NHL’s New Seattle Kraken Announce Name & Logos

[andrewharrington]

4 hours ago, Gothamite said:

I think they're really going to regret not having merchandise available for sale on shop.nhl.com, even if it's only pre-order.

 

 

4 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

Lots over overpriced stuff here: https://www.releasethekrakenstore.com/Main/Default

 

No jerseys though. They'd have made a fortune in pre-orders today.

I guess that’s the sacrifice you have to make in order to keep a lid on it these days.

 

But the jerseys... the paint’s still dry on those. We don’t even have samples yet.

 

4 hours ago, generalshepherd141 said:

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I don't like the jerseys and colors. Very disappointed.

You seriously need to have FOUR shades of blue? Really? That seems so minor league to me. Oh and thank god you went the Vegas route and added a red stripe on your uniforms that looks really out of place.

This identity would've been so much sleeker had green been used somewhere. This screams generic to me. I have to say I love the logos though, and I actually love the name.

 

Wouldn’t green make them look too much like Vancouver?
 

4 hours ago, ltjets21 said:

Am I missing the mark here? I clearly see the eye and the tentacle in the logo but dont see how they go together.

 

That’s... the *mystery* now, isn’t it?
 

2 hours ago, Dynasty said:

 

What folklore is in Seattle? It sure isn't a giant mythical cephalopod. The North Atlantic Ocean and the Puget Sound are two different places. SMH.

Too easy, man.

 

1 hour ago, IceCap said:

Seems to me like this is a "I want to be able to have my cake and eat it too" moment.

"Seattle has a significant population of people of Scandinavian ancestry, therefore a name that comes from Scandinavian folklore is valid."
Ok.

So why does the iconography of the identity lean into the giant squid depiction of the kraken when the actual kraken of Scandinavian lore was described as a giant fish?

 

Don't get me wrong, your logo is beautiful. It's as good a "Kraken" logo as I've ever seen. I'm glad that they went with something as good as this if they had to use this dated, memetic name.

This is just a pet peeve of mine. Designers mis-understanding the history and folklore they so desperately want to reference in their work.

To characterize it as “mis-understanding the history and folklore” is off-base. You have to balance authenticity with communication. The Kraken myth has evolved over centuries to a point that the most commonly held perception of the creature (by far) is a tentacled beast, not a giant fish. If you put out a fish logo and call yourself “Kraken,” you’re correct, but you’ve also lost the credibility of your audience because that’s not what Kraken means to the average person. The Scandinavian influence and the blackletter style were chosen to bring authenticity (of both the culture/era of origin, as well as said culture’s strong ties to Seattle) to the conceptual foundation of the identity, but when the sun sets, it still has to make sense for people. Tentacles and mystery do, fish don’t.

[FiddySicks]

1 minute ago, SFGiants58 said:

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.

Astounding to me that people feel this way. I think the logos are almost as gimmicky and minor league looking the name. 

[SFGiants58]

Just now, FiddySicks said:

Astounding to me that people feel this way. I think the logos are almost as gimmicky and minor league looking the name. 

Eh, nothing wrong with thinking that. I’d say the Avs have a much worse logo, as do the Golden Knights, Senators, Capitals, Panthers, Lightning, etc. I’ll even take it over the PokéShark.

[FiddySicks]

The NHL objectively has the worst logos in the major 4. I’d say MLS is worse, but not for long. 

[TaylorMade]

4 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

Lots over overpriced stuff here: https://www.releasethekrakenstore.com/Main/Default

 

No jerseys though. They'd have made a fortune in pre-orders today.

 

All of the profits from that merchandise is going to charity.

[Guest darkpiranha]

2 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

Astounding to me that people feel this way. I think the logos are almost as gimmicky and minor league looking the name. 

 

Minor league would be a giant cartoon squid with a hockey stick in one tentacle and the other tentacles envoloping the giant angled wordmark as both emerge out of the water.  Bonus points if the wordmark is stylized to look like it's made out of wood or shaped like a boat.  Triple score if there are 18 colors in the logo.  

[The_Admiral]

8 minutes ago, darkpiranha said:

In fact, it's a stupid, cutesy name trying to play off of Bears.

 

Other way around, the Bears were trying to be a more intimidating version of the Cubs because they moved into Wrigley Field.

[VikWings]

I love the jerseys and that light blue color. Can give or take the logo, someone said it looks like Seagrams S, looks more like a Seahorse than anything kraken related. Still think Sockeyes would have been better.

 

I'd definitely rock a light blue hat with either logo, but the space needle anchor is great.

[habsfan1]

56 minutes ago, lilgump said:

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

 

December 12th 2017 not bad!

 

 

 

 

@406Cane's post went almost completely unnoticed, until now.

[DEAD!]

Next step for Seattle is to get the Supersonics back along with Squatch.

 

[The_Admiral]

The original Seattle Kraken concept goes back to 2013, but I found an even earlier instance in a fantasy sports thread:

 

 

[sky1324]

16 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

The NHL objectively has the worst logos in the major 4. I’d say MLS is worse, but not for long. 

