The Arena Ultimate Associaion (AUA) - Updated w/Houston + Whole League Logos Sheet

[WLD42]

This is such a fun thread! The idea behind the fictional sport is intriguing enough, but the designs themselves are top-notch and really bring it to life. Since there's only 8 teams (so far), I'll try and make some comments on all of them.

 

Some C&C thoughts on the sport/league as a whole:

• I think it'd be great if there were some way to have the third co-ed match guaranteed to be played, rather than just as an "if necessary" tiebreaker, for the fans to get their money's worth and have something to be excited about when attending/watching a fledgling league. I know you liked the "winner-take-all" nature of awarding points in the season standings for each 3-game match, and I'm all for that as well, but I'm sure there could be a way to make the third game relevant even if one team swept the first two, whether it counts towards a standings tiebreak, or bonus partial points (.25, .5, something) in the standings if a team sweeps all three games. (I also know that this isn't really what we're here for and the thread is about the design, but I'm going a little stream-of-consciousness and having a tough time stopping myself!)
• I was a little iffy at first about so many team logos including an actual disc or having a circle/oval/roundel "representing" a disc, it seemed like it could get into the realm of "slap a hockey stick on the minor league team logo" tackiness, but that's the beauty of a circle: it really is so simple that it stands up as a design element in and of itself. So no worries there!
• I love the style of the uniforms! Even though you're using a standard soccer template, you've made a unique and recognizable look for Arena Ultimate, with the oversized logos and heavy use of off-center/asymmetrical elements.

Pittsburgh Hammers: I'm a big fan of the color scheme, it looks great, and the uniforms are absolute winners (though I'd say that about pretty much all the teams). The diamond grate pattern on the logo's disc looks really good, as does the sublimated diamond pattern on the uniforms. I'm curious how it would look if the sublimated pattern was the actual diamond grate from the logo, rather than just individual diamonds? I could see that getting too busy, though. I like the idea behind the logo, but something about the arm seems a bit off; the shape of it feels kind of "stiff" in comparison to the disc, and the fingers look a little claw-like. I'm not an artist, though, more of a uniform guy, so I don't have any good suggestions on how to improve it. The subtle hammer shape is a great idea, though I didn't really see it until I read your explanation of it; if I ignore the disc's trail, I actually see a bit of a "P" for Pittsburgh in the shape of the logo, too!

 

Portland Ringers: Once again a winning color scheme, and even though the logo's pretty simple, I can't help but be drawn to it; the disc/tree slice hybrid really works, and I like the font. As far as the uniforms, I feel like there's a really good thought process and the uniforms themselves are allllmost there with just a little tweaking: I wish the triple-stripes continued on the back rather than cutting off at the sides (I feel like that might look funny in real life on a 3D body, and I see a little hint of stripes fading away on the back, but they don't line up with where the stripes on the front would wrap around); along the same lines, I think the sleeve stripes could just be "plain" stripes that go all the way around; and I wonder having the home shirt be tan is a dark enough color to really contrast with other teams' white away shirts, so maybe swap the tan and the brown on the home?

 

Gold City Gatekeepers: No real negatives or nitpicks or ideas from me here! I like the logo a lot, and I do appreciate that it's a little less "Ultimate-specific" and more of just a classic city+team-name logo. The colors on the uniform seem a little washed out in comparison to the colors in the logo, and I'm not sold on the font for the player number, it seems a little more "MS Word" than sports jersey, but I think the simple gradient design is fine, and it'll look a lot better if you just redo the same design with the actual logo colors. The only other potential suggestion, just for the sake of trying it, would be to have the logo on just one shoulder and the bridge on just one leg, probably opposite of one another (i.e. right shoulder and left leg, or vice-versa), just to unclutter things a bit.

