El Paso Locomotive FC (USL soccer team) crest

[xbhaskarx 62]

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paso_Locomotive_FC

El Paso Locomotive FC is an upcoming American professional soccer team based in El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2018, the team plans to make its debut in the United Soccer League in 2019.

https://www.eplocomotivefc.com/crest

[tjs11 144]

Pretty sharp! Nice color scheme, I like the individual elements and they look pretty well thought out and not just gimick marketing speak. Surprised this is Brandiose, as its not super cartoony

[Gothamite 17,265]

That is... not great. 

 

The colors are solid, and I love the typefaces.  But the flattened star creates a perspective mismatch, and the light blue outline conflicts with everything within.

 

I love the idea of using the mountain star, but if they wanted that perspective they’d have been better off without the cow catcher.  And isn’t that reversed from the actual star? 

 

its a great first draft, but really needed another couple passes. 

[Brian in Boston 1,352]

The rumor that El Paso's United Soccer League franchise would be adopting the Locomotive name has been kicking around since early September. As for the color palette, MountainStar Sports embraced Sky Blue ("West Texas Sky"), Dark Blue ("Desert Dusk"), and Yellow/Athletic Gold ("High Noon Sun") as the colors for their El Paso USL bid back in February.      

[VDizzle12 990]

14 hours ago, tjs11 said:

Pretty sharp! Nice color scheme, I like the individual elements and they look pretty well thought out and not just gimick marketing speak. Surprised this is Brandiose, as its not super cartoony

 

They probably proposed a train kicking a soccer ball, but it got shot down.

 

It's bothering me that the shape of the shield has so many points and curves. It competes with the sharp straight angles of the cow catcher.

[andrewharrington 3,312]

4 hours ago, Gothamite said:

That is... not great. 

 

The colors are solid, and I love the typefaces.  But the flattened star creates a perspective mismatch, and the light blue outline conflicts with everything within.

 

I love the idea of using the mountain star, but if they wanted that perspective they’d have been better off without the cow catcher.  And isn’t that reversed from the actual star? 

 

its a great first draft, but really needed another couple passes. 

 

The perspective is accurate, though. If you were standing in front of a train with the mountain in the background, the train and mountain would be squared up while the star would have a flatter perspective because it’s laying on the angled slope of the mountain.

[gosioux76 655]

5 hours ago, Gothamite said:

That is... not great. 

 

The colors are solid, and I love the typefaces.  But the flattened star creates a perspective mismatch, and the light blue outline conflicts with everything within.

 

I love the idea of using the mountain star, but if they wanted that perspective they’d have been better off without the cow catcher.  And isn’t that reversed from the actual star? 

 

its a great first draft, but really needed another couple passes. 

At first, I mistook that star for a snowflake, and now I can't un-see it. That's an odd visual for a team from West Texas, even if it wasn't their intent.

 

[Gothamite 17,265]

1 hour ago, andrewharrington said:

 

The perspective is accurate, though. If you were standing in front of a train with the mountain in the background, the train and mountain would be squared up while the star would have a flatter perspective because it’s laying on the angled slope of the mountain.

 

That’s cool.

 

But as I said, if they wanted that perspective on the Star then they shouldn’t have used a head-on perspective for the cow catcher.  Together they’re jarring.  

 

I do think it’s an odd choice, though; if realism was important, why change the actual design of the star?  Why the photo-negative reverse depiction?

 

 

I like using the flattened star.   But there are problems with it, both their rendering itself and the disconnect it creates within the larger logo. 

[NicDB 2,211]

I thought so at first too.  But once I saw the actual star, it became more tolerable.

On the plus side, the skewed perspective makes it feel more like part of the logo, rather than the marker of a championship.

[MJWalker45 3,722]

2 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

At first, I mistook that star for a snowflake, and now I can't un-see it. That's an odd visual for a team from West Texas, even if it wasn't their intent.

 

If you go with just the outline rather than a semi-solid star you'll lose it when viewing the shirt from far away.

[Buc 1,509]

One of the things I'm coming around to seeing after pursuing this graphic design game for the past 10+ years is this: sometimes we can tend to overthink things...way too much.

 

Having been stationed out in (okay, outside) El Paso, and back through there numerous times since then, I picked up on the curse pretty quick. While I do find the reasoning for the twoblue-&-yellowgold colorway  just a twinge bit, well, somewhat contrived (it's a popular color scheme, after all), it's not exactly the first colorway that comes to mind when one thinks of El Paso--and for that reason alone, I'll take it. I'll also take the star as well...nice little ode to the real thing. I do wonder if it might've been a little stronger rendered in outline rather than solid color as is. And the mission-architecture-inspired shapes are indicative of much of that part of the country, so that definitely fits.

 

Now as for the cowcatcher...I see why they rendered it as it head-on; however, this is one area where Brandiose/the club may have over-thought it...I think it'd look cleaner if the badge outline followed the angle of the cowcatcher. And speaking of that, I actually do not mind that as an "inspired-by-a-cowcatcher" element; the problem, I think, comes when trying to convince one it's supposed to be a literal cowcatcher, and then the perspective comes off as jarring. (The other advantage to the way it's rendered as currently is that it allows the club a great reason to roll with navy/yellow (or whatever color combo they wish) striped kit tops. I personally love those kinds of tie-ins.

 

The only other thing I kinda wish they'd done is render the word "LOCOMOTIVE" to fill the shape created by those two sky blue things--and then rendered s little larger, as the main attraction of the crest. 

 

All that being said, I give it an 8/10.

[Gothamite 17,265]

15 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

If you go with just the outline rather than a semi-solid star you'll lose it when viewing the shirt from far away.

 

That star is certainly not going to be recognizable as a star from far away.

[xbhaskarx 62]

It may not be great but it's quite nice for a lower division soccer team.  I think after a few years it will be pretty universally embraced as people get used to the few awkward elements...

 

Also I love the recent efforts by American soccer teams to go with crests that reflect the history / culture of the city / region they represent... some other recent examples:

 

 



 



The crest, created by Brandiose, mixes Reno 1868 FC’s official colors – Nevada Cobalt Blue, light gold and silver grey – with the iconic Truckee River and Sierra Nevada mountains taking precedence over the traditional outlook of Reno as a gambling hub.

 

[xbhaskarx 62]

Looks like it's already catching on...

https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1059815205704687617