Air Force Rebrand (by MCH) (Updated)

[martymcfry]

I decided to take a little brake from my NFL series to try rebranding Air Force. I actually almost joined a few months ago to post an Air Force concept. But before I did, I got some feedback from my brother, who told me that if he had to wear that, he'd quit the team. Quite frankly, I agreed. It was a pixelated mess, and it wasn't anything I thought I should even try posting. Then almost a month ago I cleaned up a couple concepts and decided to join. Now, after seeing BrandMooreArt's concept, I decided to give another shot at Air Force. I made my own logo, made sure it was completely clean, and decided to post it.

First are the logos. Primary:

Wordmark:

Air Force has a mess of an identity. Their primary logo is a generic "AF", the team name is the Falcons, yet they use a lightning bolt on the helmet. This is meant to fix that by eliminating both the falcon and the lightning bolt. The primary mark is based off the roundel of the USAF, and the secondary logo is really there just so I could justify using it on the uniforms .

Anyway, here are the uniforms:

The uniforms are pretty self explanatory. The helmets feature the logo on one side and the number on the other. The sleeves have the logo on a double stripe. The number font is the "USAF Ararmillo" font I found on dafont.com, and yes I realize it is the same font BrandMooreArt uses in his concept, but it is an official USAF font (used on their aircraft) and it's the only official USAF font I could find, so I went with it.

Then of course, the Thunderbird alternate:

This alternate could be considered a Pro Combat. Of course, it based off the Thunderbirds, F-16s that are dressed for an air show. I used the blue-red striping a lot, but my favorite use of it is on the helmet, to resemble the nose of the plane.

Then finally, the field:

It's a pretty plain field. I didn't want anything drastic, because unless your Boise State or Eastern Washington, the field shouldn't be the center of the show of your home games.

That's all I have. It's my first complete rebrand, and I don't feel like I did too bad on it. I didn't go too uncreative, either. If there's anything that bothers you about it, please let me know. But if not, enjoy!

[Ragone]

I like the overall design, although the black helmet seems out of place. I'd say ditch it.

[PackerFan98]

Like it! I say keep the black helmet but with a black jersey.

[BrandMooreArt]

i think you have a pretty good direction here. i like the simplicity of everything overall. i can see what you're going for with the logos, but they seem a bit "military generic" to me. because they don't look like the real stuff enough, they don't feel authentic. and i'm not sure if the concepts are strong enough to say "air force football". that doesn't mean you have to work an actual football into the marks, but i think why AF uses the lightning bolts is mainly to be a visual cue for the football team (or maybe all athletics?). the secondary mark is probably best to just use as a uniform element and not strong enough as a logo.

also, there's a huge inconsistency in the treatment of these logos and it carries over into the type too. what i mean is the strokes/key lines on these logos are drastically different. using them is OK, but you should make all those outer strokes the same so they all read visually as though they're from the same family. plus, with every change of a background color, the logo has to change in some way as well. the way i solved the same problem was to only use my secondary logo on 2 colors (never gray. this is allowed; you control the rules for the brand) and for the primary to work just as well with a keystroke or without (negative space).

your Amarillo is not the same i have. The O in there is short and thin and the R doesnt look right either. i cant remember where i got mine from but try another site. or you could manually correct those things.

the uniforms are cool, minus the black helmet which is just too odd without another black peice to match. i dont quite like what you have going on with the helmet number though. the reason i put numbers on the side of 2 helmets was because i didn't use TV numbers on the jerseys, so you could still read the players number from the side. with your concept it's just redundant and done for decoration. not a terrible thing, but you dont need it and i think you should just use the logo on both sides of the helmet.

the Thunderbirds uniform is cool but i don't like the helmet design. dont just slap some stripes on there randomly. think about why the Tbirds are painted the way they are. the stripes and shapes all follow the lines of the planes. take that same approach to the helmet. design something that works with it; not just forced on there. also, maybe try some silver in there? the planes before they moved to the F-4 Phantom were silver and that's a direction no one has taken with a Thunderbird concept before that i've seen.

