Looking to start a high school logo proposal on the right foot...

[YelichGraphics]

what if you make the sword look like its peircing through and extend the shadow on the right side so the bevel makes an E... i hope you understood that

[mark_lavis]

what if you make the sword look like its peircing through and extend the shadow on the right side so the bevel makes an E... i hope you understood that

I believe I understood what you meant. I made the bevel of the sword extend left so that it hit the bevel in the C and thus try and make it look like an E. I tried that. Also mirrored the top side. Ended up switching the colors to the sword accordingly. This is what I came up with. Thoughts?

(Yes I did try filling in those little red nubs left at the edge of the sword and the E but it looked too funky having a thin line of red a shade lighter just below the bevelled side of the blade.

Personally, I initially thought it as an improvement but now that I've looked at it next to the previous version, I don't quite think it can stick. Especially since I'll need to have symmetry with the primary logo and sword coming that far into the C with that small bit of blade on the left side of the C makes the C feel a bit too narrow vertically compared to its horizontal limbs.

[mark_lavis]

Does the wordmark look alright as is with the stretched "Cadets" to fit the length of "Eisenhower"? Also, the reason the corners are chamfered (man I wish I could use that word more in conversation) around the corners of the lettering rather than a 90 degree corner is because I want it to flow with the curves that are present at both ends of the hilt, grip, and end.

[mark_lavis]

Here are the team-specific wordmarks I just made using the latest version. In my opinion I think the wordmark is as good as it can get but I'd still love to hear your thoughts.

[mark_lavis]

Here's a quick helmet rendering I made using the helmet logo. Thanks to the 3d helmet rendering tutorial by Davidson where I found this helmet template. Really liking how it looks on the helmet.

[wquarton]

BOOM. There ya go. Primary is F^&*ing major league bud.

Still not 100% sold on the word mark, but it's certainly serviceable. Think I would ditch the white background personally, not sure that it actually adds anything. And ya prefer the primary with the straight edge as opposed to the other "piercing" one personally(although I don't hate the other either).

[mark_lavis]

BOOM. There ya go. Primary is F^&*ing major league bud.

Still not 100% sold on the word mark, but it's certainly serviceable. Think I would ditch the white background personally, not sure that it actually adds anything. And ya prefer the primary with the straight edge as opposed to the other "piercing" one personally(although I don't hate the other either).

Thanks. In most cases I imagine the wordmark would be placed on a white backdrop anyways. I just have it the way it is so you see what it looks like on top of a colored backdrop.

When I present it, I'll present them wo/the red background.

[FFWally]

LOVE the E on the helmet BTW, super upgrade from where y'all are now! With the Red cutting into the vertical...try it on the helmet, and drop the size about 20%. Oversize decals are pretty expensive versus the standard 7" x 7" ones. Remember budgets are tight, and try to find ways to keep the rebrand costs down. They are going to have to purchase all new decals, not just replace some stock Patriots ones.

Wordmark... for the school, yes, same beveled font.

For individual sports Band etc... use something like Century Gothic... spread it, and it works.

but drop the white backdrop

This comes from having to look at our font on everything, and the focus should be the school, not the sport.

[mark_lavis]

LOVE the E on the helmet BTW, super upgrade from where y'all are now! With the Red cutting into the vertical...try it on the helmet, and drop the size about 20%. Oversize decals are pretty expensive versus the standard 7" x 7" ones. Remember budgets are tight, and try to find ways to keep the rebrand costs down. They are going to have to purchase all new decals, not just replace some stock Patriots ones.

Wordmark... for the school, yes, same beveled font.

For individual sports Band etc... use something like Century Gothic... spread it, and it works.

but drop the white backdrop

This comes from having to look at our font on everything, and the focus should be the school, not the sport.

Thank you.

The logo on the helmet is by no means concrete. Just made it for my presentation. If my design gets chosen I'll provide something with more accurate measurements. Just trying to give people of the idea of what it'll look like on the helmet.

As I said previously, the white background is only there in case it's ever put on a colored background. When I submit them as part of my proposal, they'll be on a white backdrop instead of a red one.

Personally, when it comes to the team name font, I like it best when its the same as the Eisenhower font. With the font being utilized in every single logo, I think it looks a bit abrupt having a new font just for the team name and throws the symmetry off a tad.

[davidmiller5]

Adding the bevel and subtracting the serifs has made a huge improvement. Good job.

Here is something to think about, the lettering and the blade have very sharp straight edges (which look great), but the grip, hand guard, and outline have curves that make inconsistent line elements. I would suggest changing the grip and hand guard to a more straight line/sharp corner element (a straight grip handle and maybe a square diamond shape at the ends of the grip and hand guard). I also think the outline should match the lettering (no rounded corners).

