Whittier's Logolympiad 2015 Submssions (Event 3 added)

[Whittier S]

Well, I figured I'd get around to getting some C&C on my Logolympiad entries. This also gives me a chance to share my thought process in developing my concepts.

First up, entry #1. I wanted to do the alternate logo of a team that desperately needs help with their current brand. And who needs more help than the Clippers, one of the biggest steps backwards I've ever seen. It seems they so often squander their distinctive name and all its nautical potential.

For the purposes of the contest, it made sense to keep some element of the current brand, so I kept the basketball, reconceiving the channels as the spokes of a helm. I also incorporated the nautical flag for the initial C (blue-white-red-white-blue).

I know I wasn't thinking right about the keylines, thinking in terms of line rather than shape. This I can easily remedy in cleanup. And I wanted to use a new script font that would recall their most recent brand, but I ended up using it for my soccer-uniform submission as well, and I think it works better on that one, so I'll change up the script.

What do you think is working/not working? Thanks.

[The Nati MacDaddy]

I like your secondary logo more than the current primary logo. It would make a great center court logo. Well done!

I am undecided about the script font. The lowercase letters "L" and "I" almost look like a lowercase letter "H"

LA Chppers needs some work IMO. I would change this font to something that has the letter "L" with more of a loop. Play around with overlapping the wordmark at different spots or maybe no overlap to retain the symmetry of the logo. I like the symmetry of this design.

[Azsports1985]

Better than what they have now, but mostly anything would be. I don't like the script you chose as it looks like it says "Chnners", but I do like the logo for the most part. The basketball in the middle does look extremely out of place though.

[officeglenn]

Have to agree on the script font being hard to read — I think that was one of the main factors for me in not voting for it. I'd probably stick with a block font and maybe arch it to make it a little more dynamic visually.

[jrcollis714]

The font is not great. Otherwise, this is decent. I personally think that the Clippers should permanently switch to light blue to separate them from others in the league, but this is okay. I would definitely, however, incorporate a boat and a more nautical feel by using ropes, anchors, or a more "pirate" font.

[OmegaRed]

As everyone has mentioned, the font needs to be changed. But I like what you are doing with the ship wheel. What might look cool, is if you actually crop the wheel in half...and have it sit on top of the font they currently use.

[Whittier S]

Some variations based on C&C:

A:

B:

C:

What do you think?

[officeglenn]

I like B the best, but you can see where you cut off the ship's wheel in between the L and the I. I think the gray outline on CLIPPERS could be thinner, and it doesn't look like it's the same shade of grey as the grey outline around the wheel.

[Whittier S]

I like B the best, but you can see where you cut off the ship's wheel in between the L and the I. I think the gray outline on CLIPPERS could be thinner, and it doesn't look like it's the same shade of grey as the grey outline around the wheel.

I was sure I'd eyedropped the same shade but I can double-check. And I was really unsure whether to leave that bit of the helm cropped or let it show. It's an awkward thing going on with the lettering, that dead space between the L and I. Also wasn't sure how thick to make the grey outline either. I'll get some more feedback and try those suggestions along with whatever other folks have to say.

[OmegaRed]

In B...I think you could actually crop the wheel right under the horizontal black line in the basketball. You probably could make the outer circle of the basketball black instead of blue. Like Officeglenn mentioned....the outline on Clippers is too thick. You actually might not need an outline at all. If you just had the Clippers font (perhaps without the slight vertical squeeze that it has) and then the cropped ship wheel above it... it could have an old Supersonics feel.

Another thing you might want to try is using an extended font for Los Angeles...so that it fills in the blue space better. Or maybe another nautical theme motif like a flag....just as long as it doesn't get cluttered.

[The Nati MacDaddy]

My vote is for A but drop word mark down even more as you did in option C. Thinner stroke on wordmark might help

[Whittier S]

In B...I think you could actually crop the wheel right under the horizontal black line in the basketball. You probably could make the outer circle of the basketball black instead of blue. Like Officeglenn mentioned....the outline on Clippers is too thick. You actually might not need an outline at all. If you just had the Clippers font (perhaps without the slight vertical squeeze that it has) and then the cropped ship wheel above it... it could have an old Supersonics feel.

Another thing you might want to try is using an extended font for Los Angeles...so that it fills in the blue space better. Or maybe another nautical theme motif like a flag....just as long as it doesn't get cluttered.

The helm is colored as it is so it can mimic the nautical flag for the letter C (for "Clippers"):

http://eflagshop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/_/c_1_1.jpg

Here it is cropped in half, with the thinner outline on the lettering. (If I don't have an outline, the red circle from the helm bleeds into the wordmark):

D:

My thinking is that it's not totally clear that the helm is a helm. or that the basketball is a basketball.

