google Image searches. I also distorted the grey highlight on the guard helmet to give it a rougher appearance. The uniformed replaced the part that was meant to invoke the guard uniform flap and buttons with wordmarks, and on the helmet I made the chinstrap gold to align with the helmet in the guard logo.

London Lancers: On the uniforms I darkened the home numbers, and whitened the color rush numbers. I also replaced the L logo on the pants with the Knight head logo. The helmet I switched from just the lance to the whole main logo, and I simplified the design of the wordmark and redid the design of the L secondary logo to blend the L and lance together better.

St. Louis will still be on deck next. Continued C&C is welcomed, please let me know if these revisions are an improvement or not. Thanks!

Appreciating the feedback, it will help a great deal! I'm taking some time to revise these three and give another look at the others in the pipeline before moving forward with St. Louis, but it shouldn't delay things too long.

21 hours ago, The Impaler said:

London Guardians:  Think I'd prefer Guards here as that's basically why you named it that.

3 hours ago, wildwing64 said:

I agree with The Impaler that the Guards is the better name choice.

I am going to make this change in the revision. 

21 hours ago, The Impaler said:

Again on the jersey's, I'm afraid the color of the numbers will get lost on the field.

That was a good note for Chicago and the Lancers so I am looking at tweaking the numbers on those.

7 hours ago, the_grateful_ted said:

Maybe he wanted to make an original concept

Haha, pretty much. The Monarchs are iconic in their own right, but I have actually done that team before and a big purpose for this whole concept was to do original works, not revisions (which I had done for my last couple on this forum). Maybe if I have the creative spirit still going when this is done I can do a Monarchs-inspired fauxback uniform for the Guards?

21 hours ago, The Impaler said:

On the whole I really like what you've done here.  The one thing I noticed in looking at all three is you seem to be kind of stuck in a formula.  Dark pants, light top for homes.  I don't dislike that at all, just hope we see a bit more variation as you move forward.  

Thank you, appreciate it! I did not consciously do that, but you are right so thank you for pointing it out! I took a look through my upcoming ones and I had done that similar pattern on 2 of the remaining, so there will be some more variety in the future on that note.

Appreciate the likes on the last one. If anyone has thoughts on the logo question I had still feel free to share, but for now I'll take it as I made the right choice. Here's London's 2nd team, the London Lancers!

The team name of course references knights and jousting. Full disclosure- the original name was going to be the London Knights, but I found out there's a sports team in London already using the name, so changed it to respect that. I based the color scheme initially on a goal to make it the opposite of the Guardians (blue/silver/white instead of red/gold/black), and found a couple shades of blue called the "Mylands of London" to use. 

The helmet heavily features the lance from the logo Seahawks style on a glossy silver shell. The striping on the sleeves and pants is based on the main logo's banner wrapping around the horse. I put the Lancers wordmark on the home, London mark on the away, and the main logo on the Color Rush jersey. The L-Lance secondary is featured on the pants. I was tempted to do an all-silver Color Rush ala a knight's armor but went with the more colorful option. If anyone would want to see an all-silver design though let me know.

Stay tuned next for St. Louis to round out the 2028 teams. Thanks for looking and sharing any thoughts you have!

I appreciate the likes and comments on the first concept. Here's my second expansion team for 2028, the first of two teams to be crossing the pond, the London Guardians!

The team is named for London's famous Royal Guards. I have a little question still in my mind as to which logo to declare as the official primary logo, but went with the one that is based on the badge design for the Grenadier Guards (one of the Guard regiments).  I suspect that if this were a real team they would probably use the logos pretty interchangeably for a while until they figure what their fanbase most gravitates towards. If anyone has thoughts on whether the guard or crown logos would be better than the badge for the primary logo let me know (or if none are good, haha). We also have a secondary wordmark saying just Guards, as I suspect that's what they would be informally called by many fans. The Guardians would be joining the AFC East (Chicago Blues would be in the AFC North, forgot to mention that).

The helmet uses a black shell inspired by the guard helmets, with the secondary crown logo gracing the front of the helmet, and the player number inside the roundel element of the badge logo on the back of the helmet.

The uniforms also draw inspiration from Royal Guard uniforms, with the black pants & red stripe, as well as the gold elements on the shoulders and the red jersey. The jersey collars also have graphics emulating some of the pins and buttons seen on the collar of a Royal Guard uniform.

Next up will be the NFC East's London team. Thanks for checking this out, and I look forward to any C & C that gets shared.

Here's my first 2028 expansion team, the Chicago Blues! I know the name is used in Madden, but it wasn't really original for them either to be fair, and I just really like it as a name.

The name comes from Chicago's connection to the Blues music genre. The colors were inspired by Chicago's flag, and samples of blue from pics of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. My primary logo blends the letter B in a blues-inspired font with a guitar. One of the secondary logos is inspired by the stars on Chicago's flag, while the other combines aspects of a harmonica with a football and the letter C. The wordmark builds on the style of the primary logo.

The idea in my head for the helmet was hard to convey visually, but what I imagined is a glossy shell with the light blue base, but then incorporating the color shifting stuff similar to cars that change color based on light angles, to show the other shades of blue depending on how the helmet is lit. The uniform striping on the shoulders and pants is based on the guitar strings from the logo, as is the helmet's center stripes.

Not sure what the next team will be, but odds say it will be a team from London. I always appreciate C & C on my work so please share your thoughts. Hope you all enjoy!

