Wildcomet
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Everything posted by Wildcomet
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Of these four D would be my preferred choice. The blue and green don't work great when contacting each other in my opinion so I think generally having a yellow or white in between them works better. The thicker striping helps and I like there being a gap between the outer rings and the G. In all the others the G is right up against the edge of the circle. With B, I would consider adding a gap between the G and the blue ring, and making the part of the G that goes in go a little further in. My main critique on C (I appreciate you trying it) is that the G is at a different angle than your seams indicate the rest of the logo would be, so the implied perspective is a bit jarring. I think if you either kept the G level like the seams are, or adjusted the seams and the perspective to align with the angled G (this may take more effort though), it would work better.
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I like where you've landed with the Texans. It helps connect it with Houston in a better way I feel than the bull logo does. As someone who does like the Packers logo, I think adding the dark blue could work and connect different eras of the team's history. If the goal is to get the team into a roundel style logo, I think maybe taking inspiration from the viewpoint looking at the end of a football instead of the current logo's side profile view could be a way to make it work a bit better. Putting notions of tradition aside, the things I noticed for these round G logos are that there is a pretty good amount of negative space inside of the G right now, and the G itself is looking a little plain and generic. Shaping the G in someway to hint at the end of a football may help to give the G some character like the H/T in your Texans logo have and fill the space a bit better.
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Here's the two current revisions I had to designs I had previously done. The first is taking a suggestion I received on this thread to lengthen the lightning bolt in the Oakland logo to make it stand out more behind the O in it's logo, so here's that revision. And here's a more extensive revision for what was arguably my most controversial initial concept, the Arizona Wranglers. I abandoned the front-view sunburst brand and went back to the original and did some smaller changes to fix the issues I had with it. The three issues I had were that the copper color that was so ingrained into the team identity wasn't in the logo at all, which is a pet peeve for me, so I worked it in as the color of the now filled in handle and some smaller accents on the brand face and horns. I also put an outline around the handle so that there wasn't that space for the handle opening floating on it's own disconnected from the rest of the logo. Finally, what bugged me most about the original is that the W-horns are shown at a head-on perspective while the rest of the logo is an angled perspective, so I redrew the brand entirely front facing then skewed it so everything matched the same perspective. Aside from that I just thickened the outline a bit, and added a couple detail pieces for a cactus & rock inside the W to sell the idea that it looked like a desert landscape in there. Hope you all like these two!
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Frankly I agree, it is definitely not my favorite design and does not hold up at all to modern standards. But in my head, IF the team and league were to have survived to this point I have a feeling it could've become one of those "too quirky to mess with" or "so lame it's actually cool" type of situations. Plus I was trying to avoid straying too far from the source material, so I did my best to update rather than scrap it entirely. Outside of the roundel it's functionally too long and thin, but roundels with text do not work on helmets at all in my view, so I had to make it work. I experimented with cutting him off at various points on the body but none looked great to me, and at least the way I did it worked with an "on brand" explanation and leans into the goofiness. Overall it was a fun challenge to work with, haha.
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We're back, and it's time for the last new concept I have planned to share, a touched up version of the San Antonio Gunslingers! I felt like San Antonio would be the sort of city that would appreciate maintaining the general feel of this identity even if it nowadays would look a little old fashioned, so no big changes here. I thickened some lines and added some shadows here and there, but mainly I just gave the poor guy a bit of muscle mass. I removed black to bring it down to 4 colors from 5, as I just didn't see that many colors being needed and black didn't appear to be an important color to their uniforms from what I saw in researching. The helmet is pretty close to the original; I kept the green shell and white facemask, but I took the Gunslinger out of the roundel for the helmet and made him a little bigger (the legs being cut off at the ear hole is actually intentional, I thought it would look like he's standing up from behind the hole about to take his shot, like he'd used it for cover). I modified the center stripe to match the pattern of the Gunslinger's belt on both sides.
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No worries, I don't mind and I appreciate the compliments on the other work. The idea was that it was meant to be like a fighter jet/spacecraft in the shape of a star. The point with the gold & orange windows on it is the cockpit, the other four points make up main wings and tail wings, with the rocket exhaust coming out the back. When I was researching ideas for I saw some different references to things called Starfighter (movies, an Air Force jet, etc) and decided to take the "Starfighter" idea in a very literal direction. I couldn't change the shape much or make it too detailed without losing the overall appearance of the Star however, so I tried to keep it pretty basic.