The main selling point for this is the fact that the sword is a replica of the West Point cadet sword. That is why the objects in the hilt and grip are the way they are (excluding the star that I have to insert into the logo somewhere according to the school). Here is an image of the sword in question so you can see where I'm coming from.

Taking a cue from the latest logo rendition, I've drastically overhauled the wordmark.

1) Extended the sword blade to stretch the length of the word Eisenhower.

2) Decided it would make the most sense to put school name on the top and nickname on the bottom of the sword to even it out.

3) Continued the bevelled letters look and, as you'll see in my last update of the night just below, I've removed the serifs since literally no one likes them lol. Plus serif-less font for this part is much better looking.

4) All these letters are hand drawn though I found a bevel font to sketch over before I made minor tweaks.

5) The reason I opted for one white background instead of outlining each letter is because where "Cadets" currently is, I plan on utilizing that space for the specific sports wordmark (ie "Football" or "Basketball") which will allow the white background on the bottom to fluidly extend however wide I need it.

Lastly, here's updated primary logos minus the serifs.

Okay. You posted that you really want to emulate the cadet sword--which you absolutely should--but look at your logo(s) again after looking at that cadet sword and your logos. The sword in your wordmark looks like a broadsword, and the sword in the primary looks like a long dagger. That is, neither sword blade looks like the cadet sword you are saying that you are trying to emulate. Honestly, I think this is a fairly major problem. I know that you have gotten a lot of positive feedback about these logos and you are probably fairly set with using them, but the swords you use aren't representing what you are trying to represent. If you want my honest opinion, I think you need to thin down the weight of the blade in the wordmark (and I think the silver would look better, i.e. less cartoony), and I think you need to do something else with the primary: the dagger doesn't match what you are trying to convey.

[YelichGraphics]

what if you make the sword look like its peircing through and extend the shadow on the right side so the bevel makes an E... i hope you understood that

I believe I understood what you meant. I made the bevel of the sword extend left so that it hit the bevel in the C and thus try and make it look like an E. I tried that. Also mirrored the top side. Ended up switching the colors to the sword accordingly. This is what I came up with. Thoughts?

(Yes I did try filling in those little red nubs left at the edge of the sword and the E but it looked too funky having a thin line of red a shade lighter just below the bevelled side of the blade.

Personally, I initially thought it as an improvement but now that I've looked at it next to the previous version, I don't quite think it can stick. Especially since I'll need to have symmetry with the primary logo and sword coming that far into the C with that small bit of blade on the left side of the C makes the C feel a bit too narrow vertically compared to its horizontal limbs.

yes exactly

[mark_lavis]

Adding the bevel and subtracting the serifs has made a huge improvement. Good job.

Here is something to think about, the lettering and the blade have very sharp straight edges (which look great), but the grip, hand guard, and outline have curves that make inconsistent line elements. I would suggest changing the grip and hand guard to a more straight line/sharp corner element (a straight grip handle and maybe a square diamond shape at the ends of the grip and hand guard). I also think the outline should match the lettering (no rounded corners).

The main selling point for this is the fact that the sword is a replica of the West Point cadet sword. That is why the objects in the hilt and grip are the way they are (excluding the star that I have to insert into the logo somewhere according to the school). Here is an image of the sword in question so you can see where I'm coming from.

Taking a cue from the latest logo rendition, I've drastically overhauled the wordmark.

1) Extended the sword blade to stretch the length of the word Eisenhower.

2) Decided it would make the most sense to put school name on the top and nickname on the bottom of the sword to even it out.

3) Continued the bevelled letters look and, as you'll see in my last update of the night just below, I've removed the serifs since literally no one likes them lol. Plus serif-less font for this part is much better looking.

4) All these letters are hand drawn though I found a bevel font to sketch over before I made minor tweaks.

5) The reason I opted for one white background instead of outlining each letter is because where "Cadets" currently is, I plan on utilizing that space for the specific sports wordmark (ie "Football" or "Basketball") which will allow the white background on the bottom to fluidly extend however wide I need it.

Lastly, here's updated primary logos minus the serifs.

Okay. You posted that you really want to emulate the cadet sword--which you absolutely should--but look at your logo(s) again after looking at that cadet sword and your logos. The sword in your wordmark looks like a broadsword, and the sword in the primary looks like a long dagger. That is, neither sword blade looks like the cadet sword you are saying that you are trying to emulate. Honestly, I think this is a fairly major problem. I know that you have gotten a lot of positive feedback about these logos and you are probably fairly set with using them, but the swords you use aren't representing what you are trying to represent. If you want my honest opinion, I think you need to thin down the weight of the blade in the wordmark (and I think the silver would look better, i.e. less cartoony), and I think you need to do something else with the primary: the dagger doesn't match what you are trying to convey.