Hey all, I decided after my last project here to take a spin at making some new concepts that I imagined as potential future NFL expansion teams.  Being imagined NFL teams, I tried to create brands which could feasibly fit in the NFL (no singular collective noun or concept names), while also trying at times to do things with the helmets or uniforms that may be innovative, but (hopefully) not obnoxious. In other words, the teams shouldn't feel most at home in the Arena Football League, lol. Since a goal is to build brands from the ground up, I won't be reviving old team identities like the London Monarchs. My goal was also to try to pick markets that feel realistic for the NFL (not to say cities I didn't use aren't NFL caliber, but choices had to be made).

The lore: "The finalized plans to move the Chicago Bears from Soldier Field to a new  domed stadium in the outer Chicago suburbs were announced in late 2023, scheduled for the 2026 season. Fan uproar over this accompanied continued pressure from fans and executives alike to better capitalize on the growing London market and to return to St. Louis. Finally in 2024, the NFL announces its first expansion since 2002. Scheduled to begin play in 2028, the league will add four teams (two per conference). This will allow the NFL to return to both downtown Chicago and St. Louis, and finally make London a permanent home with two teams sharing the UK capital.

Knowing that unbalanced divisions will be a problem in the long term but not wanting to go too big with the divisions or abandon the two conference alignment, the league also announces plans to add an additional 4 teams for the 2034 season (aligns with various contracts). These teams are over time awarded to ownership groups in San Antonio, Portland, Salt Lake City, and the league's 3rd international team in Mexico City. This will bring the league to 40 teams, with all 8 divisions settling at 5 teams each. The league also confirms an extended 18 game regular season starting in 2034. Teams will play their division opponents twice, and every team in one other division from each conference once."

This map shows where the teams will be located; I'll be releasing the 2028 teams first, then the 2034 teams. I'll start off the concepts with Chicago's new 2nd team in the next post.

Posted so far:

Chicago (Blues) - Revised version posted further down

London #1 (Guards) - Revised version posted further down + alternate uniforms/logo.

London #2 (Lancers) - Revised version posted further down + further down from there are alt. uniforms.

St. Louis (Archers) - Revised version posted further down

Mexico City (Serpents)

Portland (Cascades)

San Antonio (Armadillos) - Revised version posted further down

Salt Lake City (Utah Raptors)

League Concept Wrap-ups

On 6/22/2023 at 7:40 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

u could probably incorporate a G into that somewhere, but I dunno exactly how

I think this could be done if you flipped it horizontally and rotated the new right side up some you would get a pretty decent g shape with one of those spirals (might need to rework the shape slightly).

Maybe to spice it up add some outlines to it? Spiral galaxies usually have a denser center core and then thinner outer legs so perhaps making a white center of the spirals with orange then purple outlines (also works well for brightest to darkest) would keep it simple, but not too simple, and still clearly represent a galaxy. If the flipping and rotating allows for a g shape in there also, all the better, but I wouldn't call it a must happen.

3 hours ago, Zerovoltz said:

LOL....come on guys!  Think of all the free marketing you get anytime someone types out an email address or twitter handle...your team logo is right there all the time! 

LOL, I do appreciate this.

I will say that I agree with others that the name and heavy @ symbol use isn't working as-is imo, but there are some tweaks that could make this into a solid concept... I like what you have going with the Owl logo (maybe change or add some style to the @ symbol eyes though, not just the typeface), and Atlanta Owls would be a solid name in my book; fits with the bird theme for Atlanta teams (Falcons, Hawks, Thrashers, etc). Atlee works as a mascot name though. I wouldn't name the team "@tlanta", in part because @ already includes the 't' in it, so if anything I'd say it should be "@lanta". To me it'd be like saying "ATM Machine" lol.  But given how prominent social media is today I would not begrudge if "@lanta" became a secondary wordmark used on an alternate jersey, especially if that was the team's actual social media handle. "@L" could maybe become a secondary logo, but not with typeface... not with typeface. lol. Its worth noting that a team using a public domain font as its wordmark and logo is begging the public to make knock off merchandise for the team.

RE: the uniforms, I like where you went with it, but would definitely change the helmet to either the Owl logo or maybe just the Owl wing on the sides similar to the Eagles or Oregon Ducks. On the away uniforms I would also maybe try using brown on the numbers of the white and cream jerseys, that would be easier to see in contrast to the lighter jersey colors.

As someone who is working on a Chicago football concept also I am kind of wishing I had thought of the Spikes name, it's clever especially given the word's dual meaning for railroads and football. I like the spike in the S design you came up with, and the crossed spikes logo also on the helmet. I could also picture a faux-retro railworker spiking a football logo with this set. The train track stripes are another good touch.

Two possible change I would suggest is using the SPIKES wordmark on the home jersey and saving Chicago for the away and alt jerseys, and possibly removing the silver color from the sleeves. It seems to be the only place in the brand it's used and it kind of crowds the train a bit on the sleeves.

A question, is there a connection with Chicago and Thomas the Train, or was it just a case of Thomas is a famous train and the colors make for a nice looking alt jersey?

On 6/19/2023 at 1:31 PM, BengalErnst said:

Beautiful display. Next challenge? 

Thanks. I'm thinking of doing an NFL Expansion to 40 teams for my next project.

Thanks to everyone who commented on or reacted to not just the So Cal Sun but all the other concepts I shared in this series, it is appreciated and I'm glad some of you were able to get some enjoyment from this work.  Here's a couple graphics grouping together all the different concepts for each team together to see how they look as a group. You may notice some small changes with a couple of the secondary logos, and there are some wordmarks for my earlier teams that will be shown here for the first time, so feel free to share any thoughts on them. Unless I get some feedback or inspiration that inspires further work though this series will be considered complete.