The Old-Continent League of American Football project (All teams added, NOW IN BEHANCE! )

[Josef_Bretones]

I want to share with you the first ideas that I discarded for the logos of the league and the conferences. I think you will agree that in the ideas that I finally chose, they are the best.

I await your comments!

 

[Guest darkpiranha]

1 hour ago, Josef_Bretones said:

I want to share with you the first ideas that I discarded for the logos of the league and the conferences. I think you will agree that in the ideas that I finally chose, they are the best.

I await your comments!

 

 

Hey.  This is cool.  Definitely like where you ended up a lot better!  The pointy "bullets' are an interesting idea, but were a bit too gimmicky for an NFL-level league.   The third idea was nice, just super generic.   Fun evolution.   Now that I see that you had the conference colors in mind from the beginning and the color branding for each conference seems to be pretty important, I'm wondering why you didn't make that a part of the league logo?  The four current yellow stars could each be one of the colors represented by the conference logo stars.  

 

And in general, what's the origin of your league, design-wise?  As a Spaniard, how did you land on American Football as the sport you were going to make your big debut with?  Is this a design-only project, or do you have a simulated league you've been making all these for?  

[Josef_Bretones]

3 hours ago, darkpiranha said:

The four current yellow stars could each be one of the colors represented by the conference logo stars. 

The truth is that I'm not a big fan of adding too many different colors to logos (I think that's something you may have already noticed) because for me they don't work. I learned that any logo should work in color and in b / w. I also think that adding too many colors distracts attention. For the league logo I wanted to send three messages: "This is an American football league that is established in geographic Europe and has four conferences." Sending more messages seemed to me to complicate everything unnecessarily.

 

3 hours ago, darkpiranha said:

And in general, what's the origin of your league, design-wise?  As a Spaniard, how did you land on American Football as the sport you were going to make your big debut with?  Is this a design-only project, or do you have a simulated league you've been making all these for?  

This is interesting. I think my first contact with football was an NFL Europe folder that was given to me at the age of nine (1993) in which all the teams appeared. I strongly remember two: London Monarchs and Barcelona Dragons. From there I was having news from the original NFL. At the University I discovered the local American football team: Murcia Cobras and I had news of an amateur in the Southeast of Spain.

 

(Murcia Cobras logo. I do not know its author)

 

In this way, little by little, the idea of creating an NFL-style league at a European level began to emerge in my head. Always for a graphic project and to develop my creativity. You could see the result of my first idea in the first post of this topic. Everything else has grown beyond my first intention.

[Hawkeye15]

I'm just discovering this so starting from the beginning...

 

The mood board idea is very cool. It gets us in the right space to see where you're coming from with a logo.

 

Oslo: my first thought was that the logo might be too detailed, but I don't care ... it's perfect. The wooden aspect of it comes through just as you wanted without being overly obvious. It's unique, fierce-looking and distinctly Scandinavian as well. I'm jealous of this logo. The uniforms come through as well. A+.

 

Copenhagen: something about this identity is just not doing it for me, maybe it needs some unique feature to it to set it apart ... I'm just getting a Pitt Panthers vibe.

 

Stockholm: the idea of a football team using a snowflake logo is actually badass to me and the logo is well-worked ... the colors are well-balanced and it's overall a solid concept

 

Helsinki: the logo gets totally lost on the helmet unfortunately ... but I like the color scheme and the deer looks good ... I'm just not sure it works well as a helmet logo especially on blue

 

 

 

 

[Josef_Bretones]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye15 said:

Helsinki: the logo gets totally lost on the helmet unfortunately ... but I like the color scheme and the deer looks good ... I'm just not sure it works well as a helmet logo especially on blue

I've been thinking about it and I think the best way to solve this is to change the logo on the helmet for the deer horns, which is one of the options that I had considered. Of course it stands out much more:

 

[Josef_Bretones]

Once the North and South Conferences are over, I should show you the East conference, but before that I want to go back to the teams shown and show you two things about each one: an alternative uniform (helmet included) for each of them and their logos and slogan in its original language. The language issue (especially in Scandinavia) has not been easy and there are surely grammatical errors that the internet has not been able to solve. So if someone detects a grammar error and tells me I will be very grateful.

In order not to take another two weeks I will show you each division at once. I have not sought to make uniforms super strange to home and away. It is only a third way, alternating colors to complete the set. The team's nickname appears on these uniforms in their native language.
I never considered doing it in a language other than English, but I think that thanks to what many of you said at the beginning of this topic, this will enrich this league.

 

 

SCANDINAVIAN DIVISION

 

Oslo Inntrengerne (Oslo Invaders):

 

Kobenhavn Prinser (Copenhagen Princes

 

Stockholm Polart (Stockholm Polars):

 

Helsinki Hirvi (Helsinki Stags):

 

C&C welcome!

 

[_DietDrPepper_]

I would lower those antlers on the Stags helmet, I like them much more than the logo though, good job! All the alternate uniforms look good too

[Philsphan]

The antlers are great! I was wondering when you would have a non-logo (like the Philadelphia Eagles or the Minnesota Vikings) on the helmet. The Oslo alternate is sweet, as expected.

[Josef_Bretones]

Good Morning!
Today is the turn to show the alternative uniforms of the North-Central Division. I hope you like them.

