Edmonton CFL team rebrands as "Elks"

[tBBP]

3 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Possibly morbid sidenote: Now that elk is  somewhat on my mind, I can't help but wonder how elk taste. In the form of burgers, chili, ribs, pepper steak, meatloaf, sausage, meatballs, salisbury steak, etc. Always heard deer/venison taste better than beef. Going to assume that applies to elk  too (is elk meat also venison?).

 

It's barbecue season and this city boy wants to consume some new creatures. My sister-in-law is Jamaican and she hipped me to goat dishes this past year. Deer and elk are officially on my list.

 

Not for nothing, but since I've been up here in the northern plains of South Dakota, I've been sampling all kinds of new stuff--well, even more than I already was prior to getting up here.  I've taken a particular liking to bison.  (Fun fact: there is actually a real live buffalo ranch on the northeast side of this town; dude grazes about 20 or so of them.)  There's a place here called the Meat Lodge that butchers and sells locally-sourced meat products; they have everything in there from regular beef and chicken to bison and venison and yes, elk steak.  (The great irony is that much-ballyhooed Smithfield Foods pork plant that basically spearheaded the COVID-19 outbreak up here last summer is straight down the street from it.)  They also sell seafood--but naturally, that stuff's imported.  Anyway, yes, when you get the chance, try the elk.  It's nowhere near as fatty as regular beef and yes, does taste better; it's a little more like lamb--which means you better know what you're doing when grilling or cooking it, or else you'll end up with a rubber sponge between your teeth.

[JLJ]

I’m so glad they put the S at the end more than anything, so nailing new logos and the helmet is a plus. The new logo has a modern 70s feel to it the same way the Alouettes new rebrand did. A new logo that feels like it’s been around for decades. That’s the sweet spot.  I do hope the new EE logo is somewhere prominently on the uniforms to keep that part of history. I’d like to see it as a patch on the chest like the Chiefs AFL logo.  
 

The CFL has been doing everything right with these recent rebrands. Now if they can get good looking uniforms across the league, and a 10th team we’d be all set lol.

[El Scorcho]

Absolutely spectacular! They knocked it out of the park.

[Chromatic]

7 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Possibly morbid sidenote: Now that elk is  somewhat on my mind, I can't help but wonder how elk taste. In the form of burgers, chili, ribs, pepper steak, meatloaf, sausage, meatballs, salisbury steak, etc. Always heard deer/venison taste better than beef. Going to assume that applies to elk  too (is elk meat also venison?).

 

It's barbecue season and this city boy wants to consume some new creatures. My sister-in-law is Jamaican and she hipped me to goat dishes this past year. Deer and elk are officially on my list.

Elk is venison. It is tasty but does often have a strong gamey taste. This is mitigated by eating it in the form of things like chili or sausage as opposed to just a straight steak.

[Old School Fool]

8 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Possibly morbid sidenote: Now that elk is  somewhat on my mind, I can't help but wonder how elk taste. In the form of burgers, chili, ribs, pepper steak, meatloaf, sausage, meatballs, salisbury steak, etc. Always heard deer/venison taste better than beef. Going to assume that applies to elk  too (is elk meat also venison?).

 

It's barbecue season and this city boy wants to consume some new creatures. My sister-in-law is Jamaican and she hipped me to goat dishes this past year. Deer and elk are officially on my list.

 

[Quillz]

10 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Possibly morbid sidenote: Now that elk is  somewhat on my mind, I can't help but wonder how elk taste. In the form of burgers, chili, ribs, pepper steak, meatloaf, sausage, meatballs, salisbury steak, etc. Always heard deer/venison taste better than beef. Going to assume that applies to elk  too (is elk meat also venison?).

 

It's barbecue season and this city boy wants to consume some new creatures. My sister-in-law is Jamaican and she hipped me to goat dishes this past year. Deer and elk are officially on my list.

I visited the North Slope a few years ago and had some reindeer sausage. Rather hearty meat, but quite tasty. No idea if that would be similar to deer or elk meat, though.

