AAFL: 1988--? New uniform template p. 6

[WideRight]

April 3, 1987--New York City

 

The All-American Football League announces its intention to begin play in March of 1988 with a minimum of 12 franchises located in major cities.   At a presser in Manhattan's Downtown Athletic Club, the league announced its formation and its selection of David Dixon as the Commissioner and Spokesperson for the fledgeling league.  Dixon, citing the recent anti-trust decision in favor of the now-defunct USFL, announced the formation of the new league, a project he has been working on since removing himself from the failed USFL over leadership concerns in 1984.  His new league promises to offer the same high-quality spring football experience as the USFL, but with a more solid financial model and greater initial capital. Presenting several key investors at the meeting, a roster that read like a who's who of the Forbes 500, Dixon introduced league leadership which included tech gurus such as Motorola's Robert Gavin, banking and real estate moguls such as Carl Lindner, Adolph Taubman, and Sol Goldman, and a few familiar names to the Wall Street Elite, such as Texas oilman Ross Perot, Textile moguls Roger & Gerrish Milliken, and head of Anheiser Busch, August Busch.  Almost out of place among his fellow millionaires was tech whiz kid, Paul Allen, whose departure from Microsoft created a vaccuum which, as he stated, football might just fill, just as a viable and dynamic spring league can fill a need that all the investors believe the American public holds. 

 

The league anticipates opening its season in March of 2018, stating that they have 10 franchises in place and anticipate accepting several more proposals for teams over the next month.  "There is a lot to do but we are confident that come March there will be high quality football in cities across America." stated Dixon.  Few details were available at the press conference.  The league revealed its logo, a red, white and blue logo which does not deviate much from what we see with the NFL and the former USFL.  It is anticipated that the league has targeted large market NFL and MLB cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas for its franchises, but league officials were unable to confirm any franchise locations.  When pressed, Dixon did reveal that he believes that the USFL lawsuit raises some questions regarding NFL contracts which might allow for even greater poaching than we saw with the USFL.  With all indications pointing to a potential lockout or NFLPA strike during the 1987 NFL season this fall, and with three additional lawsuits expected to be headed to court this summer, the timing may just be perfect for the fledgling AAFL to make a big splash.  

Dixon and his associates ended the press conference by announcing that team announcements would begin within the month, and that the hiring of coaches and general managers would be soon after that.  The league expects to hold a series of drafts in the winter, including a rookie draft of NCAA seniors, a territorial draft in which each AAFL franchise has 3-5 protected schools from which to select players, and an open free agency draft.  The question on everyone's mind is how the AAFL will define "free agents".  Will we see an all out war for current NFL players or will the league pick around the edges.  Time will tell.  For now, we have confirmation that spring football will be back after a 3 year hiatus when the AAFL kicks off next March. 

 

[officeglenn]

This is very clearly in Sports Fan Fiction territory, with the faux press release and all. A reminder of the pertinent section of the concepts forum guidelines:

 

Quote

This is a graphic design forum. All concept threads must be focused on graphic design.

• Sports fan fiction, simulation league and other story-based concepts are not permitted. 
• Only provide enough background information to make any artistic choices make sense.
• Artwork must be the focus of both the post and any feedback.
• If a thread is unbalanced toward stories or simulations, with little effort put into design, it will be locked. This determination will be made at the moderators’ discretion.

 

I'll leave this thread open, but if the series continues on as is, with more story than artwork, then it will be locked up.

[raz]

Watch out, too much exposition will draw the ire of mods! But I love it! 

[_DietDrPepper_]

This looks promising, if you were to need somewhere to continue this project, pm me, or click the link in my sig.

[BengalErnst]

6 hours ago, officeglenn said:

This is very clearly in Sports Fan Fiction territory, with the faux press release and all. A reminder of the pertinent section of the concepts forum guidelines:

 

 

I'll leave this thread open, but if the series continues on as is, with more story than artwork, then it will be locked up.

This is so god damn stupid. Why push away some artists who are talented as WideRight just because he’s a story heavy artist?  This site is so damn pompous now. 

[Raptorman415]

18 minutes ago, BengalErnst said:

This is so god damn stupid. Why push away some artists who are talented as WideRight just because he’s a story heavy artist?  This site is so damn pompous now. 

They uh....they aren’t....they aren’t gonna like this post....you maybe right but the mods may not like this....

[ItsSlothy]

Bro I got you covered

https://ahsports.boardhost.com/index.php

[Atomic]

1 hour ago, BengalErnst said:

This is so god damn stupid. Why push away some artists who are talented as WideRight just because he’s a story heavy artist?  This site is so damn pompous now. 

Drop it. We’ve been through the “why’s” when the fan fiction section shut down. We’re not doing it again. 
 

