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NHL’s New Seattle Kraken Announce Name & Logos


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57 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

EDIT: am I tripping, or did your board name just change to a Twitter bot account mid post? 

 

Ftr 'iloveboobs69420' still a better moniker than Kraken

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37 minutes ago, -kj said:

Good thing that some things are subjective, such as the Kraken identity being beautiful or It's Always Sunny being a moist turd of a show.


I respect your opinion, even if I find it objectionable. It’s not for everyone.

 

2 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

Ftr 'iloveboobs69420' still a better moniker than Kraken.

 

You don’t like the name. Cool. We got it.

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12 minutes ago, henburg said:


No, I see where you’re coming from. As a kid growing up, I literally didn’t make the connection between Blue Jackets and the civil war for years because of that goofy bug logo, so I was never a fan of that either. I think a lot of the differences in reaction here is also based on what people associate “Kraken” with, so if you associate it with a goofy monster from a bad movie or whatever else, then you’re always going to see this name as a bad joke. I think that in this case the team did a really good job of applying subtlety and restraint to balance it out and the video perfectly conveys the right tone for the identity moving forward, so I’m a big fan.

I think the difference here, however, is that the team is leading the charge, making the connection to the movie, Clash of the Titans.  "Release the Kraken" is front and center of their brand.  I can download the Release the Kraken official Seattle Kraken desktop wallpaper right now if I want.  So the team clearly is steering the ship in that direction.  They're bringing it on themselves.  

 

I would agree they did a good job with subtlety.  This could have been a mess with tentacle stripes and a big ass Kraken crest.  They get points there for an NHL level logo and uniform.  Visually, it's an NHL team.  But I also think the intention is clear that the team drew inspiration from the movie, and want to remind you of that movie,  as well.  Which helps make it a hokey name.  And should be negative points based on the name.  They could have steered away from the hokey name.  Instead they've packed their branding with it.

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406cane seems to have been the first person on the original name the Seattle team thread.

 

December 12th 2017 not bad!

 

 

 

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The World Basketball Championship, the Davis Cup, Ryder Cup, Iraq: Every day there's further proof that we, as a nation, are not very good at international competition.

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9 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I think the difference here, however, is that the team is leading the charge, making the connection to the movie, Clash of the Titans.  "Release the Kraken" is front and center of their brand.  I can download the Release the Kraken official Seattle Kraken desktop wallpaper right now if I want.  So the team clearly is steering the ship in that direction.  They're bringing it on themselves.  

 

I would agree they did a good job with subtlety.  This could have been a mess with tentacle stripes and a big ass Kraken crest.  They get points there for an NHL level logo and uniform.  Visually, it's an NHL team.  But I also think the intention is clear that the team drew inspiration from the movie, and want to remind you of that movie,  as well.  Which helps make it a hokey name.  And should be negative points based on the name.  They could have steered away from the hokey name.  Instead they've packed their branding with it.

 

Not sure how clear it is because I'm not sure what movie you're referring to. Clash of the Titans? Or Pirate of the Caribbean 2? Obviously the "release the kraken" promotional material is from the former but the Bruckheimer connection would lead one to think of the latter.

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7 minutes ago, TaylorMade said:

 

Not sure how clear it is because I'm not sure what movie you're referring to. Clash of the Titans? Or Pirate of the Caribbean 2? Obviously the "release the kraken" promotional material is from the former but the Bruckheimer connection would lead one to think of the latter.

I would assume Clash of the Titans as it was the original.   Pirates was clearly referencing Clash when they did it.  

 

Point is...the reason people feel the name is a bit hokey and see it as a call back to the movie is because the team has embraced that in their identity and marketing of the identity.  They steered into it, so its front and center.  Which I think has a positive and negative effect.  It's got the positive effect of getting people across the nation to want a hat or a shirt today so they can say they have a "Release the Kraken" thing.  My friend has a Montgomery Biscuits hat, my girlfriend loves the name Sod Poodles.  We live no where near those two cities.  So it's good for marketing.  

 

But I think it also has a negative perception of the name as well.  It sounds..a bit hokey.  And as a Seattle outsider, it just...feels like a team name built from the foundation of "Man wouldn't it be cool if everyone yelled RELEASE THE KRAKEN!?"  I'm sure many like it and have that right.  But the foundation really sounds...like it was that.  And it turns me off as a uniform/branding nerd.

