NHL’s New Seattle Kraken Announce Name & Logos

[Chromatic]

12 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

My point: It's things like that which differentiate the NHL from the other "Big 3" professional sports. The Hurricanes circus act and franchises named Krakens Gone Wild are things we see and expect on the minor-league level.

 

Please. The NBA and NFL were putting on shows and such before the NHL. The NHL you're still expected to show up in a suit if you're a player. Also the name thing is silly. Is Kraken a dumb name? Yes. But those other leagues have the Magic, the Bills, the Phillies, etc. And if those names didn't have decades of history and came out today we'd be laughing at them as much as we are Kraken.

[Ridleylash]

20 minutes ago, Cujo said:

My point: It's things like that which differentiate the NHL from the other "Big 3" professional sports. The Hurricanes circus act and franchises named Krakens Gone Wild are things we see and expect on the minor-league level.

And perhaps it's that same vanilla-ass presentation that's kept hockey from penetrating like the NFL and NBA do; there's no real personalities shown in hockey unless it's someone like Marchand. Most of the stars are bland.

[Guest darkpiranha]

Above all of any of the celebration shenanigans, the thing that keeps the NHL minor league in the eyes of general sports fans is the (thankfully dying out) celebration of fighting.  In all other aspects of life (and sports), it's expected that adults can control themselves and not throw punches at someone who hurted their feelings or offended them or even got a painful hit in on them.  It's only in hockey that it seems people are unable to control themselves and must be granted the freedom to drop their gloves and engage in pre-planned, pseudo-fights just so the crowds can scream and smack on the glass.  I get it that there's a vocal hardcore segment of hockey fandom that still gets all excited for this sort of thing, but for the rest of the world, it looks utterly silly and childish and low-rent.  The generally-acknowledged greatest hockey ever played was the 87 Canada Cup, which was a celebration of pure hockey ability instead of being ground down by the threat of fighting.  

 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[Guest darkpiranha]

7 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

And perhaps it's that same vanilla-ass presentation that's kept hockey from penetrating like the NFL and NBA do; there's no real personalities shown in hockey unless it's someone like Marchand. Most of the stars are bland.

 

Sadly, this is true.  I think the stars have it drilled into their heads to not EVER to do or say anything that might be construed as controversial or bulletin-board material.  Sydney Crosby and Connor McDavid have been two of the most transcendent players of the last twenty years, and arguably the two DULLEST interview subjects.  But you can't really blame them when anyone can and WILL take something they say and twist it against them.  Still, it's sad that the NHL stars seem to not be having that much fun when you speak to them.

[The_Admiral]

Spontaneous expression is cool. Contrived choreography to pop Reddit and Twitter is stupid. That's why the Bobby Orr photo is a classic and the time the Hurricanes did the Fortnite dance because they won a game in January will be forgotten. 

 

  

12 minutes ago, darkpiranha said:

Above all of any of the celebration shenanigans, the thing that keeps the NHL minor league in the eyes of general sports fans is the (thankfully dying out) celebration of fighting.  In all other aspects of life (and sports), it's expected that adults can control themselves and not throw punches at someone who hurted their feelings or offended them or even got a painful hit in on them.  It's only in hockey that it seems people are unable to control themselves and must be granted the freedom to drop their gloves and engage in pre-planned, pseudo-fights just so the crowds can scream and smack on the glass.

 

Football is the most popular sport in America and MMA is on the rise. No one has a problem with violence, they just have a problem with relatable violence.

[Cujo]

22 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

there's no real personalities shown in hockey unless it's someone like Marchand. Most of the stars are bland.

 

You kinda nailed it. However, that's pretty much how it always been. Gretzky. Mario. Bourque. They just kept their head down and let their play do the talking. Every once in a while you had someone like Patrick Roy open their yap, but for the most part NHL personalities are nonexistent.

[chakfu]

44 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

You kinda nailed it. However, that's pretty much how it always been. Gretzky. Mario. Bourque. They just kept their head down and let their play do the talking. Every once in a while you had someone like Patrick Roy open their yap, but for the most part NHL personalities are nonexistent.

 

I'm only a very casual hockey fan, but i think the gear and pace of play inherently cause some of this problem.  In the NBA you can recognize the players since they're not covered in pads, helmets, or even hats. In baseball there are constant pauses where the camera cuts to the batter, pitcher, or other players; it's easy to know who is standing where, and they can be recognized.  In football players mostly can be identified by their position, and what they do on each play,  it resets each play, and is often replayed.

