Jump to content

MLS Kits 2021


kylonian

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 2.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply
9 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

The element in the brand package that bothers me the most is the treatment of the Florian Cross. I get what Wolff's going for here, but I just don't think he effectively pulls it off. It strikes me as less evocative of a fire/firefighting theme and more the insignia of the Powder Blue Lantern Corps.

 

I mean, the last time around the team made it very apparent that they were OBSESSED with getting rid of the Florian Cross and how much they hated being "mistaken" for the Chicago Fire Department. Clearly after the last debacle, fans informed the team that the cross was a must so the team found a way to include it while also making it look almost nothing like the Florian Cross. And that resulted in a safe, sterile design that honestly looks more like a manhole cover than anything associated with Fire.

I've got a dribbble, check it out if you like my stuff; alternatively, if you hate my stuff, send it to your enemies to punish their insolence!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

spacer.png

Another day, another underwhelming meh-jor League Soccer team crest. 

Yes, it's clearly a huge improvement over the deservedly maligned design abomination that was the "Fire Crown". That said, Matthew Wolff's aesthetic here is so minimalist as to border on the forgettable. Everything serves its purpose, but I'm left wanting more.

 

 

 

 

Agree with you here. For all of this they really should have just reverted to the original. Why evoke something when you can just be something?

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, MDGP said:

 

I mean, the last time around the team made it very apparent that they were OBSESSED with getting rid of the Florian Cross and how much they hated being "mistaken" for the Chicago Fire Department. Clearly after the last debacle, fans informed the team that the cross was a must so the team found a way to include it while also making it look almost nothing like the Florian Cross. And that resulted in a safe, sterile design that honestly looks more like a manhole cover than anything associated with Fire.

Then that's the fault for some people who aren't thinking it carefully. Mistaking the logo for the CFD is just disrespectful to the intentions of what the original designers had in mind, and it shows people aren't paying attention to what soccer crests are (Hint: it doesn't have to be a roundel). Although, the team could've endorsed the connection so I'll get to see the new hypothetical fireman jersey anytime soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has occurred to me that one reason so many sports logo and uniform unveilings are leaving me underwhelmed as of late is that so damned many of them are taking place. Where once the unveiling of a new team logo or uniform - to say nothing of a complete rebrandng of a franchise, including its name - was a relative rarity, today there doesn't seem to be a week that goes by without one team or another introducing some new graphic identifier to their family of marks, or adopting a new set of togs. "City Connect" this... "What Might Have Been?" that... "Association/Icon/Community/Athlete Mindset" blah, blah, blah.

It strikes me that in the rush to maximize the hoped-for profits available through modern sports merchandising revenues, the leagues and clubs - along with their partner apparel and licensed product manufacturers - have ramped up the cycle of team brand reinvention to the point where they risk desensitizing their target audience. What reason is there to get truly excited about a new logo or uniform reveal when you know that another one is right around the corner? And quite possibly from the same team!

Further, the near constant churn of ideas and material that design and branding professionals are being asked to provide seems to be resulting in a more hit-or-miss level of quality... at least insofar as the target audience is concerned. On the one hand, in an effort to stand out in the marketplace, the envelope is being pushed so far that some of the resulting material seems too unorthodox for rank-and-file fans to embrace. In contrast, fearful of the backlash that can result from unveiling an ill-conceived rebrand (hello, "Fire Crown"), some creatives seem hell-bent on overcorrecting and playing it too safe.        

Bottom line: Are we at risk of all of the sports logo and uniform reinvention becoming too much of a good thing... even for enthusiasts like us?      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SCL said:

Just what everyone wanted, an entire identity based on the overdone Chicago flag along with another light blue team 🙄.

 

You can roll your eyes, but given the amount of public consultation they did, maybe it *is* what everyone wanted. Or at least the people they heard from. I mean, take these numbers with a grain of salt, but if that's what they heard, then that's what they heard. And when your city has a flag as awesome as Chicago's, why not build around it? No other major pro sports team in the city has done so on a permanent basis.

 

stats.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, officeglenn said:

 

You can roll your eyes, but given the amount of public consultation they did, maybe it *is* what everyone wanted. Or at least the people they heard from. I mean, take these numbers with a grain of salt, but if that's what they heard, then that's what they heard. And when your city has a flag as awesome as Chicago's, why not build around it? No other major pro sports team in the city has done so on a permanent basis.

 

stats.jpg

spacer.png

Chicago Red Stars are all about Chicago Pride!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was ecstatic to see them drop the Latin Kings abomination, until I remembered the logo before it. I miss the Florian cross and while this is an upgrade in it's own right, the only thing I can say about this is that it's solid and not much more. The colors are cool though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really like the new Fire logo! I feel like it's important to appreciate that it didn't feel compelled to cram "Chicago Fire FC" around the circle, which wouldn't have ruined it by any means, but the whole thing looks much cleaner without it. I'd love to see more simplistic logos like this in MLS.

 

Also can we admit that, while this was a pretty solid logo for a lot of years, it has grown to look dated? I don't think that reverting back to this straight up would have been a good idea .

 

6898_chicago_fire-primary-2015.png

spacer.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, henburg said:

I really like the new Fire logo! I feel like it's important to appreciate that it didn't feel compelled to cram "Chicago Fire FC" around the circle, which wouldn't have ruined it by any means, but the whole thing looks much cleaner without it. I'd love to see more simplistic logos like this in MLS.

