Las Vegas (Something) Knights NHL concept

[sparkychewbarky]

A part of me thinks that the horse head logo is the stronger of the two, but the simpler Vegas Star probably works better as a primary crest.

The latest rendering of the horse is your best yet. Love the hidden LV as opposed to what you had before. The only thing throwing me off is that the grey appears to be slightly slightly darker than the other one you've used. Other than that, this looks great

Thanks ww. I agree with you.

...And the greys are off a tad. Good eye!

[Crabcake]

I like the shirts.

[mamiller99]

I'd like to see the actual Knight in Shining armor logo on these sets. I think that with the charging "more serious" Knight and the playing card logo would make an amazing set. And do you have any plans for the non-Vegas expansion team?

[suplauren]

I love the War Horse now! I think package this is really getting to that "Perfection" stage.

[sparkychewbarky]

I'd like to see the actual Knight in Shining armor logo on these sets. I think that with the charging "more serious" Knight and the playing card logo would make an amazing set. And do you have any plans for the non-Vegas expansion team?

I did up concepts for Halifax, Seattle, Q.C. and Ontario here, mm.

I love the War Horse now! I think package this is really getting to that "Perfection" stage.

It's getting there, suplauren.

The CC from the members has really helped.

[1clkgtramg]

Well then..... I was giving this thread a look at the beginning but kind of wandered off because I knew that seeing the whole package at the end would look awesome and it did. It's a shame the Aces only lasted 1 season before being renamed though
At first, I was skeptical of your first horse logo, it was good but seemed a little too forced. Now that I see what is now the official logos, they are perfect. Digging the LV in the horse and the star logo with the sword is clever but not too in your face. Jersey's are pretty nice too.

[sparkychewbarky]

Thanks #1. I think the decisions on the horse logo were good ones;

...Making it the secondary, and de-emphasizing the chess factor. Again thanks to all, for the help.

Well, here's the "final four" on banners...

...And here's how the banners could look inside the arena to help set the medieval theme...

[biscuit faces of them]

Thanks #1. I think the decisions on the horse logo were good ones;

...Making it the secondary, and de-emphasizing the chess factor. Again thanks to all, for the help.

Well, here's the "final four" on banners...

...And here's how the banners could look inside the arena to help set the medieval theme...

whistling like a dude seeing a hot chick. (Relax im trying to be funny. ). Looks awesome

[EJaws]

This would make me move to Vegas. I'm amazed with everything (especially the 2nd alt I want one)

[Brian in Boston]

Given that I belong to the CCSLC's sizable contingent of Sparky Chewbarky Athletics enthusiasts, I can scarcely believe what I'm about to type.

While the portfolio of designs for the Las Vegas Black Knights is - as per usual - impressive in its both its creative expansiveness and technical execution, it misses the mark in my estimation.

I've been ruminating over why I feel this way for some time and, from where I'm standing, it really boils down to a very simple reason: the franchise's namesake figure is reduced to tertiary - almost throw-away - status in the identity package. To me, that's a major mistake for a team dubbed the Black Knights.

A knight is a bold and powerful mascot for a professional sports franchise. With Black Knights as a name, we're not talking about the sports branding worst case scenario of a team identity that requires a designer to create a visually-compelling logo to illustrate an abstract idea. We're not even talking about a designer being saddled with a less-than-inspiring mascot. As such, the Black Knights sobriquet should lend itself to an iconic depiction capable of holding center-stage as the primary logo in an identity package.

I don't know whether a Las Vegas Black Knights primary logo centered on the namesake mascot should be a full-body rendering of a knight, a helmet-and-torso depiction, or just feature a knight's helmet. That said, I do know that Sparky is an artist capable of following any of those design paths to a dynamic conclusion.

Sometimes, as designers, we attempt to think too far outside the box. We outsmart ourselves by taking a simple task and making it more difficult than it need be. Bill Foley hasn't floated the desire to name his proposed NHL expansion franchise the Horses, or the Chess Pieces, or the Vegas Stars. Rather, he seems to be focused on dubbing his team the Black Knights. So, why not create a logo package that places the Black Knight mascot/icon front-and-center in the primary mark, with the Vegas Star and/or a knight's steed-themed logo serving as secondary/tertiary marks? Frankly, I think the Vegas Star - while a well-rendered and reasonably clever tie-in to the host city - is, at best, a secondary mark.

In any event, those are my thoughts. As per usual Sparky, even given my critique of elements of the package, I'm still in awe of your artistry, your technical proficiency, and the breadth of your presentations.