 

Philadelphia Stallions: Another great identity, nothing too crazy or out of the box, but solidly executed. Maybe the mouth looks a little strange? But that's about it. I think the oversized horse head on the shoulder works; the uniforms are so simple aside from that, which seems to be on-brand for this fictional brand, but the big logo is in keeping with how you've made Arena Ultimate look. The stripe down just the one side is just the right thing to keep it from being too plain, too, IMO.

 

Boston Landsharks: Love the name, love the colors, love the logo (and the updated eye is a change for the better). Huge fan of the uniforms, too. If I'd make a suggestion, since I've been making them for everyone else, I'd try making the green stripe down the arms thicker. Definitely my second-favorite identity of the league so far...

 

Oakland Cutters: ...And this is my first! I'm a sucker for clean lines and bold shapes that aren't over-detailed in both uniforms and logos, I guess, so I like the lines and curves and shapes that make the ship, I love that the logo is a roundel but that the ship can also "break free" from it if the design calls for it. Reusing the roundel striping pattern for the cuffs on the uniform looks great. The only comment I'd make is that the home is a little monochromatic, and with such a bright shade of blue it might be a bit much. I'd suggest making the arms black, and/or the shorts black, but looking at all the other teams, it seems that you've self-imposed a design rule that the home and away are identical designs with color-swaps, and every team has only one shorts design that's worn with the home and the away, so if you don't want to break that rule for just the one team, it's good enough to stay as-is. Or I suppose the home could get black arms and the away could get blue arms. (Along those lines, though, I noticed that the Stallions are the only ones where the shorts changed between home and away, where the gray stripe went away and the shorts became solid red. I think it'd look fine to keep the same shorts with the gray stripe on the away uniform.)

 

New York Atlas: Loving the choice for the identity. As recognizable as the Atlas sculpture is, I've never really seen it used as an icon of the city like this, certainly for a sports team; it's always the Statue of Liberty, which definitely feels overdone by this point. The color scheme is unique and looks really good, although on the uniforms the dark color looks a little bit more like a purple/blue hybrid, while in the logo it looks more of a "true" dark blue, and frankly I'm partial to the shade that's in the uniform. The uniform looks good, I like the NY monogram on the arms and the stripped-down logo holding up the numbers, but I'd like to see the disc that he's holding in dark blue/purple rather than bright blue on the away shirt; I think the away has too much bright blue and not enough dark blue/purple. The half-and-half shorts are an interesting decision, and while I'm not 100% sold on it, I think it's unique enough that it could work as a quirky part of the team's identity.

 

Anyways, that was a lot more than I expected to write! But if you couldn't tell, I'm a fan of this thread and this project of yours, and I'm looking forward to Seattle, possible expansion, and whatever else you choose to design and share!

[Wildcomet]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad this was enjoyed so far and those were some really good pointers and ideas you provided! I am putting some of them to use, and making some other little adjustments to some of the uniforms and should have some of those ready to share soon.  That was a good note about the difference between colors on some logos & uniforms. As I've worked with the template I created I found it caused some coloration issues with some of the darker colors. I've learned to make adjustments as I've made these so I was able to go back and fix some of that.

 

With all that said, let's check out the last team of the Original 8; bow down to the Seattle Reign!

 

A lot of this identity is based off Seattle's flag and nickname, which is where the round, twisting banners came from; it reminded me of the inset a jewel could be placed in, which connected with the Emerald City nickname. The Space Needle also felt like it could be similar to scepter at the top, so it all felt that it could fit together. The colors all came from Seattle's city flag.

 

 

The space needle portion of the logo is used most prominently here, along the sides of the shorts and on the sleeves (way more zoomed in on the sleeves though). I worked the twisting banners into the shoulders to help separate them from the main part of the jersey, and I think they really help grab attention without being too gaudy. I wanted a font that came off kind of royal and archaic but not too tough to read and I think this fits the bill.

 

 

Hope these are enjoyed and a good way to cap off the initial run of this series! I'll be doing some revisions to the uniforms based on the feedback I received, and found inspiration for some new teams so I'll be expanding the league and keeping the series going for a least a little longer. Hope you all enjoy!