 

Meanwhile hockey is fast and continuous, with similar looking guys covered in identical pads , weaving around the whole rink, not fixed in one position...and to top it off substituting in and out during play.   18 guys in identical armor cycling in and out continously are inevitably going to be more anonymous than 5 basketball players in shorts and tank tops (whose faces and hair can be seen and who have wider variation in height and ethnicity.)   The constant tension and edge of your seat , anything can happen at any time nature of hockey also leaves less time for "getting to know you" .

[LMU]

On 7/25/2020 at 5:50 PM, BringBackTheVet said:

 

The Krakens are now my favorite team and I want a goddam hat NOW NOT NEXT YEAR.

[The_Admiral]

Michael Eisner once took it upon himself to offer the NHL some helpful marketing suggestions and one of them was that players would have to take their helmets off on the bench and then only put them back on for their shifts. I understand how he came to the conclusion, but it came from the same place as trying to unscrew the puck to see what was inside: I think any player who would have had to deal with the rigmarole of constantly donning and removing a helmet would have looked at him like an alien. 

[Cujo]

9 minutes ago, the admiral said:

Michael Eisner once took it upon himself to offer the NHL some helpful marketing suggestions

 

[lost_limey]

2 hours ago, darkpiranha said:

 

Sadly, this is true.  I think the stars have it drilled into their heads to not EVER to do or say anything that might be construed as controversial or bulletin-board material.  Sydney Crosby and Connor McDavid have been two of the most transcendent players of the last twenty years, and arguably the two DULLEST interview subjects.  But you can't really blame them when anyone can and WILL take something they say and twist it against them.  Still, it's sad that the NHL stars seem to not be having that much fun when you speak to them.

 

I'm biased as a Caps fan, but at least Ovi comes across as a personality more than a hockey robot.

[sportsfan7]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

 

 

 

[-kj]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

 

 

Still a better logo than the current look.

[El Scorcho]

4 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

There's nothing wrong with any of that.

 

My point: It's things like that which differentiate the NHL from the other "Big 3" professional sports. The Hurricanes circus act and franchises named Krakens Gone Wild are things we see and expect on the minor-league level.

 

The Bucks post videos of themselves conducting professional wrestling skits on social media all the time. They are currently favourites to win the title.

 

The NBA also has a popular franchise called the Raptors, named after raptors became popularised by Jurassic Park. They won the title last year. 

 

Kraken gives them fun marketing scope and they've formed a cool identity around it. It doesn't stop them being a serious hockey team when it matters. 

[Corvus]

On 7/25/2020 at 12:40 PM, andrewharrington said:

I never claim to be a historian, however, I have to emphatically reiterate that we do our research (and lots of it) because we know there are people out there who will appreciate those intellectual details (or, in your case, become infuriated by them ). Kidding aside, I only took offense to the way you characterized it because it implies that we just wing it and generalize without knowing better or even trying to learn or understand the history and significance of the material we’re using as inspiration.

 

I learned far more than I ever wanted to about the origin of this legend, but it was very clear early on that it just wasn’t going to work for people if we were completely authentic to the original stories, so we had to bend it a bit to make it successful in a commercial context (unfortunate, but this is America, after all). Believe me, I understand your frustration as an actual historian. In hindsight, though, I’m proud that we did our best to intelligently link together seemingly incongruous things and respect the authentic history of the myth as much as possible while making it accessible for the audience (more on that a few quotes below), and I think the balance is working pretty well. Could it have been better? Sure. Nevertheless, it’s exceeding expectations (especially my own), and I think it’s shaping up to be a benchmark identity, which is cool.

 

To put the Clash/Pirates/pop culture debate to rest, at no time during the process were any of these things mentioned by the ownership group as a reason for choosing this name. It was more than likely in the heads of the fans who suggested and trumpeted it, but the ownership group was never intent on using its pop culture cliché-ness as a springboard. I’d be surprised if they didn’t embrace some of it, though. We’ll see if the “Release the Kraken” slogan sticks around or was just limited to the launch product.

 

Solid discussion.

 

Definitely. We tried to give every piece a little connection to Seattle, the sea, the folklore, and/or history.

 

If I had to guess, a person who posts online as “VancouverFan69” with a Canucks avatar is rock bottom on the club’s priority list, and I think they’re just fine that you have no interest in their club.

 

Surprisingly, he was reluctant on this name. Opinion was very split on it in general, but they committed to it because they were convinced that it was what the fans wanted.