[Whitefoot]

The lone "A" is a current Army identity, and I think Air Force needs 2 letters "AF". The symbol you are basing your primary and secondary logos on are used on both Army aircraft and Air Force aircraft. Tradition at the AFA means a lot. Their "generic" "AF" has meaning and significance to those elite young men who attend and play for the AFA.

I really like the shoulders of the football uniform.

[martymcfry]

The lone "A" is a current Army identity, and I think Air Force needs 2 letters "AF". The symbol you are basing your primary and secondary logos on are used on both Army aircraft and Air Force aircraft. Tradition at the AFA means a lot. Their "generic" "AF" has meaning and significance to those elite young men who attend and play for the AFA.

I really like the shoulders of the football uniform.

The "A" I made and the "A" for Army are separated enough from each other that it doesn't really make a difference. I based the primary off the USAF roundel, not a military symbol. Like I said before, the secondary is just there to justify the use of that logo on the sleeves, but I think now that it's really to generic to be its own logo.

How can the current "AF" logo mean a lot to Air Force player if they never use it? They use the lightning bolt. Unless you know someone who can tell you it does, I don't really believe that the "AF" logo means anything to an Air Force player

@BrandMooreArt - What do you mean the logo looks like it's not authentic? Because it's not almost exactly the same as the roundel? I did my best with the letters. I outlined them myself, through paint, so I didn't stroke it. I do think the Amarillo I used is the same as yours, I had to change the letters a little bit. I'm going to go back and fix the wordmark, so don't worry about that. I'm not sure about the black helmet. I really like it. But it's bothering most of everyone else, so I'll get rid of it. The helmet numbers are there, like you said, for decoration, but I like it. If it bothers anyone else, I probably will change it. The Thunderbirds alternate is less sloppy than your trying to make it sound like. I probably will change the front of the helmet and make it more like the nose of the helmet, but it's definitely not just slapped on their. I can see where you're going with the suggestion, though, and I'll try to incorporate that in an update. I'm not going to use gray, though. If they currently use gray on the planes (which they don't) then I'd be using gray in there. But since they currently use white, I'll use white too.

[hockeyny13]

i think your primary logo now would work better as the secondary. i agree with everyone else who's said it that air force needs AF as their identity to separate them from army. i don't see why you can't somehow incorporate a falcon into a logo with AF or use the lightning bolt with AF. I don't think that eliminating both is a great option. i really like the uniforms minus the black helmet. once you fix the stripes on the thunderbird alternate ill like that one a bit more but I'm honestly not a fan of it right now.

[BrandMooreArt]

The lone "A" is a current Army identity, and I think Air Force needs 2 letters "AF". The symbol you are basing your primary and secondary logos on are used on both Army aircraft and Air Force aircraft. Tradition at the AFA means a lot. Their "generic" "AF" has meaning and significance to those elite young men who attend and play for the AFA.

I really like the shoulders of the football uniform.

The "A" I made and the "A" for Army are separated enough from each other that it doesn't really make a difference. I based the primary off the USAF roundel, not a military symbol. Like I said before, the secondary is just there to justify the use of that logo on the sleeves, but I think now that it's really to generic to be its own logo.

