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American Collegiate Athletics Federation (Looking for C&C 9/9/21)


the_grateful_ted

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Aaaaaaaaaand WE'RE BACK! Staying in the Super Central, representing Arkansas Highlands...

 

Ouachita University Racers

Location: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Affiliation: Super Central

Colors: Go Green, Black, White

"Mountain At My Gate" - Foals (I cannot recommend enough songs by them)

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The Arkansas highlands are a pretty nutty place. The town of Hot Springs specifically is known for 1) being a popular mobster hangout during prohibition and 2) horse racing. Since I already have some criminal-bad to the bone identities planned, this one seemed like it would be more fun. The Ouachitas are mountains/forest preserves that take up most of Northwestern Arkansas, hence the name. The primary is a jockey hauling ass on his horse out of an "O". Overall I'm very pleased with it, but not as pleased with the detailing in the horse so extra C&C on the horse is appreciated! The bottom half of the secondary is a horseshoe (which looks like a U), which combined with the top segment makes an "O" (OU!). Very happy to catch a little wind of creativity, it's been tough sledding the last couple days. Let me know what you guys think, thanks as always!

 

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I think the horse needs to portray more speed. If this makes sense, I would italicize the horse and jockey, and maybe throw in the front two legs to get rid of that awkwardly cut off horse thigh. Or maybe all four legs if that doesn't work either. The secondary logo is perfect however! Don't touch it, a great mix of O and U and the horseshoe! 

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Follow the NFA, and My Baseball League here: https://ahsports.boardhost.com/index.php

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On 3/13/2020 at 9:21 AM, sleuthpanther said:

Thank you! I'm hitting a little bit of a snag on this one... do you have any ideas for ways to "rough up" the outside purple? I will definitely revisit this one, but in the mean time representing the Eastern Michigan region...

 

Mideastern Michigan University Smiths

Location: Flint, MI 

Affiliation: Midwest Union

Colors: Pine Green, Industry Silver, White

"Superman" - Eminem

KCXax8L.png

Known locally simply as "Mideastern" or "Emmee", the smiths get their name from the long history of craftsmanship and industry in the eastern michigan region. I wanted some classic, kinda gritty colors for a region that exudes toughness. As a bonus, the founder of Flint's last name was Smith. The primary is shaped like an anvil, and the letters form an MU (with a second M in the negative space). The hammer in the primary always points East as tradition, and the secondary is some crossed hammers (which would probably be used on football helmets and the like).

 I picked Flint, but Saginaw was also an option (I wanted to stay away from Lansing and Detroit because those seemed like too obvious of options). 

Let me know what you guys think!

I think maybe adding some black or even brown accents would help to differentiate from the MSU similarities you mentioned here.

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14 hours ago, _DietDrPepper_ said:

I think the horse needs to portray more speed. If this makes sense, I would italicize the horse and jockey, and maybe throw in the front two legs to get rid of that awkwardly cut off horse thigh. Or maybe all four legs if that doesn't work either. The secondary logo is perfect however! Don't touch it, a great mix of O and U and the horseshoe! 

Original post has a bunch of updates, thank you for the comments! Added front legs for now, think it looks pretty crisp (couple other small linework changes). Thank you for the kind words on the secondary 🙂 One of the simplest designs I've done in this thread, but very happy with it!

4 hours ago, RHdesigns said:

I think maybe adding some black or even brown accents would help to differentiate from the MSU similarities you mentioned here.

I've been grappling with this for a while... would a switch to blue entirely be better than green? I want to keep them to either blue/green, silver and white (I have a very lions-look for them planned out). 

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3 hours ago, sleuthpanther said:

Original post has a bunch of updates, thank you for the comments! Added front legs for now, think it looks pretty crisp (couple other small linework changes). Thank you for the kind words on the secondary 🙂 One of the simplest designs I've done in this thread, but very happy with it!

I've been grappling with this for a while... would a switch to blue entirely be better than green? I want to keep them to either blue/green, silver and white (I have a very lions-look for them planned out). 

I think it's something you could play around with, potentially try throwing around a tealish blue see if you can't get the best of both worlds.

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On 4/3/2020 at 12:15 PM, RHdesigns said:

I think it's something you could play around with, potentially try throwing around a tealish blue see if you can't get the best of both worlds.

Most likely I'll wait until I've progressed further in that conference, wait until I have a better idea of what other teams look like and change them to whatever the color needed for variety is!

We're going out into the BOONIES for this one, hailing from Lower Idaho...

 

University of Southern Idaho Wizards

Location: Twin Falls, ID

Affiliation: Pacific Frontier

Colors: Red, Navy, Silver, White

"Magic Arrow" - Timber Timbre

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The Wizards the single newest rebrand in the ACAF. Gone was the old, tired brand revolving around the mascot affectionately known as "Gandalf", instead replaced with a package meant to evoke the work of traveling magicians of the vintage United States (I was inspired partly through the Buster Scruggs episode). The area of Idaho which Twin Falls is in is known as the Magic Valley, not for the presence of magicians but hey 🤷‍♂️. The primary is a crystal ball held up by two well dressed hands (presumably with cards up their sleeves), with symbols like the star, lightning, and crescent moon all being general wizard imagery. The secondary is a "SI" for Southern Idaho, which coincidentally looks like a dollar sign (which is what all those traveling magicians were after right?). This was a VERY fun one to work on, let me know what you guys think of the Wizards!