 

 

Honestly, the design of all this stuff was just finalized in the past couple months. There’s not even a physical prototype of this jersey yet. Obviously, there are all kinds of circumstances that dictated the strategy a bit, but people were getting antsy for news. To that point, I understand why they pulled the curtain so early, and also why they passed on having product in the pipeline pre-launch, as they were able to suppress leaks and truly do the unveil on their own terms. Ultimately, the unveil seems like it’s been a success even if it’s not quite as polished or tightly planned as anyone would have liked, and I think having the uniforms as part of the unveiling contributed to that success.
 

You’re right. It’s a tough one to find an alternative name for. There are some nice nautical terms that you might be able to spin a Kraken mascot into, but there’s also a risk of creating dissonance for your audience with that approach.

 

 

Boundless Blue and Shadow Blue are the tonal complements to Deep Sea Blue and Ice Blue. They’re essentially just support colors (though Shadow Blue does take on a minor role in the sleeves and socks). Primary colors are always Deep Sea Blue, Ice Blue, and Red Alert.
 

 

Yes. The keyline is always tethered to the monogram to contain the eye. Without the eye, you could just reverse the logo and you wouldn’t need a keyline at all, but the eye just doesn’t work without the darkness behind it.
 

See above. Not ideal, but those are the circumstances everyone’s dealing with. I would say prepare for summer 2021?

 

I’m glad you brought this up, because it’s a big reason why the creature is so ambiguous in the mark, and why there’s only one tentacle depicted. As you noted, the myth has been conflated and misinterpreted over the centuries, but I think what we have here can reasonably reflect any of the historical depictions, whether it’s a more snakelike form, the giant fish with the tentacle-like necklace, or the modern squid/octo forms.

 

 

Seattle Hockey Club was tossed around a little, even as a name for a Kraken-based identity. I think that would have materialized more like the Greyjoys; a group of people who use their habitat’s most ferocious beast as a symbol for their clan.
 

First, I don’t love the name “Kraken,” but I like it a lot more than I used to. I think the identity is doing it justice and catalyzing a similar shift in public opinion.

 

That said, Seattle Kraken *sounds* decent. Not great, not terrible, but fine. Whether it’s professional or appropriate Is obviously up to the individual, but Edmonton Kraken and Washington Kraken both sound atrocious, so no, it’s not the same thing.

 

Thanks for the replies and the insight. Interesting on Bruckheimer. 

[Bayne]

17 hours ago, WSU151 said:

Really no different than an NFL team celebration in the end zone...it’s just really awful that players are clever and like to have fun...

 

Lol you call this clever. Ok.

[AgentColon2]

6 hours ago, -kj said:

 

Still a better logo than the current look.

This is a better logo than their current look too.

[officeglenn]

From Elliotte Friedman's sportsnet.ca column today, in which he dedicates 6 of his 31 Thoughts to the Kraken identity:

 

Quote

22. Something I learned last week: Adidas does not automatically get the rights to create an NHL team’s jersey.

 

“It is not a rite of passage,” Dan Near, Adidas’ Global Head of Hockey & Lacrosse, said last week. “You have to be interviewed and selected for it. All of the (major) event jerseys default to us. (But) teams can go elsewhere.”

 

Adidas did work with Seattle on its jersey, part of a spectacular Thursday reveal that gave us some fun in the middle of all this.

 

What about the Kraken’s process really stood out to Near?

 

“In every meeting, someone asked, ‘Could you imagine a player lifting the Stanley Cup with this jersey?’” he answered. “They wanted to make sure it could stand the test of time.”

 

“That goes back to when Dave Tippett was here,” said Heidi Dettmer, Seattle’s Vice President of Marketing. (Tippett worked for the expansion team before returning to the bench in Edmonton.) “Right from the beginning, we knew the hockey side of the business was going to play a big role in our brand’s identity.”

 

23. I’ve never seen a wimpy Kraken in any Clash of the Titans or Pirates of the Caribbean film, so I’m not sure such a creature exists. This one wasn’t going to be the first.

 

“This was not going to be a joke, not a cartoon to laugh at,” Near said. “They discussed how, when you skated on the ice, players were going to be proud to wear it.”

 

“We couldn’t have anything that looked like it could be eaten by … a shark,” laughed Katie Townsend, Seattle’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, with a nod to the team’s soon-to-be rival from San Jose.

 

Everyone I spoke to about the reveal described an intense process where things were debated many, many times. Near again: “There were hundreds of discussions, ‘Should there be two eyes? Should we see the monster in its entirety?’ I give them credit for the level of detail. They thought of every angle.”