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Good evening (at least it is where I am)! I have the next to last new concept for this series to share. Meet the updated Pittsburgh Maulers! My take on this logo is pretty true to the original, but I added some orange and some gray details to the logo on the man and hammer to bring that gray color from the wordmark into the logo itself, and rotated the logo down so the man is leaning into his swing a bit. This just made the logo feel more active to me. Like the man is swinging it, not just posing with it. The helmet is largely in line with the original (same color, facemask and basic logo/center stripe use) so fans of the team should be comfortable with the new look. I did add a couple gray accent marks to the lower jaw area based on those used in the logo. I felt this helped pull the helmet together and give it a more active, aggressive profile. After this I just have the San Antonio Gunslingers and a planned revision of the Arizona Wranglers and then I'll be done I think (unless I decide to tweak something on any of the others teams I've done or these last couple new ones). Are there any other teams that anyone would like to see me take on? Let me know!
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Thanks for the nice comments, I'm glad Philly's new look was well received! I got a revised version of the Birmingham Stallions helmet to share today. The logo is not changed from the first concept I shared. It took some playing around with the scale on different parts of this, but I think I hit the sweet spot where all the text is visible without it looking off-centered or any other way out of whack. Part of what bugged me before when trying to make is smaller was that the stripe then seemed a little thin, so I took the bottom white & goldenrod portion of the logo under Stallions and incorporated that into the diagonal stripe, and I think it added a lot to it. I also made the horse a little bigger relative to the Stallions wordmark on the helmet compared to how it is in the logo. Small difference, but it helps it sit right on the helmet to avoid the chinstrap clip. As mentioned in the first version, on the flip side of the helmet the text would be flipped so it would still read 'Stallions' from left-to-right.
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Thank you!! Given the quality of work by many people on this board that means a lot.
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I appreciate the couple of likes I've gotten for the last one, thanks! Today I have the Philadelphia Stars update to share. I personally felt like this logo needed a pretty good facelift, but I did not want to completely abandon what made the team what it was, so I attempted to find a new way to use the elements of the original logo. The inspiration that came to me was to lean a bit more into the space meaning of stars, and I tweaked into what I guess we could call the 'Starfighter Logo'. I blended the wordmark's A into the top of the star to give it a couple winglets and a cockpit, and a couple lines on the back to create tail wings and an engine. The striped 'shadows' from the original were replaced with different colored outlines radiating out reminiscent of how an aircraft can create visible pressure waves in the air when breaking the sound barrier. Exhaust from the engine was integrated into those outlines. A note on colors, in the original logo I found on this site part of it appears pretty yellow, but on helmet pics I found the helmet and that section of the logo appeared more gold, so I opted with the gold based on that research. The helmet is not changed much at all from the original; same shell and facemask colors and the helmet logo is outlined in white. Aside from the updated logo (which here I lengthened the exhaust lines to give it a 'flightpath' along the helmet) I just used the exhaust portion of the logo to create a small stripe in the center above the facemask.
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Hello all, time for another team to share. Here's my take on an update for the Jacksonville Bulls! I maintained the basic concept of the logo, a black bull with red/orange stripes in front of a gray circle with a black outline, but gave the bull a more aggressive profile and switched from the window shades looking stripes to the two bolder red/orange stripes along its back and horns and some accents around its leg which is now more prominently shown. I added a subtle J in the bottom right of the circle to help connect it with Jacksonville and fill in the negative space. It also gives the Bull something to be charging towards. I know I know, I changed the helmet color again, but frankly I do not see a reason why Jacksonville and Tampa Bay would both need to have silver/gray helmets with red/black lines & logos on them. Changing to black lets them stand out more as a team- especially against their in-state rivals- and as we've seen with the Jaguars black is a color that the city can embrace for sports teams. Inspired by the original helmet, I adapted it's concept of the logo coming up from behind the helmet by connecting the new logo's orange/red stripes on the back of this helmet with "BULLS" written in gray inside the stripes a la the original, and I kept the original facemask color. I know it's a surface departure but it was also very much inspired by the original design, and I think it gives them a really good look. This is one of the designs I was more happy with being honest, so I hope others like it also.
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Appreciate the positive comment about the work itself; thank you for that. I would contest the idea that I am not informing myself or considering the original helmet designs (I admitted was worse about it when I started this but have made more of an effort since the first Panthers concept was shared), but I will concede that I do not have a great basis to judge what may be considered 'iconic' or otherwise off limits for altering with this league. When I do the research into the logos/helmets all I can really go by is what I read/see and what I think works or doesn't work about the designs. If you know of a resource that would help with understanding that essence you're talking about I'd be happy to learn (heck, even PM your thoughts on what shouldn't be changed about my on-deck teams if you're so inclined, I'll take what insight I can get). Honestly, part of why I chose this league in particular was I had the impression that the USFL was considered innovative for its time in terms of team branding, and in my head assumed that trend would have continued into the modern day if given the chance so there would be more room for creative license without betraying the essence of the league. I've mainly done fictional leagues/sports in the past on this forum. I specifically wanted to do this in part because modernizing older team identities is a different and in some ways more difficult challenge than just making something out of nothing. I would hope I can get the designs to a place where fans of the teams can appreciate them even if it takes a few tries so I do appreciate the feedback, but I also know modernizing means more than just slapping the original logos/colors on a modern helmet template so I'm working to figure the right balance out. I do this to learn as much as anything and do appreciate the time being invested in this thread even if it isn't always resulting in praise.