[Crabcake]

Absolutely LOVE the banners, they give the arena a real medieval feel. However, the alternates don't really work for me, they just seem a little busy imo even though I understand why they are. Maybe you could try putting the war horse logo on the gray/black alternate.

[Guest darkpiranha]

Given that I belong to the CCSLC's sizable contingent of Sparky Chewbarky Athletics enthusiasts, I can scarcely believe what I'm about to type.

While the portfolio of designs for the Las Vegas Black Knights is - as per usual - impressive in its both its creative expansiveness and technical execution, it misses the mark in my estimation.

I've been ruminating over why I feel this way for some time and, from where I'm standing, it really boils down to a very simple reason: the franchise's namesake figure is reduced to tertiary - almost throw-away - status in the identity package. To me, that's a major mistake for a team dubbed the Black Knights.

A knight is a bold and powerful mascot for a professional sports franchise. With Black Knights as a name, we're not talking about the sports branding worst case scenario of a team identity that requires a designer to create a visually-compelling logo to illustrate an abstract idea. We're not even talking about a designer being saddled with a less-than-inspiring mascot. As such, the Black Knights sobriquet should lend itself to an iconic depiction capable of holding center-stage as the primary logo in an identity package.

I don't know whether a Las Vegas Black Knights primary logo centered on the namesake mascot should be a full-body rendering of a knight, a helmet-and-torso depiction, or just feature a knight's helmet. That said, I do know that Sparky is an artist capable of following any of those design paths to a dynamic conclusion.

Sometimes, as designers, we attempt to think too far outside the box. We outsmart ourselves by taking a simple task and making it more difficult than it need be. Bill Foley hasn't floated the desire to name his proposed NHL expansion franchise the Horses, or the Chess Pieces, or the Vegas Stars. Rather, he seems to be focused on dubbing his team the Black Knights. So, why not create a logo package that places the Black Knight mascot/icon front-and-center in the primary mark, with the Vegas Star and/or a knight's steed-themed logo serving as secondary/tertiary marks? Frankly, I think the Vegas Star - while a well-rendered and reasonably clever tie-in to the host city - is, at best, a secondary mark.

In any event, those are my thoughts. As per usual Sparky, even given my critique of elements of the package, I'm still in awe of your artistry, your technical proficiency, and the breadth of your presentations.

As a proud Sparky Fan Club super member also, I see where you're coming from, and have had some things to say about the Black Knights sobriquet (you get 10,000 bonus points for being the first person in these forums to use that word in a sentence), but I have to disagree with the notion that that the iconography of this identity should be something specifically "knightly". It's one of the most common nicknames, and there have been thousands of implementations of literal knights in logos. And I'm tired and bored with nearly all of them. Haven't seen a compelling knightly knight logo in a long time (but I'm willing to be proven wrong with cool examples). There's not a lot you can do with a knight that doesn't veer into 90's logo territory. You've got helmets, swords, and shields. That's kind of it for pure, simple knight iconography. That's been done to death. When you start adding wordmarks and fully rendered knights in armor, you get ECHL logos. What Sparky has managed to do with the primary sword-star logo is find a rock-solid icon that's a perfect balance between the theme of the nickname and iconography of the city itself. I still love the horse logo, but even de-chess-ifying it doesn't work as smoothly for this identity as the sword-star logo, in my opinion.

[WCCILibrary]

I'm digging the new horse logo a lot, but the shield is still lacking. I think it has the issue the LA Kings Coat of Arms logo had: It's way too busy.

[sparkychewbarky]

Absolutely LOVE the banners, they give the arena a real medieval feel. However, the alternates don't really work for me, they just seem a little busy imo even though I understand why they are. Maybe you could try putting the war horse logo on the gray/black alternate.

That could be a solution to "unbusy" it, Crabcake. I'll try that.

I'm digging the new horse logo a lot, but the shield is still lacking. I think it has the issue the LA Kings Coat of Arms logo had: It's way too busy.

I see what you're saying W. Simple is best. Maybe I WILL take out the inner lines as mbannon suggested.

[sparkychewbarky]

Given that I belong to the CCSLC's sizable contingent of Sparky Chewbarky Athletics enthusiasts, I can scarcely believe what I'm about to type.

While the portfolio of designs for the Las Vegas Black Knights is - as per usual - impressive in its both its creative expansiveness and technical execution, it misses the mark in my estimation.