I'd disagree, the NBA's got some real stinkers in there. The NHL's certainly got some bad ones, but Seattle is not one of them.

[IceCap]

27 minutes ago, andrewharrington said:

The Scandinavian influence...of both the culture/era of origin, as well as said culture’s strong ties to Seattle...

The whole "Scandinavians live in Seattle!" thing seems like an afterthought, to be honest. The whole "Kraken" thing was born out of the "RELEASE THE KRAKEN" meme that people thought would be cool for Seattle because...ocean. Some people replied with "what does a monster from Scandinavian folklore have to do with Seattle?"

At which point the first group of people stumbled across the history of Scandinavian immigration to the Pacific Northwest and went "see it works!" and thought nothing else of it.

That is to say that the "Scandinavian people live in Seattle" thing has always felt like an afterthought of a justification for a name chosen for the memery potential.

 

I'll give you a lot of props though. The logo is beautiful. The sweaters are very nice. The font chosen/designed for the numbers is perfect. It reads cleanly but still gives me an old timey seafaring vibe. The identity itself is great.

And you didn't just start making up fake viking runes to try and appeal to the Scandinavian heritage of the area like Nike did with the Timberwolves in Minnesota. So points there

 

On that note though...

That Timberwolves/fake viking runes thing is the most egregious example of a problem I still see here though. And that is...

27 minutes ago, andrewharrington said:

To characterize it as “mis-understanding the history and folklore” is off-base...If you put out a fish logo and call yourself “Kraken,” you’re correct, but you’ve also lost the credibility of your audience because that’s not what Kraken means to the average person...but when the sun sets, it still has to make sense for people. Tentacles and mystery do, fish don’t.

I'm going to be frank here. And also state up front that you're a very talented designer and by all accounts a great guy. And I do appreciate that you're able to talk about and share some insights into how this stuff works with us. So I want to make it clear I respect your work a great deal and what I'm about to say is not meant as an insult.

 

You (and other pro designers) are not historians. You are not scholars of mythology or folklore. You are not literary scholars. It irks me when so many designers TRY to be these things, as if a Wikipedia skim session is enough to go "yep I got it. I'm totally down with this area's local history."

 

You said "[t]o characterize it as “mis-understanding the history and folklore” is off-base" to which I disagree wholeheartedly.

I've got two history degrees. I've got a minor in English literature. I've written finger-numbingly long research papers on medieval Scandinavian history, mythology, and literature. That's what I ended up studying because I care about this stuff. Both as an academic and as someone who just finds the history, mythology, and culture interesting.

So any attempt to try and tie a giant squid to the idea of the kraken is going to trigger that part of my brain that goes "that's just the result of travel guide literature in the 18th century conflating two separate myths."

 

You're right to say that that the popular conception of the kraken is that of a giant squid, but popular history isn't always correct. And while I don't expect a top flight pro sports team to market directly to "historians who studied medieval viking stuff" I'm also not ever going to like the idea they went with on a personal level. 

 

Good job on the identity though. Looks sweet.

 

21 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

The NHL objectively has the worst logos in the major 4. I’d say MLS is worse, but not for long. 

It's the NBA and it's not even close.

[Cujo]

53 minutes ago, Dexter Morgan said:

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

 

How does one even dignify that with an answer?

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Bring on the Palm springs affiliate! I just moved close to it.

[Red Wolf]

I wish it weren't a multi-blue look. I feel like we got our fill of that in the early 2000's.

 

26 minutes ago, andrewharrington said:

Wouldn’t green make them look too much like Vancouver?

 

A primarily green look would not, but I don't think that's what the other poster was necessarily advocating.

[habsfan1]

26 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

Next step for Seattle is to get the Supersonics back along with Squatch.

 

They now have a suitable building, I assume. I don't fully know the reasons how Seattle managed to lose the Sonics and especially how they've gone this long without their basketball team.

 

I miss this logo.

[Cujo]

26 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

Astounding to me that people feel this way. I think the logos are almost as gimmicky and minor league looking the name. 

 

The NHL is basically embracing the minor league mentality. As we've stated before, the cute MiLB names, wonky new playoff format, 3-man overtime, and "hey look at me" post-game routines (see Hurricanes) are all proof. None of the other three major sports embrace things like this. In fact, after reading much of today's thread, I'm seeing many comparisons to MLS, which is where the NHL has been gravitating to when it comes to overall popularity in the States.

[Dexter Morgan]

8 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

How does one even dignify that with an answer?

old doesn’t  mean good. 
 

why the name because Chicago and cubs start with c? How creative. 

[Corvus]

7 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

How does one even dignify that with an answer?

 

 

Are names for young/baby animals any more respectable or professional than cryptids? 

 

Cubs is a fine name, but it's not inherently any more dignified than calling a new sport team Pups or Kittens, other than having the weight of a long history behind it.