[Ricky_Roby]

Reading the Facebook comments from hometown fans on the Elks page, it's amazing how many are mad that the EE is "gone forever" when if you actually look at what the team posted, they confirmed the EE logo is still going to be used as an alternate, and the store has lots of swag with the new version of the EE. Even the official press release of the new logo has the Elk with a giant EE in the background...

 

Like, you can't be so upset that your precious team that you love so much is changing, but then not actually pay attention to details of the changes? Granted, this isn't a majority, just a loud bunch of naysayers who likely weren't going to be happy with anything... not realizing how lucky they are that this rebrand absolutely soars, when it could have crashed so hard...

 

I'm for anything that makes the CFL look good. A hell of a job by Edmonton and an early favourite for the Chris Creamer logo of the year award...

[8BW14]

4 hours ago, Chromatic said:

Elk is venison. It is tasty but does often have a strong gamey taste. This is mitigated by eating it in the form of things like chili or sausage as opposed to just a straight steak.

I’ve been cooking and eating venison nearly my entire life and I’ve never had a “gamey” piece of meat. That gets thrown around a lot but I think the gaminess of deer meat people talk about is primarily caused by poor handling/preparation. For my money, there’s not a better piece of meat out there than a deer or elk blackstrap grilled to medium-rare and sliced thin. It literally melts in your mouth and IMO is pretty mild in flavor. I will say, though, it does have a flavor and I think commercial beef is generally pretty bland.
 

None of that is relevant to the Elks new logo, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in on the topic of game meat.

[Gothamite]

36 minutes ago, 8BW14 said:

I’ve been cooking and eating venison nearly my entire life and I’ve never had a “gamey” piece of meat. That gets thrown around a lot but I think the gaminess of deer meat people talk about is primarily caused by poor handling/preparation. For my money, there’s not a better piece of meat out there than a deer or elk blackstrap grilled to medium-rare and sliced thin. It literally melts in your mouth and IMO is pretty mild in flavor. I will say, though, it does have a flavor and I think commercial beef is generally pretty bland.

 

That's precisely why people say venison is "gamey".

[Sport]

Logo: Great

Name: Great. Better name for a football team than Eskimos, even!

 

10/10

 

And now they can move on. See how easy that was, WFT and CBT? 

[8BW14]

5 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

That's precisely why people say venison is "gamey".

I guess, but I don’t like the phrase because it tends to have a negative connotation like there’s something bad or “off” about it. I don’t necessarily think “rich” or “meaty” equates gamey. That’s all subjective, of course.

[Gothamite]

I understand that. 

 

I don't myself take it as a negative, but I still understand where you're coming from.

[DCarp1231]

41 minutes ago, Sport said:

Logo: Great

Name: Great. Better name for a football team than Eskimos, even!

 

10/10

 

And now they can move on. See how easy that was, WFT and CBT? 

Like I pointed out before, Washington was given ~100 days to come up with a new name before the 2020-21 season started. Edmonton had a whole year of football operations off to figure this thing out without relative distractions. Cleveland made their announcement in December, two months before their season began.

 

Teams can’t just push out a new identity on a whim.

[Brian in Boston]

I'm one of the few who would have preferred Edmonton Elk as the name. I'm not thrilled with the antler in the primary mark simply floating above the elk's head. I believe that the antlers on the helmet could use a bit more "weight". All of that said, this still represents a terrific rebrand on the part of Edmonton's CFL franchise. To my mind, it instantly becomes one of the league's top identities... perhaps the best.

[_DietDrPepper_]

15 minutes ago, DNAsports said:

Like I pointed out before, Washington was given ~100 days to come up with a new name before the 2020-21 season started. Edmonton had a whole year of football operations off to figure this thing out without relative distractions. Cleveland made their announcement in December, two months before their season began.

 

Teams can’t just push out a new identity on a whim.

They’ve had more time then Edmonton overall. Who says they couldn’t of worked on it over the season? It’s not like the players and coaches are actually playing a major role in the design process. There’s no reason the “football team” branding should’ve lasted more then a season. 

[gosioux76]

In addition to the general weight of the antlers on the helmet, I'm also curious about the decision to place it so low on the helmet.