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That's fair, and as I had stated I was aware of it so it was less a mistake and more a problem I just hadn't yet been able to solve. If I get stuck with a design I'll share it despite the issues for feedback to spur ideas or let me know if I need to change directions entirely. At least in this case people aren't trashing the concept, just critiquing the execution, so I know it's worth it to keep tinkering with this design rather than start over. The issue I struggled with was when I just moved it back or made it smaller to avoid the facemask it looked weird on the helmet in a way that was worse to me than the obscured letter. I guess I'll just need to get more creative with angles/scales to find the sweet spot of where it looks centered and proportional without blocking any letters it looks like.
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Moving forward from the last one while I consider a redo on the Wranglers (that said C & C is still welcome on it), here is the Birmingham Stallions! Quick note, I found versions of the original logo & helmet online in this shade of gold I used and a more Saints-like shade. Being unsure which was most reflective of the team's history I chose this one as it's less similar to teams like the Philadelphia Stars. So if I got that color wrong again... I did try, haha. I didn't stray very far from their original logo, but I did decide to adjust the horse a bit to make it like it was rearing up into the frame created around it. I also thickened some of those thinner lines and obviously I inverted the colors of the horse and space under Birmingham. I felt that simplified it a bit and left less negative space in the design. I also tweaked the horse a bit, giving it visible eyes and sharpening its mane. Given the nature of the logo, this seemed like a fitting time to use the US Navy like dividing line along the helmet, taking the framed Stallions text and angling it so that the horse is coming up from it to the front of the helmet. It (hopefully) keeps the color primarily from the original helmet design, while also setting it apart from other teams in the league with similar colors/helmets. I had tried to avoid the last letter being behind the facemask but after experimenting with various sizes/angles found this to be the better looking option despite the one letter being covered. The helmet's reverse side would read Stallions with the text going up along the line with the horse still pointing to the front of the helmet. I hope you all like this one!
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Duly noted on critiques of the design and I appreciate it. I thought it would work well to integrate the sunburst in, and like I said the 3D in the original logo just does not work for me so I feel it needs more than just a minor touch up. Being honest this wasn't feeling like this logo was my best work- it's missing something- but I couldn't put my finger on it and thought I could maybe at least get some suggestions on improving it by sharing it out. If the issue is just the helmet color then fine, I don't have enough of a personal connection to the league to know what designs were loved or considered iconic. Regarding color choices related to this quote (not trying to argue just checking my sources)...These are the pics I used for reference. The helmet shell here is looking closer to Saint/49er gold to me as opposed to something like the Arizona Rattlers' copper helmets. That's less about my recoloring and more about my description, but given the shade of this helmet on this pic I was worried about it being similar to the Panthers' or Stars' helmets whereas no USFL team I've seen had a dark blue helmet. I thought it would be more unique for them and help the red/yellow stand out more. That's why I changed that color. The flag's star definitely looks orange to me. I lightened the color slightly when making the logo to make it stand out more from the red, but sampled the color direct from this image before lightening it. If the colors on these images are off then I can find new reference materials. I just wanted to share where I was coming from with it so I can learn from it and do better, and make sure I do have good references (especially if I am going to go back to the drawing board and try again with this one). Appreciate the feedback everyone, even if it largely isn't very positive. I can definitely switch orange to copper at minimum.
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Time to get into the next group of teams. Here is my attempt at updating the Arizona Wranglers. I like the concept of a brand for the logo, but the 3D perspective thing they attempted with the handle behind it just looks off to me, so my big change was making it a head-on view of the brand face. I did alter the brand face itself a bit, using the influence of the Arizona state flag and integrating the W into the flag's sunburst pattern. I pulled the orange from the flag into the logo also mostly as an accent around the W since in the flag its used primarily for a star in the middle. For the helmet, I decided to go a different direction from their original helmet and give them a unique look in the league, by putting the sunburst pattern and brand on the front of the helmet, wrapping around to the sides so the horns from the brand face can sweep back onto the sides of the helmet. I put the Wranglers wordmark on the back of the helmet to help fill the space there. The blue shell let the logo stand out better than a gold one would, and the red facemask meshes well with the red brand on the front. I hope this one works for people, I know I went out on a limb a bit with the helmet especially but I thought it was a chance to bring something new without disregarding what came before.
