Portland Winterhawks' New Logo

[CS85]

Guaranteed this bird head was sitting around in somebody's unused pile for years and they hamfisted all the other elements into/onto it subsequently.

[SFGiants58]

38 minutes ago, CS85 said:

Guaranteed this bird head was sitting around in somebody's unused pile for years and they hamfisted all the other elements into/onto it subsequently.

Yeah, it reads very “hauled it out of the hard drive, changed a few words, and submitted it.”

[Krona]

1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say some combination of team ownership, team management, and the graphic designer responsible for the logo. 

Add in the Portland-based lifestyle brand (that's pretty unimpressive in it's own right) to the mix and you get far too many opinions and people pleasing to make this work. I've been through his process enough to recognize the symptoms of too many cooks or a designer going off unchecked. I've followed Gundell's trajectory for over a decade when he was posting concepts on this board to deduce it wasn't the latter. I'm giving him a pass on this one, but I'd love to see what he had in his sketches.

 

[nash61]

On 7/14/2021 at 1:14 PM, Brian in Boston said:

It would appear that the Portland Winterhawks' new logo may be hiding in plain sight in the banner atop the team's web page.

Very nicely done. Kudos to Brian Gundell.

I mean, there's only so many ways to render scowling bird head.

[The_Admiral]

just make it fiercer

[TenaciousG]

Those black “feathers” kill the look for me. They don’t even look like feathers. Why not attach a couple of the actual Blackhawk feathers to the bird? Or just get rid of it for a much cleaner look.

[The_Admiral]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:26 PM, TenaciousG said:

Those black “feathers” kill the look for me. They don’t even look like feathers. Why not attach a couple of the actual Blackhawk feathers to the bird? Or just get rid of it for a much cleaner look.

 

I think the decision to excise any Blackhawks imagery while keeping the Blackhawks' uniform template was a very sophisticated agency's attempt to send a message to the actual Blackhawks: this is what you can do, this is what you should do, this is what we're going to make you do. You can't rule it out entirely, can you?

[andrewharrington]

On 7/21/2021 at 12:34 AM, the admiral said:

 

I think the decision to excise any Blackhawks imagery while keeping the Blackhawks' uniform template was a very sophisticated agency's attempt to send a message to the actual Blackhawks: this is what you can do, this is what you should do, this is what we're going to make you do. You can't rule it out entirely, can you?

Well, since it wasn’t created by a “sophisticated agency” and the press images themselves confirm that the feathers are intended to represent the legacy of the previous mark, yes, we can rule it out. Entirely.

[SFGiants58]

I like something more like this (unknown artist):

 

 

…but that’s better suited elsewhere.

[The_Admiral]

7 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

 

 

[SFGiants58]

I’d beg to differ, as I rather like the design style.

[The_Admiral]

It isn't a matter of opinion; you could buy literally shirts with that logo on an off-day in the Rosemont Horizon parking lot.

[SFGiants58]

1 minute ago, the admiral said:

It isn't a matter of opinion; you could buy literally shirts with that logo on an off-day in the Rosemont Horizon parking lot.

It’s better than this thing:

 

 

This feels like it’d be painted on the side of a van.

[andrewharrington]

23 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

It’s better than this thing:

 

 

This feels like it’d be painted on the side of a van.

Debatable, but I think if you go this route, having a native artist design the mark is a must, and that alone makes the Ivall original a better choice, to me.

[The_Admiral]

On 7/21/2021 at 11:51 PM, andrewharrington said:

Well, since it wasn’t created by a “sophisticated agency” and the press images themselves confirm that the feathers are intended to represent the legacy of the previous mark, yes, we can rule it out. Entirely.

I think you're lying to me. I think there was something intentionally instructive about the choice not to redesign the sweaters themselves. That'd be a pretty big thing to overlook in a redesign.

[SFGiants58]

49 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I think you're lying to me. I think there was something intentionally instructive about the choice not to redesign the sweaters themselves. That'd be a pretty big thing to overlook in a redesign.

WFT and the Guardians got you suspicious? My guess is that the Braves are where the pressure is going next. They have it easy: ditch the chop chant they stole from FSU, make the tomahawk a fire ax, and now they’re firemen!

[monkeypower]

On 7/22/2021 at 5:06 PM, SFGiants58 said:

It’s better than this thing:

 

 

This feels like it’d be painted on the side of a van.

 

I hate this logo. Not really for how it looks (I think it's fine, a bit over designed and too much of a morph of the existing Blackhawks logo, but fine enough), but for the seemingly annual "discovery" of this logo on Reddit and/or Twitter. "Has anybody seen this logo before!1!!1!" Yes we have, multiple times.

 

Didn't it also get stolen by some podunk junior team at some point in the past?

 

57 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I think you're lying to me. I think there was something intentionally instructive about the choice not to redesign the sweaters themselves. That'd be a pretty big thing to overlook in a redesign.

 

Don't underestimate the power of catalogue ordering for junior hockey, even in the CHL.

 

I really think it's a misstep to not change the jerseys, especially with all the interview quotes about getting their own identity and not wanting to be confused with the Blackhawks anymore, but I don't see this at all being a situation where Portland didn't change the jerseys as an intentional show to Chicago.

 

15 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

WFT and the Guardians got you suspicious? My guess is that the Braves are where the pressure is going next. They have it easy: ditch the chop chant they stole from FSU, make the tomahawk a fire ax, and now they’re firemen!

 

I mean, it worked for Peoria.

[uniformity]

On 7/14/2021 at 8:20 PM, nash61 said:

 

The alternate bird head feels cleaner and more professional.

It has a subtle connection to the old logo with the feathers and doesnt have a completely unnecessary mountain element. The new logo is generic. The third is hands down better in execution and it is a far more attractive logo. Portland fans should demand they use this. It's a no brainer.

[Brian in Boston]

On 7/16/2021 at 4:36 PM, the admiral said:

just make it fiercer

For an ice hockey team, the toque is definitely a plus.

[nash61]

13 hours ago, monkeypower said:

 

I hate this logo. Not really for how it looks (I think it's fine, a bit over designed and too much of a morph of the existing Blackhawks logo, but fine enough), but for the seemingly annual "discovery" of this logo on Reddit and/or Twitter. "Has anybody seen this logo before!1!!1!" Yes we have, multiple times.

 

Didn't it also get stolen by some podunk junior team at some point in the past?

The Port Huron Fighting Falcons (NAHL)

After they got caught, they subtly changed it, even though it looked out of place in their way better new graphics package.