 

Berliner Brecher (Berlin Breakers):

 

Münchner Mönchen (Munich Monks):

 

Hamburger Protektoren (Hamburg Protectors):

 

Prazstí Golemové (Prague Golems):

 

C&C welcome!

[Josef_Bretones]

We return to the South Conference to show the alternative uniforms of the Iberian Division. In a few hours I will upload the uniforms of the Mediterranean Division. In this way tomorrow we can start showing the teams from the East Conference.

 

Exploradores do Porto (Porto Explorers):

 

Atlânticos de Lisboa (Lisbon Atlantics):

 

Realezas de Madrid (Madrid Royals):

 

Segadors de Barcelona (Barcelona Segadors):

 

In a few hours I will upload the uniforms of the Mediterranean Division. In this way tomorrow we can start showing the teams from the East Conference.

C&c welcome!

 

[Dan O'Mac]

So I like the M on the Mighties, but when I first looked at it, it looked like you were going for the side of a mountain, as in Mount Olympus. All good, I love that color scheme.

[Josef_Bretones]

 

5 minutes ago, Dan O'Mac said:

So I like the M on the Mighties, but when I first looked at it, it looked like you were going for the side of a mountain, as in Mount Olympus. All good, I love that color scheme.

It was a coincidence and when I finished it, it also seemed to me that it could be mistaken for a mountain. Then I thought about Mount Olympus and it seemed to me that everything made sense.

[Josef_Bretones]

And finally and to catch up: the alternative uniforms of the Mediterranean Division:

 

Lupi di Roma (Roma Wolves):

 

Vulcani di Napoli (Napoli Volcanoes):

 

Marins de Marseille (Marseille Sailors):

 

ΠΙΘΑΝΕΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ (Athens Mighties):

 

C&c welcome!

[Guest darkpiranha]

These all look great.  The one issue I see consistently popping up is the helmets.  There's a lot of helmets where the log on them doesn't have enough contrast and gets lost.  If you just look at a page of NFL helmets, you see that all of them have good contrast.  Or if the color of the logo and helmet is the same, there's a strong contrasting outline. 

 

Ironically, you fixed the only one of these where this contrast issue actually HELPED, and that's the Volcanos.  Even though it was blue on blue originally (for the left hash of the N), it worked because the V stood out in orange, and I thought that interestingly worked for the helmet.    

 

 

[Josef_Bretones]

4 minutes ago, darkpiranha said:

These all look great.  The one issue I see consistently popping up is the helmets.  There's a lot of helmets where the log on them doesn't have enough contrast and gets lost.  If you just look at a page of NFL helmets, you see that all of them have good contrast.  Or if the color of the logo and helmet is the same, there's a strong contrasting outline. 

 

Ironically, you fixed the only one of these where this contrast issue actually HELPED, and that's the Volcanos.  Even though it was blue on blue originally (for the left hash of the N), it worked because the V stood out in orange, and I thought that interestingly worked for the helmet.    

 

 

I think I will go ahead with the following teams trying to do well with their helmets and at the end of the day I will do a round of review for all helmets. I do not intend to give up on them.

Thank you so much for the comments. What do you think of the alternative Marseille kit @darkpiranha?

[Guest darkpiranha]

8 minutes ago, Josef_Bretones said:

I think I will go ahead with the following teams trying to do well with their helmets and at the end of the day I will do a round of review for all helmets. I do not intend to give up on them.

Thank you so much for the comments. What do you think of the alternative Marseille kit @darkpiranha?

Those alts should be the main ones!  Those are fantastic and distinctive with both a retro-NFL feel and a traditional soccer jersey vibe.  

[FCMacbeth]

12 hours ago, Josef_Bretones said:

ΠΙΘΑΝΕΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ (Athens Mighties):

 

C&c welcome!

How do you say that tagline?

I don't read Greek.

[Josef_Bretones]

 

4 hours ago, Friedrich Stuart Macbeth said:

How do you say that tagline?

I don't read Greek.

"Pithanes Athena" (Athens Mighties) and "I Dynamo Ton Theon" (the power of the gods). 

[Hawkeye15]

The deer antlers on the Helsinki helmet is a big upgrade. This whole series is tremendous honestly. The color schemes are especially strong. A couple other notes I have:

 

1. I wonder if the Oslo logo would look a little less busy and still stand out properly on the Oslo helmet if it didn't have an outline. But it may disappear in relation to the helmet stripe if you do that... might be worth checking.

 

2. The face of the wolf on the sleeves of the Rome jersey seems a bit repetitive. What if just the eyes were included on the sleeves, rather than a copy and paste of the logo? I think it might still give the effect you're going for, while making it subtle enough.

 

Great series!

[Josef_Bretones]

We started with the Eastern Conference and we surpassed half the teams. The first team of the East Division are the Moscow Redstars.
This team draws inspiration from Russia's communist past and serves as a response to teams from the New Jersey Generals in the USA (the stars are clearly inspired by Steve Humphries' rebrand). The colors are inspired by the Bayside Tigers (Saved by the bell) and it seems to me that they are a sober and very Russian scheme.

I have tried to make the helmets contrast with the logo and I do not intend to make too many decorations on the uniforms. The Redstars stadium is called Fatherland.

 

Mood board:

 

Logo, wordmarks, numbers and slogan:

 

Uniforms and helmet:

 

 

Alternate uniform:

 

C&c welcome!