USFL Logo/Helmet Refresh (AZ Wranglers & OAK Invaders Revisions)

[stumpygremlin]

1 hour ago, Wildcomet said:

Appreciate that about the logo, thanks again for pointing that color out. I changed the location name- not knowing or finding any good reasons why it was named Michigan to begin with mind you (I did try to find one)- because I feel using the state name works better for smaller cities that aren't as much of a "draw", or when the city name is just kind of clunky and hard to pair with a good team name, and Detroit doesn't meet either of those criteria in my view. I honestly think if the USFL had maintained until this day it would probably have changed to Detroit by now to better sell their place in the market. When I hear a team is "Michigan _____" I'm assuming it's in Lansing or Grand Rapids or some other area that's maybe got a decent sized population but not representing a major media market.

See... you have an "M" in light blue on the bottom left of the logo, so the name "Michigan Panthers" works for this logo.

[Skycast]

19 hours ago, Wildcomet said:

Appreciate that about the logo, thanks again for pointing that color out. I changed the location name- not knowing or finding any good reasons why it was named Michigan to begin with mind you (I did try to find one)- because I feel using the state name works better for smaller cities that aren't as much of a "draw", or when the city name is just kind of clunky and hard to pair with a good team name, and Detroit doesn't meet either of those criteria in my view. I honestly think if the USFL had maintained until this day it would probably have changed to Detroit by now to better sell their place in the market. When I hear a team is "Michigan _____" I'm assuming it's in Lansing or Grand Rapids or some other area that's maybe got a decent sized population but not representing a major media market.

 

Your jam here, but will have to disagree. Sorry, but just feels like change for changes sake. 

 

Let's see...all in a (or THE) major city in a state...probably more, but these are quickly off the top of my head.

 

Arizona Cardinals, Diamobacks (Phoenix)

Colorado Avalanche, Rockies (Denver)

Florida Panthers (Miami/Dade somewhere)

Minnesota Timberwolves, Vikings, Wild (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

New England Patriots (hey, a whole region!)

Tampa Bay Buccanneers, Lightning, Rays (Tampa is the city, Tampa Bay is the region of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater)

Utah Jazz (SLC)

 

[Wildcomet]

31 minutes ago, Skycast said:

 

Your jam here, but will have to disagree. Sorry, but just feels like change for changes sake. 

 

Let's see...all in a (or THE) major city in a state...probably more, but these are quickly off the top of my head.

 

Arizona Cardinals, Diamobacks (Phoenix)

Colorado Avalanche, Rockies (Denver)

Florida Panthers (Miami/Dade somewhere)

Minnesota Timberwolves, Vikings, Wild (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

New England Patriots (hey, a whole region!)

Tampa Bay Buccanneers, Lightning, Rays (Tampa is the city, Tampa Bay is the region of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater)

Utah Jazz (SLC)

 

 

Never said they don't ever happen,  just that it's my preference for when they work best. That said, a few of these you listed are ones I see as not major national cities or cities whose names don't always work well for sports teams and would agree they are appropriately used. There is also a factor of tradition in some markets for how you name teams which I didn't think to mention before. Detroit is a nationally prominent city that warrants being named and pretty much all pro teams in the Detroit area follow that convention. Sorry if you don't like the change or agree with my reason, I'll even concede it may be a mistake, but it wasn't for no reason.

 

18 hours ago, stumpygremlin said:

See... you have an "M" in light blue on the bottom left of the logo, so the name "Michigan Panthers" works for this logo.

 

I concede that. I worked it into the logo prior to deciding on the change (as I said, I had thought about it, but ultimately decided that a modern team would want to highlight their direct connection to Detroit and better connect with the community) but liked how it looked so I left it in, thinking it could be a callback reference to their history without distracting from the rest of the logo. If I were to rename back to Michigan Panthers (and am reconsidering based on the feedback I've gotten) I would try altering the logo a bit again to enlarge that area and make the M more prominent to sell it more.

 

Appreciate the feedback. Thanks!

 

[Wildcomet]

This one you've all seen this version of the logo already, but I thought I'd get it onto a helmet and share a finished product. Here's the NEW New Jersey Generals.