I've been ruminating over why I feel this way for some time and, from where I'm standing, it really boils down to a very simple reason: the franchise's namesake figure is reduced to tertiary - almost throw-away - status in the identity package. To me, that's a major mistake for a team dubbed the Black Knights.

A knight is a bold and powerful mascot for a professional sports franchise. With Black Knights as a name, we're not talking about the sports branding worst case scenario of a team identity that requires a designer to create a visually-compelling logo to illustrate an abstract idea. We're not even talking about a designer being saddled with a less-than-inspiring mascot. As such, the Black Knights sobriquet should lend itself to an iconic depiction capable of holding center-stage as the primary logo in an identity package.

I don't know whether a Las Vegas Black Knights primary logo centered on the namesake mascot should be a full-body rendering of a knight, a helmet-and-torso depiction, or just feature a knight's helmet. That said, I do know that Sparky is an artist capable of following any of those design paths to a dynamic conclusion.

Sometimes, as designers, we attempt to think too far outside the box. We outsmart ourselves by taking a simple task and making it more difficult than it need be. Bill Foley hasn't floated the desire to name his proposed NHL expansion franchise the Horses, or the Chess Pieces, or the Vegas Stars. Rather, he seems to be focused on dubbing his team the Black Knights. So, why not create a logo package that places the Black Knight mascot/icon front-and-center in the primary mark, with the Vegas Star and/or a knight's steed-themed logo serving as secondary/tertiary marks? Frankly, I think the Vegas Star - while a well-rendered and reasonably clever tie-in to the host city - is, at best, a secondary mark.

In any event, those are my thoughts. As per usual Sparky, even given my critique of elements of the package, I'm still in awe of your artistry, your technical proficiency, and the breadth of your presentations.

Thanks Brian, and by all means...let 'er rip!

I enjoy and rely on the feedback from members to try and create the best concept possible.

I agree with you that a good "Knight-ish" logo would work the best, but exactly for all the reasons that darkpiranha mentioned (and he said it better than I could), coming up with a good "Knight-ish" logo that doesn't look too generic, or "done-before" is a tough task...not impossible, but tough.

I've probably filled up 20 pages of sketch paper in trying to do so, and haven't been successful...yet.

I'm posting another attempt...

As a proud Sparky Fan Club super member also, I see where you're coming from, and have had some things to say about the Black Knights sobriquet (you get 10,000 bonus points for being the first person in these forums to use that word in a sentence), but I have to disagree with the notion that that the iconography of this identity should be something specifically "knightly". It's one of the most common nicknames, and there have been thousands of implementations of literal knights in logos. And I'm tired and bored with nearly all of them. Haven't seen a compelling knightly knight logo in a long time (but I'm willing to be proven wrong with cool examples). There's not a lot you can do with a knight that doesn't veer into 90's logo territory. You've got helmets, swords, and shields. That's kind of it for pure, simple knight iconography. That's been done to death. When you start adding wordmarks and fully rendered knights in armor, you get ECHL logos.

Well said darkp...To come up with something uniquely "Vegas" with a knight visual is difficult.

If it CAN be done, it may be the best solution, but for now, the star seems to work the best.

I've given the knight image another shot....

I gave up with trying to do something with "BK", and have focused on an "LV" design.

Here's how it stacks up against the "star" and the "horse"...

[1clkgtramg]

Hmmmm, helmet logo LV seems a bit forced, added another darker shade of gray might help hide it and make the helmet look more natural. And for the sake of continuity, the horse logo would need the same treatment - even if it doesn't need it. It's the top part of the helmet that covers the eyes, it just doesn't seem to flow with the LV and gets lost or something lol I don't know what I'm saying, it's early

[oaklandhusker]

I quite like that. However, if I was founding the team with this thread at my disposal, I think the playing card knight would be on the front of the jerseys.

[Guest darkpiranha]

Man. This is a tough one. Oaklandhusker's comment made me go back and re-evaluate the playing card knight as the primary. It's such a cool idea and implementation, but it takes some thinking and some mental progression to establish the connection between the logo and the city. You have to first recognize that it's supposed to be a playing card, and then that it's got some hockey elements in it, and then that it's NOT one of the established face cards. But at a glance, it looks cool, if a bit over-detailed. How minimal can you get the knightly part of the card? Can you get it down to just a near helmet silhouette? Maybe even without the LV in it.

[biscuit faces of them]

Whatever you touch turns to gold. Keep up the good work. No changes necessary.

[MJWalker45]

With the knights head it would probably need to ait on a shield. I like the way it looks though.