 

Also can we admit that, while this was a pretty solid logo for a lot of years, it has grown to look dated? I don't think that reverting back to this straight up would have been a good idea .

 

6898_chicago_fire-primary-2015.png

The gray and C I think did become a but stale. But just tweak some things and...

image.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, henburg said:

Also can we admit that, while this was a pretty solid logo for a lot of years, it has grown to look dated? I don't think that reverting back to this straight up would have been a good idea .

 

6898_chicago_fire-primary-2015.png

The C in the middle of the original Fire logo always bugged me. 

 

The new logo is okay. Not bad in anyway. But why make the new logo announcement so early into the current season? Seems like the kind of thing you'd usually see happen in the offseason.

Hotter Than July > Thriller

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Bottom line: Are we at risk of all of the sports logo and uniform reinvention becoming too much of a good thing... even for enthusiasts like us?      

I'm going to give a shout-out to my podcast co-host @infrared41 here because I think he's more or less right when he postulates that our little niche may have become a victim of our own success. 

 

We have a thread dedicated to archiving past uni unveilings, and the further back they go the more quaint they seem. The one that stands out is the Denver Broncos rebrand from 1997. This is a storied team in the NFL, a multi-time AFC Championship organization at the time- ditching their classic identity for something entirely new and revolutionary. And it's taking place in a hotel conference room with a banner with the new logo and wordmark on it, while a few players show off the new threads. 

We don't see an "unveiling video" hyping the new look, there's no hour long prologue where team and Nike execs go on and on about what they wanted to "accomplish", there's no "Nike-speak" where every single element of the new look is given some deeper meaning. It's just a few team execs, some players, and someone going "yeah this is the new logo and uniforms." 

 

Somewhere along the way this evolved into the modern day situation where uniforms are unveiled with all the above, and sometimes more. Sometimes smoke machines and lasers get involved! Not to mention the social media hype, where a uniform unveiling is teased sometimes months ahead of time. 

 

I really do believe Paul Lucas and Chris Creamer succeeded in bringing what was a niche interest in uniform and logo design into the mainstream, and it's blown up to the point where teams can make an "event" out of their new logo and uniform unveilings because they know there's an audience for it. 

 

This has a side effect of making these unveilings something teams want to do more of. There's no real excitement about a few team executives and players standing around a conference room at the local Marriott, so uniform redesigns and unveilings were rarer when that was the standard. 

 

Now though? Every unveiling is an event worthy of three photo galleries, a social media hashtag, a hype video, and a follow-up video series on YouTube where team and manufacture execs go on and on about "the process" and "the story they wanted to tell." 

Which is the sort of publicity that teams like. I think that, with unveilings becoming a bigger deal then they were before, more and more teams are signing off on rebrands when they otherwise wouldn't. If only to get some of the publicity that goes along with it.  

That's why it seems like we often get multiple redesigns in an off-season for most leagues when, previously, one every few years was a huge deal. 

 

There's no downside from the team's perspective, really. What's the worst that could happen? The new identity flops? Ok. Change it to something the fans like more in a few years. 

 

 

16 hours ago, henburg said:

Also can we admit that, while this was a pretty solid logo for a lot of years, it has grown to look dated? I don't think that reverting back to this straight up would have been a good idea .

I'm not sure what's objectively "dated" about it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, henburg said:

I really like the new Fire logo! I feel like it's important to appreciate that it didn't feel compelled to cram "Chicago Fire FC" around the circle, which wouldn't have ruined it by any means, but the whole thing looks much cleaner without it. I'd love to see more simplistic logos like this in MLS.

 

Also can we admit that, while this was a pretty solid logo for a lot of years, it has grown to look dated? I don't think that reverting back to this straight up would have been a good idea .

 

6898_chicago_fire-primary-2015.png

I get fans being attached to the original, but the new logo smokes this old thing. The only positive thing about the old logo is the unique shape. Once you start looking into the details this isn’t a good logo. The Fire did a good job modernizing it I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new one mostly feels like a secondary logo, the more I think about it. Like there’s another in the portfolio that is more fleshed out. Normally I prefer more minimalism but this one is flipping around my usual preference.

Showcasing fan-made sports apparel by artists and designers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/19/2021 at 12:32 AM, hendocfc said:

 

The design for the 2022 kits has already been finished; it was probably approved and finished before they approved the final version of the new logo, hence the lack of proper lead time to design an entirely new red kit. Lead time is usually anywhere between 18-24 months, as there's a lot of logistics involved every year with a new kit design

Yes, and since I posted the comment you quoted, I saw the news from the team that said that the red kits would be back in 2024, confirming what I contradicted. I stand corrected.

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (CHL - 2018 Orr Cup Champions) Chicago Rivermen (UBA/WBL - 2014, 2015, 2017 Intercontinental Cup Champions)

King's Own Hexham FC (BIP - 2022 Saint's Cup Champions) Portland Explorers (EFL - Elite Bowl XIX Champions) Real San Diego (UPL) Red Bull Seattle (ULL - 2018, 2019, 2020 Gait Cup Champions) Vancouver Huskies (CL)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.