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1 hour ago, officeglenn said:

 

A lot of the talk from the designers who interviewed on the live stream after the unveiling kept talking about the mystery of the kraken and its mythical nature, how the scariest things are sometimes the things you can't see. So it sounded doubtful they'd ever add a full-body octopus logo. But I agree that I don't think they really need one.

 

I think this is going to be the major point of friction for the brand going forward. I appreciate the immense amount of restraint and subtly that went into the primary logo. As I mentioned earlier, the "mystery" aspect of the brand makes it unique and compelling. That all goes away the minute they throw a giant squid on a jersey.

 

The challenge is that the there's always going to be some portion of the general population that will be clamoring for just that. The same thing goes for the inevitable cries of "Release the Kraken!". The designers have done an amazing job of creating a serious brand out of a truly rediculous name. But until people forget about all the memes and movie quotes that brought us to this point, it's going to be a real tightrope walk.

 

In many ways the brand reminds me of the Raptors, except they skipped the embarrassing phase and went straight to the mature and understated adaptation. On the one hand it's great that they learned from Toronto (and others), but it also seems like there's a lot of potential for the brand to devolve.

 

Here's hoping they stay strong and avoid the myriad temptations. 

 

Speaking of which...I don't know what the alternative would be, but in light of the brand cues we've seen so far I really hope we don't see someone in a squid costume for the mascot.

 

EDIT: Well now I feel foolish. I posted before I was fully caught up on the thread and missed the part about all the "Release the Kraken" merch/promos. Gotta say I'm disappointed. The brand isn't even a day old and they decided to go full meme with it. I'll see myself out.

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5 hours ago, Cujo said:

"Gosh darn it, I wish ESPN and mainstream sports media would take NHL hockey more seriously and show highlights from tonight's Kraken vs Wild game"

 Such an odd take, what makes Chicago Cubs name better than either Minnesota Wild or Seattle Kraken 

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3 minutes ago, Thaumatrope said:

Speaking of which...I don't know what the alternative would be, but in light of the brand cues we've seen so far I really hope we don't see someone in a squid costume for the mascot.

 

Sea captain?

 

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Just now, Dexter Morgan said:

 Such an odd take, what makes Chicago Cubs name better than either Minnesota Wild or Seattle Kraken 

"Kraken" is a whole other thing I'll get to later, but "Wild" is a terrible name, even by the standards of terrible singular names. "Cubs," on the other hand, is a perfectly fine and reasonable plural team name.

 

"Kraken" is both the singular and plural form, so that's not the problem. My own problems with the Kraken name lie in what I see as a half-hearted attempt to marry a pop culture meme to historical context by people who either don't understand said context or actively fight against it like it's some boogeyman they need to shout down.

 

Just now, officeglenn said:

 

Sea captain?

 

episode 8 water GIF

A sea captain could be too close to the live action Johnny Canuck the Canucks use.

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Just now, Dexter Morgan said:

 Such an odd take, what makes Chicago Cubs name better than either Minnesota Wild or Seattle Kraken 

It's a proper plural noun that ends in 's', which actually gives Kraken an advantage over Wild: it's a real thing, "Wild" is an abstract concept with no definitive imagery or physical form. My thought process is "if you're on the team and say 'I'm a member of [team]', will it sound ridiculous to make it singular?", which is why names that end in 's' are better than names that don't, because you can always say "I'm a Cub" but you can't say "I'm a Wild". Kraken is an odd exception because "Kraken" is singular and plural, but I have to assume the team is using it an a singular fashion.

the user formerly known as cdclt

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42 minutes ago, henburg said:


No, I see where you’re coming from. As a kid growing up, I literally didn’t make the connection between Blue Jackets and the civil war for years because of that goofy bug logo, so I was never a fan of that either. I think a lot of the differences in reaction here is also based on what people associate “Kraken” with, so if you associate it with a goofy monster from a bad movie or whatever else, then you’re always going to see this name as a bad joke. I think that in this case the team did a really good job of applying subtlety and restraint to balance it out and the video perfectly conveys the right tone for the identity moving forward, so I’m a big fan.