How can the current "AF" logo mean a lot to Air Force player if they never use it? They use the lightning bolt. Unless you know someone who can tell you it does, I don't really believe that the "AF" logo means anything to an Air Force player

@BrandMooreArt - What do you mean the logo looks like it's not authentic? Because it's not almost exactly the same as the roundel? I did my best with the letters. I outlined them myself, through paint, so I didn't stroke it. I do think the Amarillo I used is the same as yours, I had to change the letters a little bit. I'm going to go back and fix the wordmark, so don't worry about that. I'm not sure about the black helmet. I really like it. But it's bothering most of everyone else, so I'll get rid of it. The helmet numbers are there, like you said, for decoration, but I like it. If it bothers anyone else, I probably will change it. The Thunderbirds alternate is less sloppy than your trying to make it sound like. I probably will change the front of the helmet and make it more like the nose of the helmet, but it's definitely not just slapped on their. I can see where you're going with the suggestion, though, and I'll try to incorporate that in an update. I'm not going to use gray, though. If they currently use gray on the planes (which they don't) then I'd be using gray in there. But since they currently use white, I'll use white too.

yea, it has a generic look because it's not exactly what they use, its tweaked enough to just be different. and because it's just a simple military insignia, it comes off as "generic military thing". it would be best to add something more to it, or use something that is exactly authentic within an original design.

using Paint is limiting, i imagine its much tougher to do anything with it. are you able to download inkscape?

if you really like the black helmet, throw in a black jersey. you dont have an alternate, so it could work that way.

what i meant with the Tbirds helmet is, you've taken the straight stripes they use on straight areas and bent them around the front of the helmet that is just awkward. when it came to painting the curves and nose of the planes, they used these long swooping shapes that worked with the surface areas and suggested motion; speed. your current helmet looks like the stripes are creating a barrier. they work well enough on the jersey and pants, but the helmet is a different animal

[martymcfry]

i think your primary logo now would work better as the secondary. i agree with everyone else who's said it that air force needs AF as their identity to separate them from army. i don't see why you can't somehow incorporate a falcon into a logo with AF or use the lightning bolt with AF. I don't think that eliminating both is a great option. i really like the uniforms minus the black helmet. once you fix the stripes on the thunderbird alternate ill like that one a bit more but I'm honestly not a fan of it right now.

All right, I think I've taken enough heat on that subject. Everyone was telling me to go outside the box, do something different. Now I go outside the box, and you tell me you like the previous look better? Look, if you don't like anything I do, couldn't you try it yourself, but that logo is the heart and soul of the concept. There are lots of other concepts out there that use the lightning bolt and the falcon, this concept doesn't use that, I'm not open to changing that. I'm going going to fix the Thunderbird concept, but could you provide some C&C other than you like their current look better? Maybe more about the concept rather than what I'm trying to fix.

[martymcfry]

The lone "A" is a current Army identity, and I think Air Force needs 2 letters "AF". The symbol you are basing your primary and secondary logos on are used on both Army aircraft and Air Force aircraft. Tradition at the AFA means a lot. Their "generic" "AF" has meaning and significance to those elite young men who attend and play for the AFA.

I really like the shoulders of the football uniform.

The "A" I made and the "A" for Army are separated enough from each other that it doesn't really make a difference. I based the primary off the USAF roundel, not a military symbol. Like I said before, the secondary is just there to justify the use of that logo on the sleeves, but I think now that it's really to generic to be its own logo.

How can the current "AF" logo mean a lot to Air Force player if they never use it? They use the lightning bolt. Unless you know someone who can tell you it does, I don't really believe that the "AF" logo means anything to an Air Force player

@BrandMooreArt - What do you mean the logo looks like it's not authentic? Because it's not almost exactly the same as the roundel? I did my best with the letters. I outlined them myself, through paint, so I didn't stroke it. I do think the Amarillo I used is the same as yours, I had to change the letters a little bit. I'm going to go back and fix the wordmark, so don't worry about that. I'm not sure about the black helmet. I really like it. But it's bothering most of everyone else, so I'll get rid of it. The helmet numbers are there, like you said, for decoration, but I like it. If it bothers anyone else, I probably will change it. The Thunderbirds alternate is less sloppy than your trying to make it sound like. I probably will change the front of the helmet and make it more like the nose of the helmet, but it's definitely not just slapped on their. I can see where you're going with the suggestion, though, and I'll try to incorporate that in an update. I'm not going to use gray, though. If they currently use gray on the planes (which they don't) then I'd be using gray in there. But since they currently use white, I'll use white too.