[osctheg]

The Seattle Reign already exist as OL Reign, a Women's soccer team.

[Wildcomet]

4 hours ago, osctheg said:

The Seattle Reign already exist as OL Reign, a Women's soccer team.

 

Ahh, missed that one, thanks. I'll give some thought to a potential rebrand in the future.

[Wildcomet]

Good morning! I have a couple revised uniforms to share.

 

The first one is a fairly minor change to the Portland Ringers. The main thing was revising the rings and extending them all the way around the shirt. Originally I thought doing so would run into the numbers and clutter the back up, but it actually works pretty well.

 

 

This one is maybe the biggest change I plan to do for now, the re-do of the Gold City Gatekeepers. I took the larger bridge graphic off one side of the shorts, and replaced it with a smaller version of the full logo. I also reduced the size of the sleeve logos, added a collar based off the logo shadow design with some piping and added pickaxe blades extending from the front piping pointing to the wordmark on the chest. The coloring was changed a bit to get it closer to the logo colors, and the name/number font was altered to read a little better.

 

[WLD42]

Both of those revisions look great. As minor as the Ringers update is, it definitely makes it look more polished, and the new Gatekeepers uniforms are fantastic! Big steps up for both.

 

I'm digging Seattle, whether you end up keeping the name or changing it. I really like the color scheme, though it could be a nostalgia bias since it's the same as the minor league hockey team I grew up watching. The uniforms are good, especially the use of the twisting banners on the shoulders; the only suggestion I'd make is that the pattern gets a little muddled on the home jersey where the teal and purple touch, so maybe give it a white outline to separate the two colors? I like the font you chose, it's unique and has character without being tacky or difficult to read. The logo looks a little busy, but it could literally just be the inclusion of the team name inside the roundel that throws it off, because the font is so small; it's particularly noticeable when you scale it down in the uniform graphic.

[Skycast]

As an occasional and recreational Ultimate player I really dig this thread.

[Wildcomet]

Good morning! I have an update to the New York Atlas uniforms. It's not major; I just took the suggestion to change the away jersey front graphic and most of the collar to the darker shade of blue, and I did revise the logo to match the shade on the uniforms. I experimented with some orange piping on the shorts in the back separating the blues but it didnt seem like it was adding much to me so I left it off.

 

 

 

The next post will include a preview of the coming 4-team Midwest Division, as well as a summary sheet of the AUA's "Original 8" franchises. I'm giving thought to either a 4th division somewhere in either the South or the Great Plains/Rocky Mountains region, or just start expanding more in what by then would be the three existing divisions. At this time I'm leaning to a 4th distinct division so that I can have two even conferences.

[Wildcomet]

Good day! I appreciate the people who have followed along and interacted with this series so far. I thought it would be good to share a single page that gives a summary of all the teams thus far, to help any new people who may come along in the future. I think it helps to see some of the league-wide design trends that developed as this series has gone on.

 

 

And now for a look forward. I'm still working on my 4th division, but I have a pretty solid plan for the next four franchises. This has the locations and planned color schemes. 

 

 

 

I don't get on my computer much during weekends, but I will hopefully get the first of these expansion teams shared out next week!

[squad]

Portland Ringers is my favorite. Clean, simple and good colors.

 

 

[Wildcomet]

Good dayI It's time to bring out the first of the next phase of the AUA's growth into the central United States. I think I'm going to start with the Eastern-most team and work my way West with this group. Say hello to the Grand Rapids Taps!

 

The name is inspired by the craft beer scene in Grand Rapids, which is said to be one of the best in the country (haven't been there personally). The GR are all shaped to resemble a sort of tap system, with the tap itself and a glass forming the R. The colors are sourced from pictures of glasses of IPA, Amber Ale and a Stout respectively. The name felt like a throwback to me, almost the sort of thing an old baseball team would be called, so I tried to stick with that by using a more traditional font style, and a letter-based logo.