 

As past posts mentioned, I felt the old logo was quite out of date, but as this is one that's been tackled many times in the past by multiple designers the ideas that would have worked in my view for a closer modernization of the original logo were essentially taken, so it was a struggle to find a unique voice on this one that worked well and stayed true to the franchise. I ended up here, with the 5 stars rearranged roughly into a chevron pattern backed up by multiple red and yellow chevrons instead of the laurel wreath. Chevrons felt appropriate here being used to represent designations of rank in the military. I carried that onto the helmet, using 3 chevrons above the facemask. The black facemask works well with the thicker black lines on this logo and will help it standout from other teams that use similar red/gold color schemes like Birmingham or Philadelphia. Hope you all enjoy!

 

 

[jbird669]

The latest version of the Generals helmet is on point! Well done. 

[Skycast]

Man, I hate to keep nitpicking, but the USFL is near and dear to my heart with many great memories. But...hehehe...generals don't wear chevrons.

 

[BengalErnst]

23 hours ago, Wildcomet said:

Appreciate that about the logo, thanks again for pointing that color out. I changed the location name- not knowing or finding any good reasons why it was named Michigan to begin with mind you (I did try to find one)- because I feel using the state name works better for smaller cities that aren't as much of a "draw", or when the city name is just kind of clunky and hard to pair with a good team name, and Detroit doesn't meet either of those criteria in my view. I honestly think if the USFL had maintained until this day it would probably have changed to Detroit by now to better sell their place in the market. When I hear a team is "Michigan _____" I'm assuming it's in Lansing or Grand Rapids or some other area that's maybe got a decent sized population but not representing a major media market.

This is your concept thread so you do what you want. I’m with you here too. I hate having teams named after states, whenever I do conceptual leagues like that I always go for cities as well. No Carolinas, Michigans or Arizona’s for me either 

[Wildcomet]

56 minutes ago, Skycast said:

Man, I hate to keep nitpicking, but the USFL is near and dear to my heart with many great memories. But...hehehe...generals don't wear chevrons.

 

 

No worries, we all have our things we're passionate about and it helps me improve. For instance, I could have swore Generals got chevrons on their uniforms. I've even seen it in some TV/movies where they're depicted I'm pretty sure. Well, now I know, haha.

[Wildcomet]

I decided to take another crack at a full horse/body update for the Tampa Bay Bandits. This was a difficult one which is why I opted to zoom in on the rider face for my initial update. Aside from the challenges of making a logo on that scale that could look good at a small size, a really good update (imo) had been done already related to the proposed A11FL a few years ago and I didn't want to look like I was just copying them. I think this time I was able to make something that stands alone from those concepts but is still recognizable as a Bandits update and can work at different sizes though I'm still a bit worried about that.

 

The big changes on the from my first version of the helmet (aside from the logo of course) are that I replaced those small accent marks on the front  with two tapered lines patterned after the reins from this logo, and switched the facemask to black. 

 

[Wildcomet]

Time to get into the next group of teams. Here is my attempt at updating the Arizona Wranglers.

 

I like the concept of a brand for the logo, but the 3D perspective thing they attempted with the handle behind it just looks off to me, so my big change was making it a head-on view of the brand face. I did alter the brand face itself a bit, using the influence of the Arizona state flag and integrating the W into the flag's sunburst pattern. I pulled the orange from the flag into the logo also mostly as an accent around the W since in the flag its used primarily for a star in the middle.

 

For the helmet, I decided to go a different direction from their original helmet and give them a unique look in the league, by putting the sunburst pattern and brand on the front of the helmet, wrapping around to the sides so the horns from the brand face can sweep back onto the sides of the helmet. I put the Wranglers wordmark on the back of the helmet to help fill the space there. The blue shell let the logo stand out better than a gold one would, and the red facemask meshes well with the red brand on the front.

 

I hope this one works for people, I know I went out on a limb a bit with the helmet especially but I thought it was a chance to bring something new without disregarding what came before. 

[jbird669]

I like the Wranglers!

[Skycast]

Giant downgrade on the Wranglers in my opinion, the copper helmet was way to iconic to change and the brand was so unique.

[raz]

Yeah do not like. They had a copper helmet, no reason to ditch that iconic (and flag) color (not orange). 

[Bomba Tomba]

I can't unsee the Shell logo in the new logo

[Wildcomet]

Duly noted on critiques of the design and I appreciate it. I thought it would work well to integrate the sunburst in, and like I said the 3D in the original logo just does not work for me so I feel it needs more than just a minor touch up. Being honest this wasn't feeling like this logo was my best work- it's missing something- but I couldn't put my finger on it and thought I could maybe at least get some suggestions on improving it by sharing it out. If the issue is just the helmet color then fine, I don't have enough of a personal connection to the league to know what designs were loved or considered iconic.