1) Yes, the logo doesn't follow the cadet sword exactly. Through this design process, certain tweaks had to be done to improve the overall design. My first draft arguably holds true to the cadet sword design-wise the strongest. However, I think you can agree, these logos are 100x better than my first draft. Much like in democracy, sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. Thus, the reason the blade of the sword is as long as it is in the primary is because it would throw off the proportions, as was made clear to me earlier in this thread, and ruin the effect the C and blade create to make an E. When put up against other logos, such as the word marks, people will realize the length of the blade is merely adaptive for the logo's needs and not a collection of say the cadet sword, a long dagger, a short dagger in the case of the secondary E logo, and so on.

2) My goal for this logo design is to have as much pattern and symmetry as possible. I do not want much changed in between the primary logo, secondary logo, word marks, etc. The reason the blade of the sword is as wide as I have it is because of the blue C. Originally, I had the blade very thin compared to the "E". However, after rotating the sword 90 degrees leading to the logos I have now, I wanted the width of the blade to equate to the width of the horizontal limbs in the blue C; highlighting the C for Cadets and E for Eisenhower equally. I believe if the blade were to be thinner it would put too much focus on the "C", hiding the "E". And so, since I want objects to remain the same shape, I didn't want the width of the blade to be thinner in comparison to the hilt and grip for the word mark than it is for the primary.

Thank you for your criticisms. I know I won't win over everyone with my logo initially so I hope I convinced you of at least where I am coming from.

[suplauren]

I want to start by saying your progress has been fantastic.

I agree that the primary looks like a toy. I think it's the star that's the biggest problem, IMO. I know you said the school is forcing that in. But right now the combo of the colors, proportions, and star are making it look like a toy from the dollar store. Is there a way to put the star anywhere else? Is there a way to try with a silver sword? I also think you should change the pommel to look more like the West Point sword pommel. Right now it really doesn't look much like the West Point sword.

At first, I liked the blocky font, but the more I look at it, especially with the sport team wordmarks, the less it works for me. It seems like a logo for a Minecraft game in the sport team applications. I think looking around for another font would be a good idea.

I also think the blue parts on the sword need some shading. They look really flat, especially next to the words that are beveled.

[WavePunter]

personally, anything you can do to solidify this as an "E" more than a "C" is the way to go in my book... i understand that the "C" represents "Cadets", but so does the sword imagery and the color scheme, etc... but if you're trying to push a letter-initial, it should be for the school name (Eisenhower), not the nickname.. i've viewed the logo as an "E" the entire time until reading the most recent sets of comments where you're actually referring to it as a "C".. i just feel you should push the "E" as the basis, and let the cadet imagery take care of the nickname part.. but GREAT job on the progression.. it's been fun to watch.

[mark_lavis]

Thanks to those who gave me advice on how to better improve my logo design. If it wasn't for you, I'd be lost.

I just submitted my proposal to the school district. The deadline isn't until mid-December but I wanted to get it out of the way and hopefully build up some support while anyone else is still tinkering with theirs in private. I won't figure out if my design will be one of the three selected until late January. After that, the designs go before the student who will voice their impute sometime in February before the final decision is made in early March.

Once again, thank you. I will update you on my progress once I hear anything back from the school.

[ckunz]

I have a similar dilemma at my high school. The high school that I go to (Lehi Pioneers), is splitting because of too many students, and a new high school is being built. The name of the new school is Skyridge High school with the mascot being a falcon. Colors are burnt orange and steel grey, but in the logo released, looks more like an OSU Cowboy orange. I talked to the principal and he has already hired a professional and they have completed a design but he told me to send him my logos. I am not familiar and have not used any programs on the computer. I do all of my designs by hand. Looking to send them to him later this month.

[YelichGraphics]

I have a similar dilemma at my high school. The high school that I go to (Lehi Pioneers), is splitting because of too many students, and a new high school is being built. The name of the new school is Skyridge High school with the mascot being a falcon. Colors are burnt orange and steel grey, but in the logo released, looks more like an OSU Cowboy orange. I talked to the principal and he has already hired a professional and they have completed a design but he told me to send him my logos. I am not familiar and have not used any programs on the computer. I do all of my designs by hand. Looking to send them to him later this month.

well this is not your concept but if you dm me i can help