 

 

 

Given my inspiration of seeing this as a sort of throwback, I decided to incorporate a feature popularized a long time ago on uniforms- pinstripes. I combined them with a modern twist though; the pinstripes work through a gradient from the yellow IPA to the dark stout colors, which both look pretty good on either the amber home or road white jerseys. A small version of the logo and the team slogan adorn the right leg of the shorts, and larger logos are placed on each arm sleeve along with a baseball-esque large wordmark and smaller number on the chest. The socks are based on the pint-glass part of the main logo.

 

 

 

Next on deck is Indianapolis, which I should have ready to share in a day or two. Hope you like!

[Wildcomet]

Here is my concept for the AUA's expansion into Indianapolis: the Indiana Disciples!

 

Disciples is a pretty popular name for ultimate frisbee clubs given the pun, so I thought I would bring it to the professional level, and Indianapolis felt like a place where it would work well to me. The logo is meant to invoke the idea of a halo, but i widened it out a bit to make it also resemble a disc, with the streaks behind it forming a D shape. I kept the font for the wordmark pretty simple and straightforward to help it stand out even on a lighter background given that none of the colors are too terribly dark. That was an intentional choice to give the whole identity a light, dare I say angelic, feel without making it all too overtly religious or anything.  

 

 

 

I used elements of the logo, or the logo itself in several places on the uniforms. The shoulder stripes are a stretched out form of the streaks behind the disc in the logo, and similar streaks go out from the front jersey number and wrap around the player's side. The logo also appears in whole on the jersey sleeves, and a rotated version with the streaks extended is on the shorts to make the shorts stripes on the sides. I am worried that its just too much light colors and maybe too much yellow, but it's a look I hadn't used yet. My head is telling me I got real close to the 'too much' line but didn't cross it, so I'm hoping I wasn't wrong.

 

 

 

Next on the docket will be our newest franchise in Chicago. 

[Wildcomet]

Looks like a good day to share the AUA's next expansion franchise- the Chicago Elevation!

 

Elevation is meant as a reference both to a type of throw used in ultimate called an elevator pass, and the many skyscrapers making up Chicago's skyline. The logo is based off Willis Tower. Behind the tower is a 6-pointed star from Chicago's flag framed in a circle. Chicago's flag is front and center on the side of the skyscraper. The skyscraper and the circle behind it can both be separated to use as secondary logos. 

 

 

For the uniform, I decided to do something similar to what I've seen the Bears and Northwestern do with some alternate uniforms and put the horizontal stripes on the chest leading into the star logo. The flag is of course the basis for the stripe pattern on the chest and the sleeves. I put mirrored chevrons on the jerseys and shorts side panels. I also put the building logo on the socks, and the team slogan 'Rise Up' on the bottom of the left shorts sleeve.

 

 

 

Next up I'll finish off the Midwest division with a trip to Minnesota, then get into the Southern Division teams.

[WLD42]

Looking good! The Taps definitely have the classic look you were aiming for. I think the only thing I'm not entirely sold on is the way the pinstripes' gradient moves horizontally across the jersey; it's unique, but I think that the dark stout color gets a bit lost on the home jersey's dark base color. I'd suggest having the gradient move vertically, with the pinstripes starting yellow at the shoulders and ending dark at the bottom of the shirt.

 

Love the Disciples! Literally the only C&C I have is exactly the concern that you had yourself, that the gray could be a little darker; there's not quite enough contrast between the gray, yellow, and white, and all the light colors bleed together. I'm a big fan of the streaks from the front numbers wrapping around the side, but with the current colors you can hardly tell it's there.

 

And another winner with Chicago. The uniforms are fantastic; the socks might be a bit "much" with a complete graphic on them, so if you wanted to tone it down but still have them be interesting, maybe try just the four stars going up the socks, without the building. That said, if you wanted to try a bigger change, the first thing I thought when I saw that you'd named them the Elevation wasn't Chicago's skyscrapers, but the city's El train. Locomotive themes aren't exactly new in sports, whether real-life or concepts, but I still think it could work for your concept if you wanted to try it!