 Keep it on topic gentlemen. 

[WideRight]

No worries.  I will transfer my story elements to another board and then jus post designs here.  Gotta say I miss the fan fiction/alternate history boards on this site, but I get why they were taken down.  I can play nice. 

[Whittier S]

Seems to me the solution is as simple as posting your designs here with a link to the story written up in a blog. That way, the designs stay here, and those who want to pursue the story can navigate away from here.

[Telemundo219]

4 hours ago, Whittier S said:

Seems to me the solution is as simple as posting your designs here with a link to the story written up in a blog. That way, the designs stay here, and those who want to pursue the story can navigate away from here.

 

Facts

[WideRight]

Hey all, here is the first team.  You are getting a preview before the story gets this far.  I am posting the full narrative over at Alternate History Sports Board (https://ahsports.boardhost.com/index.php) and have just announced 8 franchises without names/logos (ATL, DAL, DET, LA, MEM, NYC, ORL, SEA) so this is a sneak peak of one of the team logo sets before it goes live there.  i think that will be my MO for the league, so that I can get some critiques of logos & unis here before they go live over there. 

 

So, one quick caveat.  Since I am a purely amateur designer, I do tend to borrow heavily from examples and designs I see online.  I will try as best I can to give credit to any design which I use as inspiration or which I integrate into an identity.  I often merge ideas or borrow from multiples to create a new design, but it is rarely 100% original, so I will try to do my best to credit where I found elements. 

 

Second, i am going to be repurposing or updating some designs I used for my AAF or my USFL redux posts over the past 2 years, so you may recognize some of these. 

 

First up, an original one which I designed to look somewhere between biker gang and tattoo art.  I have updated the location and the color scheme, but it is still heavily a combo of a midnight (bluish) green and a light metallic greenish grey, but now with a brighter, almost magenta, red. 

 

THE FIRST AAFL FRANCHISE:  The Los Angeles Vipers

 

 

I realize that it is difficult for me to return to a mid-1980's aesthetic, so some of my designs (at least the logos) will likely be a bit too modern for the period, but let's just imagine that the new AAFL hired some cutting-edge designers to differentiate themselves from the NFL and the recent USFL.  

[WideRight]

The other team I revealed today is a recolored and renamed version of one of my USFL expansion teams.  The Atlanta Legion use red-black-bronze color scheme.  I expect they will end up looking a bit more like the Niners than the Falcons to differentiate themselves from the ATL team of the time. This logo borrows quite a bit from SJSU, MSU and several Spartan helmets online (I know that a Spartan is not a Roman, but the helmet just works well even if not historically correct. After all, the Vikings never wore horns on their helmets and yet...)

 

[Blindsay]

A lighter orange for Atlanta, and you have something.

[WideRight]

45 minutes ago, Blindsay said:

A lighter orange for Atlanta, and you have something.

It is supposed to be a metallic bronze color.  Something like this:

 

[heavybass]

34 minutes ago, WideRight said:

It is supposed to be a metallic bronze color.  Something like this:

 

I mean it IS a lighter orange.

[WideRight]

I just announced the NYC and Dallas franchises as part of my 1987 AAFL project over at ahsports.boardhost.com, so here they are for the folks here.  The Rawhide's main logo began as a modification of a stock image found on adobestock, while the Nighthawks logo is based on a number of hawk & eagle silhouette logos.  

 

 

[Blindsay]

These logos are great....... for modern teams. These seem too advanced for the 80s. Sure, you could resurface these concepts when you’re league hits the 2010s, but you gotta think 80s. 

[Guest darkpiranha]

Vipers - Agree that it's a bit too modern, but also agree that it doesn't matter and they had a designer ahead of his or her time.  A bit too much space between the P and the E.  But not enough space between the V and I, and R and S.  Just make the kerning between each letter consistent.  But I love everything else about it.

 

Legion - Nice, but very generic.  I've seen this logo a million times before.  

 

Nighthawks - Nice.  Nothing really to add.  

 

Rawhides - Not sure about that font or at least that implementation.  I see "Pawhides".  Overall, the wordmark is just hard to read.  I think if you just make the D and the R match the rest of the wordmark it'll go a long way.

[WideRight]

5 hours ago, Blindsay said:

These logos are great....... for modern teams. These seem too advanced for the 80s. Sure, you could resurface these concepts when you’re league hits the 2010s, but you gotta think 80s. 

I agree.  That has been tough for me, trying to put myself in a 1980's mindset when designing.  It is tough to "simplify" the aesthetic to an age before computer graphics and hand-drawn logos.  I think NY and ATL could work in the 80's,  Maybe Dallas's logo, but probably not their wordmark.