And that’s fair. Admiral said it best by mentioning that objectively, there is some good stuff to work with here. But the problem is, just like with Vegas, it’s completely dragged down by the bad parts. I absolutely HATE the very existence of an NHL team in Las Vegas, and their entire saga and the way that first season went for them has turned me from being somewhat annoyed with this league, to finding the entire thing completely illegitimate. That being said? They have an objectively good look. They use a shade of grey as the primary that nobody else In any sport uses, and the entire package works well together. In fact, I hate to admit this, I find it to be at least top ten in the league. They also have a dumb as :censored: name, but at least the logic behind that one is they have an owner with a military boner and he was hellbent on getting as close to what he wanted as he possibly could. Not much you can do about that. Seattle, otoh, focus grouped the absolute :censored: out of this one and took more than a year to end up with this steaming turd of an identity. 

 

This Seattle team doesn’t have those same fundamental warts Vegas has, and is probably going to end up getting screwed over in the expansion draft (thanks to Vegas), and they’ll probably be just as middling at first as every other expansion team. I WANT to like this team. I absolutely adore the city of Seattle, and lived there for awhile. They’re the type of city that should have a solid, dignified (at least somewhat) name. 
 

But, no. Instead, they named themselves after a mythical sea creature that has the same name as a bottle of :censored:ty rum that was played out in 2012 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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Simply having an S as the logo when it could have been a whole big sea monster is some truly admirable restraint. Still, Kraken.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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I mean, you’re right about the focus grouping and the issues with Vegas, but the name has the power to transcend its origins. The logo set and uniforms look top-half in the NHL, which is nice.

 

It’s not my favorite name, but I’ve kind of come to see that the execution works. It doesn’t really “jive” with the historical inspiration, but I think it’s close enough to work. It’s not like it’s perpetuating a disproven mess like the Timberwolves and the runes.

 

I like it more than Avalanche, Wild, and Golden Knights.

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Guest darkpiranha
19 minutes ago, Dexter Morgan said:

 Such an odd take, what makes Chicago Cubs name better than either Minnesota Wild or Seattle Kraken 

 

Totally agree!  The only reason almost all the existing names feel 'normal' is that they have been grandfathered in.  "Cubs" is normalized because it has 100+ years of history associated with it.  You don't have to make any mental leap for "why Cubs?" because "Cubs"="baseball team in Chicago".  But if you're starting out today (in a world where the Cubs don't already exist) saying, "Hey, we're going to add a new team in Chicago... what would be a logical name?", Cubs wouldn't rank anywhere in the top 1000 of suggestions.  In fact, it's a stupid, cutesy name trying to play off of Bears.  It's childish.  It presents the team as an infantile, weak version of a stronger animal.  There's no "cub" history associated with Chicago.  Etc.  "Cubs" would be eviscerated by the very same people here who are using it as an example of something classic and traditional.  

 

The only way a team identity becomes classic and iconic is time.  If it's still around 50 years from now, then it was a good idea.  If it fades away, then it was a gimmick or boring.  No one will remember the Charlotte Bobcats identity.  It was a perfectly 'classic' identity, but the team itself didn't stand the test of time.  It's all about what mental image it conjures up in your HEART.  Kraken is a perfectly good 2020 identity, in a world where 99% of the good "classic" identities have already been used. 

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Well, I'd slept on it. I'll never like the way Seattle Kraken sounds but it will grow on me, and hey, maybe people will just say Seattle more than they say Kraken, but that's probably wishful thinking.

 

I sometimes look at the primary logo and grimmace just a little becuase it looks like one of those grafitti style letters, which I've always despised. However, when I actually look at it, and see the construction and see it on a jersey, it's really nice. I love the subtle tentacles and the execution of the eye in the crook of the S is great.

 

I also love the shoulder patch like many do. But I'm not going to be one of those people who proclaim that 'it would look great as a primary logo!', because I always feel like shoulder patch designs are not really intended to be main logos. It wouldn't look right. It's like the Vegas star as a primary - no, it's a shoulder patch. Just leave it on the shoulders. It's perfect for that. It really is a perfect shoulder patch logo.

 

And the jerseys are good. I'm hesitant about the double blue (triple really), because I don't like Winnipeg's jerseys for the same reason, but I think that also comes down to the template they use, and Seattle are going with a bit more of a traditional striping pattern so I think I'll be ok with it. 

 

Overall, dislike the name, but I'll giver everything else an A-.

I'm Danny fkn Heatley, I play for myself. That's what fkn all stars do.

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