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Let's make sure every team's got at least one dancing partner hm? From the land of coal and moonshine, West Virginia...

 

Appalachian Christian University Colliers

Location: Charleston, WV

Affiliation: Power East

Colors: Overcast Blue, Black, Canary Yellow

"Little Black Submarines" - The Black Keys/ "Canary" - Honeysuckle

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West Virginia is a pretty religious place, a lot of local, unaffiliated churches. Because of this I went with the broad moniker (unlike Bama Baptist). There might be ONE more private/religiously affiliated school, this may be the last one. Obviously the Colliers had to represent Appalachia... and that's where the name comes from. What is a collier you might ask? A coal mine worker, a big part of WV. The colors are from coal, the general dreariness the state exudes, and the star of the primary... a canary.  A canary is associated closely with coal mining, and I thought a good symbol for the school to use. The primary is pretty self explanatory. The secondary is a determined collier trudging to work, with the light from his headlamp showing the silhouette of a canary. I hope you guys enjoy, I'm feeling back in the groove again!

 

As well as this, felt it was finally worth sharing the map I've been using now that it's looking a bit more populated. Enjoy that as well (it might give you a little sneak peak of some identities I'm thinking for the future), C&C is appreciated as usual!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1Ad1dsSNew59WnTd5FY6BhQ_O8YsKePs6&ll=35.05333627581433%2C-102.40718840806124&z=4

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Woah I just saw the Prairie Dogs secondary logo with the pump and it's exquisite! The Herons and Bloodhounds are similarly outstanding, with excellent colors and compositions.

 

The OU monogram logo is nice but the horse logo feels off to me almost entirely because the horse is outlined in white and the rider is outlined in black. IDK why that bothers me... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I'd go with white lightning rather than red for Southern Idaho, and the monogram, while classic enough, feels very separate from the modern flat logo. That's fine, maybe they just won't go on the same uniform. 🙂

 

Spoiler

I enjoyed that Of Montreal song, not familiar with them. That Foals song feels appropriate (if only because of the band name) but "Little Black Submarine" doesn't feel very mining-y... I'm a big fan of "Canary" by Honeysuckle, or if you want Black Keys, maybe "Fire Walk With Me" or "Shine a Little Light" from their latest?

 

Keep up the good work!

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On 4/8/2020 at 3:30 AM, kb105 said:

For the secondary you might want to add some detail to the pants to distinguish the legs, other than that it looks great

Much appreciated! Currently working on some edits for it, should be up later today

 

10 hours ago, vtgco said:

Woah I just saw the Prairie Dogs secondary logo with the pump and it's exquisite! The Herons and Bloodhounds are similarly outstanding, with excellent colors and compositions.

 

The OU monogram logo is nice but the horse logo feels off to me almost entirely because the horse is outlined in white and the rider is outlined in black. IDK why that bothers me... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I'd go with white lightning rather than red for Southern Idaho, and the monogram, while classic enough, feels very separate from the modern flat logo. That's fine, maybe they just won't go on the same uniform. 🙂

 

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I enjoyed that Of Montreal song, not familiar with them. That Foals song feels appropriate (if only because of the band name) but "Little Black Submarine" doesn't feel very mining-y... I'm a big fan of "Canary" by Honeysuckle, or if you want Black Keys, maybe "Fire Walk With Me" or "Shine a Little Light" from their latest?

 

Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much!😀 I wanted to avoid something that looked like the Oilers, and going with the pumpjack was the only thing that really looked different.

 

I can totally see where you're coming from on that... my thought process was that if the horse and rider looked too similar, it would look blobby on smaller applications. Even though it looks a little disjointed, at least the two are obviously separate parts of the logo. However, I'll mess with it a little today and see if I can work something out!

 

Only reason I'll stick with red will be the silver helmets in their eventual uniforms and the white lightning might get a little lost! Completely agree with you on the monogram, anything you think I could do to modern-ly spice it up? I'd like to stick with a circus looking font if at all possible, it plays into the vintage magician posters that inspired this design in the first place.

 

Spoiler

Metaphorical black submarines I guess, in all the pictures these miners rode around the underground mines in these little black carts. I guess it made me think of them like little black subterranean submarines 😂 That woman in Canary has an UNREAL voice, thank you for the suggestion! 

 

Thanks for the C&C everyone, I'm happy everyone is still enjoying these designs! Might get a new school out, fiddling some old deigns at the moment. 

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Let's stick around in the Northeast for a while, swarming in from Vermont...