 

I suppose it presented something of a design challenge. Proportionally, I'd like to see the antlers begin at the front of the helmet and work back, like we see with the Rams and Eagles. But looking at pictures of actual elk, the branches of the antlers protrude upward, and not downward. I'm sure that factors into why they placed it where they did. Its placement also gives some prominence to the antlers forming an E shape toward the back of the helmet.

 

But the way they've done it leaves me with two thoughts:

• That the antler, as it's placed, doesn't command the space. Its proportions make it feel relatively insignificant. 
• Its placement gives off the impression that antlers are coming from the ear or temple rather that crown of the head.  

I'd love to  see what iterations of this were left on the drawing board. 

 

[Chromatic]

2 hours ago, 8BW14 said:

I’ve been cooking and eating venison nearly my entire life and I’ve never had a “gamey” piece of meat. That gets thrown around a lot but I think the gaminess of deer meat people talk about is primarily caused by poor handling/preparation. For my money, there’s not a better piece of meat out there than a deer or elk blackstrap grilled to medium-rare and sliced thin. It literally melts in your mouth and IMO is pretty mild in flavor. I will say, though, it does have a flavor and I think commercial beef is generally pretty bland.
 

None of that is relevant to the Elks new logo, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in on the topic of game meat.

It has a distinct, more "wild" flavour. It's gamey.

[steve61]

3 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

In addition to the general weight of the antlers on the helmet, I'm also curious about the decision to place it so low on the helmet.

 

I suppose it presented something of a design challenge. Proportionally, I'd like to see the antlers begin at the front of the helmet and work back, like we see with the Rams and Eagles. But looking at pictures of actual elk, the branches of the antlers protrude upward, and not downward. I'm sure that factors into why they placed it where they did. Its placement also gives some prominence to the antlers forming an E shape toward the back of the helmet.

 

But the way they've done it leaves me with two thoughts:

• That the antler, as its placed, doesn't command the space. Its proportions make it feel relatively insignificant. 
• Its placement gives off the impression that antlers are coming from the ear or temple rather that crown of the head.  

I'd love to  see what iterations of this were left on the drawing board. 

 

 

Strangely, the EE logo was always way too small for helmet too....especially when directly compared to the Packers logo.   Somebody in here did an Elks concept a year or so ago which looked amazing.  The antlers had more points and took up more overall space.  

[gosioux76]

12 minutes ago, _DietDrPepper_ said:

They’ve had more time then Edmonton overall. Who says they couldn’t of worked on it over the season? It’s not like the players and coaches are actually playing a major role in the design process. There’s no reason the “football team” branding should’ve lasted more then a season. 

 

Sure there is. I can think one really good reason: they didn't like their options. 

 

I'm not behind the scenes, so I can't speak to the process they're undertaking, but replacing the core brand of a multi-billion-dollar consumer-facing organization that thrives off the loyalty of its supporters is no small task. I think it's even more difficult considering the circumstances for which it's being replaced and the part of the country it represents. There are almost too many directions you could be tempted to go down for the WFT branding, and every one of them likely has drawbacks.

 

If I'm a fan of WFT, I'd take some comfort in the fact that they didn't force a new brand through based upon an arbitrary timeline of their own making. I'd rather they take their time and get it right.

 

Also, I'm clearly giving team ownership more respect than they probably deserve. I just can't think of a more difficult branding challenge than this one. 

[Sport]

19 minutes ago, DNAsports said:

Like I pointed out before, Washington was given ~100 days to come up with a new name before the 2020-21 season started. Edmonton had a whole year of football operations off to figure this thing out without relative distractions. Cleveland made their announcement in December, two months before their season began.

 

Teams can’t just push out a new identity on a whim.

 

Yes teams can't just push out a new identity on a whim, but they weren't given 100 days to come up with a new name. They were given literal decades to make their change. If they'd done it in 1995 they could've rolled it out on their own timelines and we'd have moved on by now. They refused and kept refusing until we reached a  point where they were forced to come up with solutions that happened to be on compressed timelines. That's their fault. When I say "see how easy that was" I'm talking about 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 30 years ago.