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I decided to take another crack at a full horse/body update for the Tampa Bay Bandits. This was a difficult one which is why I opted to zoom in on the rider face for my initial update. Aside from the challenges of making a logo on that scale that could look good at a small size, a really good update (imo) had been done already related to the proposed A11FL a few years ago and I didn't want to look like I was just copying them. I think this time I was able to make something that stands alone from those concepts but is still recognizable as a Bandits update and can work at different sizes though I'm still a bit worried about that. The big changes on the from my first version of the helmet (aside from the logo of course) are that I replaced those small accent marks on the front with two tapered lines patterned after the reins from this logo, and switched the facemask to black.
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No worries, we all have our things we're passionate about and it helps me improve. For instance, I could have swore Generals got chevrons on their uniforms. I've even seen it in some TV/movies where they're depicted I'm pretty sure. Well, now I know, haha.
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This one you've all seen this version of the logo already, but I thought I'd get it onto a helmet and share a finished product. Here's the NEW New Jersey Generals. As past posts mentioned, I felt the old logo was quite out of date, but as this is one that's been tackled many times in the past by multiple designers the ideas that would have worked in my view for a closer modernization of the original logo were essentially taken, so it was a struggle to find a unique voice on this one that worked well and stayed true to the franchise. I ended up here, with the 5 stars rearranged roughly into a chevron pattern backed up by multiple red and yellow chevrons instead of the laurel wreath. Chevrons felt appropriate here being used to represent designations of rank in the military. I carried that onto the helmet, using 3 chevrons above the facemask. The black facemask works well with the thicker black lines on this logo and will help it standout from other teams that use similar red/gold color schemes like Birmingham or Philadelphia. Hope you all enjoy!
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Never said they don't ever happen, just that it's my preference for when they work best. That said, a few of these you listed are ones I see as not major national cities or cities whose names don't always work well for sports teams and would agree they are appropriately used. There is also a factor of tradition in some markets for how you name teams which I didn't think to mention before. Detroit is a nationally prominent city that warrants being named and pretty much all pro teams in the Detroit area follow that convention. Sorry if you don't like the change or agree with my reason, I'll even concede it may be a mistake, but it wasn't for no reason. I concede that. I worked it into the logo prior to deciding on the change (as I said, I had thought about it, but ultimately decided that a modern team would want to highlight their direct connection to Detroit and better connect with the community) but liked how it looked so I left it in, thinking it could be a callback reference to their history without distracting from the rest of the logo. If I were to rename back to Michigan Panthers (and am reconsidering based on the feedback I've gotten) I would try altering the logo a bit again to enlarge that area and make the M more prominent to sell it more. Appreciate the feedback. Thanks!
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Appreciate that about the logo, thanks again for pointing that color out. I changed the location name- not knowing or finding any good reasons why it was named Michigan to begin with mind you (I did try to find one)- because I feel using the state name works better for smaller cities that aren't as much of a "draw", or when the city name is just kind of clunky and hard to pair with a good team name, and Detroit doesn't meet either of those criteria in my view. I honestly think if the USFL had maintained until this day it would probably have changed to Detroit by now to better sell their place in the market. When I hear a team is "Michigan _____" I'm assuming it's in Lansing or Grand Rapids or some other area that's maybe got a decent sized population but not representing a major media market.
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Morning all, I got a revised version of the Detroit Panthers for you to check out! I added the champagne color to the logo in place of white, and decided to make it the color of the helmet shell also. I considered continuing the old tradition of the oversized logo coming up from the bottom, but I don't think it looks good on this helmet model with the layered ridges and recessed sections of the helmet. In lieu of that I kept the forehead and jawline stripes from my original concept. Hope you all enjoy!
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Sounds good, the link is in your mailbox.
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Weird, I can still see all of them. Anyone else on here having an issue? If you're interested I can PM you a link to the album where they're all hosted.
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Well I might as well keep going. I hope the Tampa Bay one was enjoyed. Up next is the Washington Federals! Not too much was changed around here; I made the lines and spaces between elements more even throughout the logo and added some darker shades to give the logo some depth. I made the eye a small pentagon just to tie it more into the DC area. On the helmet, I made the choice to recolor it to dark green to give them a more unique look among teams in the league. It also helps the logo stand out I think given the heavy white outline. I retained the center stripe but reordered the colors to work better on the dark-green shell and kept the black facemask (I found pics online showing use of both black and white facemasks, so I chose black). I used part of the wing design to accent the helmet along the bottom jaw in that recessed area of the helmet. I think this helmet model lends itself well to that sort of design feature. I hope you all enjoy this one as well as the last. I'll be back next with a couple revisions.