yea, it has a generic look because it's not exactly what they use, its tweaked enough to just be different. and because it's just a simple military insignia, it comes off as "generic military thing". it would be best to add something more to it, or use something that is exactly authentic within an original design.

using Paint is limiting, i imagine its much tougher to do anything with it. are you able to download inkscape?

if you really like the black helmet, throw in a black jersey. you dont have an alternate, so it could work that way.

what i meant with the Tbirds helmet is, you've taken the straight stripes they use on straight areas and bent them around the front of the helmet that is just awkward. when it came to painting the curves and nose of the planes, they used these long swooping shapes that worked with the surface areas and suggested motion; speed. your current helmet looks like the stripes are creating a barrier. they work well enough on the jersey and pants, but the helmet is a different animal

I could try downloading Inkscape, but this computer probably wouldn't hold it. It's too loaded up with a whole bunch of info about my Dad's work, among a whole lot of other things.

Would black pants work instead? I wanted to keep it an away combo...

I'm working with the thunderbirds alternate, I might have a new one up tonight.

[hockeyny13]

i think your primary logo now would work better as the secondary. i agree with everyone else who's said it that air force needs AF as their identity to separate them from army. i don't see why you can't somehow incorporate a falcon into a logo with AF or use the lightning bolt with AF. I don't think that eliminating both is a great option. i really like the uniforms minus the black helmet. once you fix the stripes on the thunderbird alternate ill like that one a bit more but I'm honestly not a fan of it right now.

All right, I think I've taken enough heat on that subject. Everyone was telling me to go outside the box, do something different. Now I go outside the box, and you tell me you like the previous look better? Look, if you don't like anything I do, couldn't you try it yourself, but that logo is the heart and soul of the concept. There are lots of other concepts out there that use the lightning bolt and the falcon, this concept doesn't use that, I'm not open to changing that. I'm going going to fix the Thunderbird concept, but could you provide some C&C other than you like their current look better? Maybe more about the concept rather than what I'm trying to fix.

i only commented on how i didn't like the logos. if you keep the logo you have now as a secondary the jerseys still make sense and look great. the only thing i said i wanted from their current look is something to do with either the AF or the lightning bolt. so I'm not sure why you think i don't like anything in your concept.

[martymcfry]

i think your primary logo now would work better as the secondary. i agree with everyone else who's said it that air force needs AF as their identity to separate them from army. i don't see why you can't somehow incorporate a falcon into a logo with AF or use the lightning bolt with AF. I don't think that eliminating both is a great option. i really like the uniforms minus the black helmet. once you fix the stripes on the thunderbird alternate ill like that one a bit more but I'm honestly not a fan of it right now.

All right, I think I've taken enough heat on that subject. Everyone was telling me to go outside the box, do something different. Now I go outside the box, and you tell me you like the previous look better? Look, if you don't like anything I do, couldn't you try it yourself, but that logo is the heart and soul of the concept. There are lots of other concepts out there that use the lightning bolt and the falcon, this concept doesn't use that, I'm not open to changing that. I'm going going to fix the Thunderbird concept, but could you provide some C&C other than you like their current look better? Maybe more about the concept rather than what I'm trying to fix.

i only commented on how i didn't like the logos. if you keep the logo you have now as a secondary the jerseys still make sense and look great. the only thing i said i wanted from their current look is something to do with either the AF or the lightning bolt. so I'm not sure why you think i don't like anything in your concept.

I didn't say that. I said you guys are telling me to go outside the box, I do and what happens? You tell me you like what they currently use better. I feel like I might as well stick with what I get in the first place because you guys are always telling me to do something different then what I did, and when I do you tell me you don't like it.

[martymcfry]

All right guys, I've updated this in the OP. Added black pants to match the black helmet, fixed the wordmark, and changed the Thunderbird alternate.