[OmegaRed]

I think with this concept (D), you would have to have the helm and the wordmark somewhat separate. Having them so close creates too harsh of a cut off. Here are some other suggestions...

1. Perhaps the cropping of the helm needs to come down more, slightly below the left and right handles. This will give you more of a circle for the ball. Then you can add more of the inner lines to create the basketball, but think about making it so that they don't touch the blue outer line of the ball. I can see now why you have that line blue, but having the blue touch the black seemed a little off.

2. Maybe take the C and the S in CLIPPERS and make them larger than the other letters. Scale them up a bit. Then, have your helm sit in between the C and the S. The left and right handles will sit just above the C and S and the new cropping will allow the rest to sit just above the wordmark. To take away that harsh cut off on the helm, you could put in a simple little horizon line that follows the contour of the word clippers. You could even add in another horizon line at the bottom to lock the workmark up. I know the current clippers logo uses what they call 'horizon' lines, but they are not very good.

3. Also, I think the font for Los Angeles could be changed. I think your concept would benefit from it.

I hope that helps and makes sense.

[Whittier S]

I think with this concept (D), you would have to have the helm and the wordmark somewhat separate. Having them so close creates too harsh of a cut off. Here are some other suggestions...

1. Perhaps the cropping of the helm needs to come down more, slightly below the left and right handles. This will give you more of a circle for the ball. Then you can add more of the inner lines to create the basketball, but think about making it so that they don't touch the blue outer line of the ball. I can see now why you have that line blue, but having the blue touch the black seemed a little off.

2. Maybe take the C and the S in CLIPPERS and make them larger than the other letters. Scale them up a bit. Then, have your helm sit in between the C and the S. The left and right handles will sit just above the C and S and the new cropping will allow the rest to sit just above the wordmark. To take away that harsh cut off on the helm, you could put in a simple little horizon line that follows the contour of the word clippers. You could even add in another horizon line at the bottom to lock the workmark up. I know the current clippers logo uses what they call 'horizon' lines, but they are not very good.

3. Also, I think the font for Los Angeles could be changed. I think your concept would benefit from it.

I hope that helps and makes sense.

I'm picturing this in my head and it sounds like a good direction to go, but I'm not going to be able to get to it for a day or two.

What direction do you think I should take the typeface for "Los Angeles"?

[OmegaRed]

Yea totally. Those are just suggestions. If you feel there is another angle totally go for it! But I feel like that particular execution is really close.

In terms of font, I just think you could use something a bit more sporty. Maybe something like a United Sans bold condensed and open up the tracking a little. Or even the extended version of United which would probably fill in the entire circle.
You'd have to play around with how it works off the Clippers typeface, but in general just something a little more sporty would help.

Whatever direction you take, I think you've done a great job and you will end up with a major improvement to what they have. Great work.

[Whittier S]

This is the final edit:

I was never quite satisfied with cropping the helm. But using the original Clippers typeface as OmegaRed suggested holds up really well against the full helm, I think. And though it's not United font, I found a similarly boxy font for "Los Angeles" that I think complements the Clippers font well.

There are probably minor tweaks here and there I could do to clean up, but for now I'm satisfied. Thanks for the suggestions for improvement. I actually learnt how to use a number of Inkscape tools I hadn't quite mastered till now. That's the whole point of my doing Logolympiad and following it up. :-)

On to #2 this weekend.

[Whittier S]

On to Event 2...

This event felt like acting to me, which was a good thing. In my mind, I was challenged to think, not of how I would design the uniforms, but of what an expansion board of directors sitting in a smoky conference room in the Hialeah Hyatt Regency in 1967 would want. So I made some choices I normally wouldn't make. It was also fun to research the jerseys of the time to see what would make sense.

This was difficult to do. I thought my pose for the panther was iconic enough that I could pull up a reference image, but no such luck. I did the best I could, but I know there are a couple of points where the anatomy is a little janky. But I imagined the board of directors would be okay with this, seeing as this jersey was designed by the nephew of the president of the team, and he was only in his second year of his design major. (Yes, this is how far I took this idea.) The shape of Florida presents some challenges with regard to negative space, and I imagined that the president's nephew would look at that F and see that it created both a square and a triangle with the shape of Florida, and he would think this is a good thing. Still, I kept going back and forth with the F, so I'm presenting to you two versions, both with and without. As far as the palette went, I knew I had to use green; not only does it suit the period well, but it just seems very Florida, a place that I always think of as green and overgrown.

Anyway, the original:


And the revised design:


As always, C&C much appreciated.

[ChicagoOakland]

Looks a million times better without the F.

[OmegaRed]

I like the illustration. It's a cool take on the Panthers Identity. I think it would also look pretty neat in the Panthers current colours.

[Whittier S]

Was the removal of the F really all this needed? It kind of sucks re: Logolympiad because its inclusion was pretty much a coin flip for me.