[Arch2362]

Chicago is awesome, I love the chest/sleeve stripes, and I think they would look really good on the socks as well.

 

With the Gold City Gatekeepers, how about red pants? the gold/red/gray color scheme is great, but I feel like the gray/white and gray/gold gradients prevent the color combo from popping like it could.

[Wildcomet]

On 1/18/2021 at 3:28 AM, Arch2362 said:

Chicago is awesome, I love the chest/sleeve stripes, and I think they would look really good on the socks as well.

 

With the Gold City Gatekeepers, how about red pants? the gold/red/gray color scheme is great, but I feel like the gray/white and gray/gold gradients prevent the color combo from popping like it could.

 

Thanks! I'll defintely give those ideas a try. I'd been giving some thought on the Chicago socks and I like that idea.

[Wildcomet]

While I work on some tweaks to the Elevation's uniform, here's the last Midwest team ready to share: The Minnesota Miners!

 

This identity is inspired by the mining industry which is prominent throughout Minnesota, which is why two of the colors are copper, and shade of gray I sampled from a nickel. The pickaxes, which I did my best to make them different from those in the Golden City logo, are obviously making an M shape above a copper/nickel ingot. This is another logo which I designed to be able to separate into multiple secondary logos: the ingot on its own, the pickaxe M on its own, and the outlining around the M (seen in the wordmark). 

 

 

 

The ingot logo are seen on opposing short/jersey sleeves with the pickaxe logo on the opposing jersey sleeve. The pickaxe M logo is integrated into the piping to separate the shoulders from the chest/back of the jersey. There is also a nickel colored side panel running down one side of the uniform with the HITTINPAYDIRT slogan written vertically along the panels.

 

 

 

Aside from some possible revisions and touch-ups, next will be the expansion into the Southern division. I have that division pretty well locked down now, so here's a graphic showing what to expect for the last 4 teams:

 

 

 

Thanks for the C & C on the concepts I've shared this far, it's always appreciated! I hope you all like what I came up with for Minnesota and where we're going next.

[Wildcomet]

Good morning everyone! Here's the first entry in the new Southern Division, the Atlanta Ospreys!

 

I felt like it would be good to continue in the Atlanta sports tradition of naming teams after birds, like the Hawks, Falcons and the former Thrashers. This logo, like others in this division kind of moves away from trying to make an explicit Ultimate reference, as by this point I'd imagine the league has begun to establish itself a bit more and doesn't need to do it as much to build up an identity as a league. The color scheme is something that I feel works well, and is fairly unique in the AUA as no other team features a similar shade of purple as a primary color. It is admittedly similar to the AAF Atlanta team that existed, but hey it works and they aren't around anymore. The #WEOWNTHESKIES slogan is a dual reference with the sport of Ultimate, as a sky is a term for jumping up high to grab the disc out of the air.

 

 \

 

I brought back the oversized shoulder logo concept for these uniforms while having the logo also extend into one of the sleeves below the shoulder. The wordmark takes up the other sleeve under the shoulder. The front wing is the source of the stripe design on the shorts.

 

 

 

I think I'll be going East to West again, so the next new team up should be New Orleans, however I may be able to drop some revisions to Midwest division teams before then.Hope you all enjoy; C & C is of course appreciated. Thanks for viewing!

[Wildcomet]

Good morning all!

 

Today I have a slight revision to the uniforms of the Chicago Elevation. A couple people suggested taking a second look at the socks, and I liked the idea of putting the flag stripes on them so I changed those. I think it helps bring the whole package together.

 

 

[WLD42]

Love the Ospreys, no suggestions for changes coming from me! I'm really digging the color scheme, and I just wanted to appreciate the subtle bird's-eye in the wordmark's "O".

 

The updated Chicago socks are definitely the right call, too. Looks great! Looking forward to the rest of the South!