 

“The eye was the big decision,” Dettmer said.

 

“Once we knew (the logo) was going to be an ’S’ shape, we knew there was only going to be one eye,” Townsend added.

 

There’s no question that not revealing the “full Kraken” was a big discussion, too. The organization wanted some mystery and hasn’t decided if they will ever do it. Will be interesting to see what the mascot looks like.

 

24. I was on Team Kraken from the moment someone suggested it, and was pleasantly surprised with the choice. It’s not conservative. It’s bold and a step outside of the comfort zone. In January 2019, the Seattle Times did a big poll asking what the name should be. Sockeyes won, but Kraken picked up early support. (The format was an elimination bracket.)

 

“In that poll, we noticed a big spike in the chatter by fans (for ‘Kraken’),” Dettmer said. “It was something we listened to.”

 

But internal support for the name existed in team offices as early as 2018. Dettmer remembers a door adorned with a post-it note reading, “Release the Kraken.” (She has no idea who did it.)

 

Kraken was one of three finalists. Dettmer declined to reveal the other two, but the answer was sealed in an envelope, then placed into a time capsule in Seattle’s famed Space Needle. It will be opened in 2062, its 100th anniversary. (I’d better start eating healthy.) When did the organization decide Kraken was the choice?

 

“Last November and December, it emerged as the favourite,” Townsend answered.

 

There was also a codename, to try and prevent leaks. Kraken was known as “Project Cascade.” Townsend said at least one person was fooled into thinking that was going to be the team name.

 

25. Was anyone unsure about the choice?

 

“The sequence was name, identity, colours, uniform,” Near said. “If (the Kraken logo) was drawn up a different way, maybe it couldn’t work. But once I saw the different sketches, I saw how it worked. Add the colours and identity — it clicked together.”

 

“Our fans overwhelmingly wanted blue or green, that kind of pallet (like the Mariners and Seahawks),” Dettmer said.

 

I failed Grade 8 Visual Arts, so I’m not up on the concept of “negative space” — but the black area through the ‘S’ being a tentacle was huge hit:

 

That stuck with me when I saw it, too. I totally missed it on first glance, and thought it was clever. Near pointed out that the pandemic gave Seattle the opportunity to reveal its name, logo and jersey all at the same time. You don’t normally do all three at once, and it really worked for them.

 

26. Will a Stanley Cup banner be raised on Opening Night in Seattle? The Metropolitans were the first American-based team to win the sport’s greatest trophy, and were competing for it in 1919 when the Spanish flu pandemic prevented the Cup from being awarded. Townsend said that president and CEO Tod Leiweke is “very passionate” about that history, but declined to go any further.

 

27. Happily, NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer threw cold water on Jeff Marek’s out-there thoughts that since Seattle’s gone “off the board” with its name, the team should play on green ice. (Marek wants someone to go with a different colour.)

 

[spartacat_12]

12 hours ago, lost_limey said:

I'm biased as a Caps fan, but at least Ovi comes across as a personality more than a hockey robot.

 

He's the exception, not the rule. He has also had his fair share of criticism for stuff like the hot stick celebration, but his consistent high level of play has allowed him to rise above it. PK Subban is a guy who's personality seems to attract more critics now that his play has tailed off the last couple years.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, officeglenn said:

From Elliotte Friedman's sportsnet.ca column today, in which he dedicates 6 of his 31 Thoughts to the Kraken identity:

 

 

 

That's really good stuff right there.  I love that they did the "‘Could you imagine a player lifting the Stanley Cup with this jersey?" test which is usually one of the first ones I do when seeing a new uniform.  I say that they barely squeeked by with this one, and the only reason I say "barely" is because of the eye.  It's definitely on the safe side of being cartoony, but not by a ton.  Without the eye, it's 100% in the classic category.  With the eye it's still professional, just a little less so than, say, an O6 team (which I know is not and should not have been their measuring stick, just making a comparison.)

 

Whether you agree or disagree with the name and/or logos, it's clear that the team drove this, considered all the right things, and whether or not you agree with the outcome, they put a lot of thought into it and got exactly what they set out for.  They didn't just ask adidas to "make something cool" and then run with it.  This is the exact way I hope that WTF works on their new brand.

 

This should be a lesson to everyone that automatically blames Nike or adidas or whoever.  The team is the most important part of the process, and the buck stops with them.  So far, I'd say Seattle is off to a great start.