 

Green Mountain State University Swarm

Location: Burlington, VT

Affiliation: Power East

Colors: Olive Green, Red Orange, Sand

"O Green World" - Gorillaz

hpavnnE.png

The Green Mountains cut through the entirety of Vermont, which comes from the french "Verd Mont" (Green Mountain). Bees are having a lot of problems in Vermont, but they are fundamental to the health of ecosystems of the state. Now, the name. I usually HATE singular names for sports teams... but this one was too perfect. One of the original American colonies, AND the name for a group of bees?? If the response is negative I totally understand, but it was good change of pace right? Since they are a colony, and not just one bee, the primary is a duo of bees aggressively moseying somewhere. The odd shape of the secondary, a beehive, is meant to mirror the shape of the state of Vermont. Lastly, the colors reflect the stunning changing of leaf colors that the state is known for (I'm also a sucker for gold accents on orange, blame the SF Giants and OSU Beavers). 

 

I also updated the Collier secondary with a minor but VERY necessary tweak, let me know what you guys think of The Colony!

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I like “Colony” a lot. It seems very 90s. I’m not sure that excuse would work with such a traditional, clean brand though. Maybe Swarm if you want to keep that feeling of unity?

 

Or maybe the name came first? Seems like the American equivalent of “United” that was used a lot for early English soccer teams. Could have had a patriotic theme and changed it up to be more “VERMONT” in like the 70s or even when the New England Revolution came around. “We aren’t Massachusetts. We’re our own thing!”

 

The colors are perfect. That is what we needed to keep 100+ college identities unique and fresh!

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14 hours ago, _DietDrPepper_ said:

Love the identity, but the name is a step to far, like you mentioned. Colony is a great name for the fanbase but I'd stick with Bees. Love the logo package.

Very understandable 😆 Bees is the frontrunner, going to kick around a few others but Colony is definitely out! Thank you so much!

14 hours ago, TheHealthiestScratch said:

I like “Colony” a lot. It seems very 90s. I’m not sure that excuse would work with such a traditional, clean brand though. Maybe Swarm if you want to keep that feeling of unity?

 

Or maybe the name came first? Seems like the American equivalent of “United” that was used a lot for early English soccer teams. Could have had a patriotic theme and changed it up to be more “VERMONT” in like the 70s or even when the New England Revolution came around. “We aren’t Massachusetts. We’re our own thing!”

 

The colors are perfect. That is what we needed to keep 100+ college identities unique and fresh!

Swarm is another good choice and I like the alliteration with "State", does it sound collegiate enough or too much like a pro team? That would be an EXCELLENT backstory/excuse for it, but unfortunately I think Colony is out.

Thank you so much!!😃 Color is obviously the easiest way to differentiate identities, but with so many i"m going to have to try some other stuff to keep them fresh.

12 hours ago, Maroon&Gold said:

I do like the name but Vermont was never a colony. It was actually a part of Quebec, New York and New Hampshire before the revolution started

Well son of a b****, that settles it! Thank you for the info, that makes the decision a lot easier

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12 minutes ago, sleuthpanther said:

Swarm is another good choice and I like the alliteration with "State", does it sound collegiate enough or too much like a pro team? That would be an EXCELLENT backstory/excuse for it, but unfortunately I think Colony is out.

Thank you so much!!😃 Color is obviously the easiest way to differentiate identities, but with so many i"m going to have to try some other stuff to keep them fresh.

Yea, I think swarm would be a good name. “Swarm State” can be their version of something like “The U”. 
 

With the new name feeling more aggressive, I think I’d make one small tweak to the secondary. Perhaps have small lines going around the hive, like the bees are swarming it. It  would give the little bit of aggression needed to make it feel right.
 

If you want some color inspiration I spend a lot of time playing with color combos on my computer. I have a large amount saved, but never have the time to use them or the confidence in color balance when I do try to produce a logo. PM me if you ever run into that problem or if you’re unsure of the colors you want to use.

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I'm gonna finish this thing, might need to take some 10 day long breaks every once in a while!😃 Starting it back up from the Michigan UP...

 

University of Upper Michigan Fighting Mooses

Location: Marquette, MI

Affiliation: Midwest Union

Colors: Finn Blue, Navy, White

"In Cold Blood" - alt-j

sy75hO3.png

 

I think everyone who's every lived in the Midwest for long enough has known someone from the UP, and usually, they're a little strange. For the land of yoopers, I based the identity off the strongest presence of Finnish ancestry in the US. The colors are taken from the Finnish hockey team, and the primary is based off the primary logo for the same team (instead of a lion a moose, and instead of swords it is an axe and shovel for the forestry and mining indutsry). The name comes from the moose, a very common sight in the UP (I know that's not the correct plural, blame it on the quirkiness of the region). The secondary is a stacked UM with moose antlers. Also the upper right logo looks kinda janky I know, in all other applications it will not look like this. The process and programs which I use sometimes don't work as well in the occasional context.

 

Hope you guys enjoy (and are staying safe and inside), good to be back!

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