 

10 hours ago, ralphz said:

Yeah do not like. They had a copper helmet, no reason to ditch that iconic (and flag) color (not orange). 

 

Regarding color choices related to this quote (not trying to argue just checking my sources)...These are the pics I used for reference. The helmet shell here is looking closer to Saint/49er gold to me as opposed to something like the Arizona Rattlers' copper helmets. That's less about my recoloring and more about my description, but given the shade of this helmet on this pic I was worried about it being similar to the Panthers' or Stars' helmets whereas no USFL team I've seen had a dark blue helmet. I thought it would be more unique for them and help the red/yellow stand out more. That's why I changed that color. The flag's star definitely looks orange to me. I lightened the color slightly when making the logo to make it stand out more from the red, but sampled the color direct from this image before lightening it. If the colors on these images are off then I can find new reference materials. I just wanted to share where I was coming from with it so I can learn from it and do better, and make sure I do have good references (especially if I am going to go back to the drawing board and try again with this one). Appreciate the feedback everyone, even if it largely isn't very positive. I can definitely switch orange to copper at minimum.

 

[Wildcomet]

Moving forward from the last one while I consider a redo on the Wranglers (that said C & C is still welcome on it), here is the Birmingham Stallions!

 

Quick note, I found versions of the original logo & helmet online in this shade of gold I used and a more Saints-like shade. Being unsure which was most reflective of the team's history I chose this one as it's less similar to teams like the Philadelphia Stars. So if I got that color wrong again... I did try, haha.

 

I didn't stray very far from their original logo, but I did decide to adjust the horse a bit to make it like it was rearing up into the frame created around it. I also thickened some of those thinner lines and obviously I inverted the colors of the horse and space under Birmingham. I felt that simplified it a bit and left less negative space in the design. I also tweaked the horse a bit, giving it visible eyes and sharpening its mane.

 

Given the nature of the logo, this seemed like a fitting time to use the US Navy like dividing line along the helmet, taking the framed Stallions text and angling it so that the horse is coming up from it to the front of the helmet. It (hopefully) keeps the color primarily from the original helmet design, while also setting it apart from other teams in the league with similar colors/helmets. I had tried to avoid the last letter being behind the facemask but after experimenting with various sizes/angles found this to be the better looking option despite the one letter being covered. The helmet's reverse side would read Stallions with the text going up along the line with the horse still pointing to the front of the helmet. I hope you all like this one!

 

 

 

[BengalErnst]

Imo the Stallions helmet is a huge upgrade even tho I know the USFL loyalist will hate it haha

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, BengalErnst said:

Imo the Stallions helmet is a huge upgrade even tho I know the USFL loyalist will hate it haha

If the uniform that goes with it is a little unorthodox it can work. It just reminds me of all of the Navy knockoffs over the years. 

[GeauxColonels]

On 7/19/2021 at 6:59 AM, Wildcomet said:

With the missing color from the team's set pointed out I did a quick touch up and redesign on the Oakland Invaders. I added the yellow into the logo; frankly I just think a primary color should be in a team's logo. It is now a highlight color on the lightning bolt and filling in the O behind the hand and bolt. I considered keeping the helmet black with the new variation, but with the yellow inside the O it looked more natural for it to be outside the logo on the helmet as well. While I liked the contrast of the white bolt on the darker helmet, the yellow background does make the logo quite stand out. Hope you all like this, I still like the last version but overall I think this may be an improvement.

 

 

I like this a lot. I think the one tweak I would suggest would be to elongate the lightning bolt at the top so that it doesn’t get lost/muddled in the “O.”

[Skycast]

I will start by saying your work is well done, but I’ll also say (as I pretty much did before) that it seems like you are quickly looking up stuff, and just creating a helmet without give much thought or consideration to the original. Just slapping a helmet concept together. Of course (as a poster above says) the “USFL loyalists” won’t like it because you’ve removed the essence of many of the teams original designs and colors that made them who they are and what set them apart. 

 

I’d say do some other work that isn’t USFL related. Make a fictional league with teams to your liking then we can judge your work on it’s artistic merit instead of how it does (or doesn’t) reflect the USFL.