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1990s MLS concept art


Sodboy13

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As referenced in the Chicago Fire thread, here are some concepts from 1996-98 for Nike's Major League Soccer identities, as posted by the original artist. A good bit of this made it onto the field.

 

https://www.johnbell.studio/nike-mls/#itemId=597624fc414fb5f8abaec3a7

 

Notables:

 

- This is a good look at Nike's proposal for the Chicago Rhythm. For those who don't know the story, Nike initially proposed "Rhythm" to complement its other abstract, cyber-'90s MLS identities. Unlike the other clubs, Peter Wilt and associates stood up to Nike and demanded something more local and lasting than something built to boost the supplier's brand. That's how we got the Fire, with its Florian cross and Northwestern striping (actually borrowed from '97 Arsenal), a perfect fit that has stood the test of time and clearly will never need any sort of overhaul.

 

Nike's Rhythm method (look, I had to do it once, just let me have this) actually made it as far as production, with an embroidered badge surfacing on eBay and then Twitter this past year. The blue color is much closer to Carolina Panthers test blue than the royal shown here.

 

- The Dallas Burn were originally going to be the Fury, which would have deprived aspiring young sportscasters like me from making all those "Burn over the Wiz" jokes for a magical couple of seasons.

 

- You can see the evolution of the Mutiny brand from actual mutineer/buccaneer to cyber-bat thing, and also, uh, enormous mecha-spider?

 

- That MetroStars taxi still rules.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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I'll never understand what was going on with that Galaxy alternate logo. It looks like something Brandiose would come up with for a team named the Ring Worms.

I've got a dribbble, check it out if you like my stuff; alternatively, if you hate my stuff, send it to your enemies to punish their insolence!

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2 hours ago, TheRoman said:

I know it’s a somewhat unpopular opinion, but i’m really glad mls went with the traditional club names. It really helped legitimize the league as real football

What we need to do is change club names from SC to FC ....

 

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18 hours ago, daniel75 said:

what’s with the carrot in the tornado?

 

It's called "edging" and some people really get into it.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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On 11/22/2019 at 11:03 PM, BigRed618 said:


Yeah no we don’t. We'll never call it football, so why bother pretending that we do?

Because football is, for the lack of better word, more suited than soccer.

There is more influence for the name 'football' around the world outside the US. And besides, soccer is only used by a few number of countries like Australia, Canada, South America and Japan, just to name a few.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/24/2019 at 8:43 AM, Friedrich Stuart Macbeth said:

Because football is, for the lack of better word, more suited than soccer.

There is more influence for the name 'football' around the world outside the US. And besides, soccer is only used by a few number of countries like Australia, Canada, South America and Japan, just to name a few.

Since soccer is the term used by the majority in the US and Canada, just go with that. 

km3S7lo.jpg

 

Zqy6osx.png

 

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To actually comment on the artwork, I also agree that the pirate emblem would’ve fit better with the Mutiny name. Heck, fix him up a little, and it could even make a great alternate logo for the Rowdies! Pirates do tend to be rowdy, right?

 

Dallas Fury is awesome too. They really should’ve stuck with that pegasus.

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Do you know the story of the bat? It was presented, and they were like, "What's the deal with the bat?" And they said, "It's a mutant bat!" "What does that have to do with anything?" "Mutant. Mutiny. Get it?" "No, I don't, they don't have anything to do with each other." "But it's a mutant bat!"

That's a near-quote of the dialogue, anyway, from an article from ESPN or Sports Illustrated, I forget which, I read awhile back.

rATMcmK.png

 

 

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5 hours ago, Whittier S said:

Do you know the story of the bat? It was presented, and they were like, "What's the deal with the bat?" And they said, "It's a mutant bat!" "What does that have to do with anything?" "Mutant. Mutiny. Get it?" "No, I don't, they don't have anything to do with each other." "But it's a mutant bat!"

That's a near-quote of the dialogue, anyway, from an article from ESPN or Sports Illustrated, I forget which, I read awhile back.

 

Spoiler

PAYNE: I told them, “I don’t get this [Tampa Bay] ‘Mutiny’. What’s with the symbol?” They said, “Oh, it’s a mutant bat.” “Okay, what does that have to do with Mutiny?” “You know — Mutiny, mutant.” I said, “Those are two different words with completely different meanings. They just share some letters. What are you doing?”

RONGEN: What the f — -? A mutant bat? What are we representing? Nike must have had a few guys smoking dope, coming up with the craziest things.

https://medium.com/@JArnholz/mls2stpete-and-why-the-failure-of-the-mutiny-doesnt-matter-4c0c60b513a9

Probably not the right story, but its the right quote

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