USBL Basketball League (20 Teams, Logos, Jerseys, and Courts)

[jaha32]

11 hours ago, Dion Jones Jr. said:

Beautiful. Just beautiful all I can say about this set. Absolutely amazing work

Thanks again!

 

10 hours ago, tBBP said:

Now here's a colorway I can't recall having seen anywhere for any pro sports team...ever, in that you used a unique shade of purple--looks like plum in phone. But just that fact alone makes this stand out.

Hey, Brandon, thanks for chiming in! About the colors, I wanted a maroon that stood out on black, but now that I see it on my phone it does look a little brighter than intended. I may swap another traditional shade of maroon yet. Although you liked it, I think of Chicago as a tough city and not sure if this color is right. I'll see.

 

10 hours ago, tBBP said:

Going back to the original Crocs concept for a minute...and I want everyone to pay attention to this. Sometimes it's perfectly okay to have fun with a team brand. Okay, so there's no crocodiles in Carolina, or anywhere else in North America for that matter--but there's also no jaguars in Jacksonville, either, and yet here we are 27 years later and they're still there. I personally LOVED the original name, Carolina Crocs, just for the fun of it. There aren't any rhinos in Rochester NY, either (or anywhere else in North America except for maybe in a zoo somewhere), and yet they, until the corporate rebrand, made that fun name work. Sometimes it's cool just to embrace the "fun" in a brand and run with it...own it. Something for you newer, up-and-coming, and aspiring designers to keep in mind: everything doesnt have to be so rigid or fit into neat little boxes. Sometimes its best to be fluid. All of which is a long-form way of saying: my vote is to change it back to the Carolina Crocs and let the fun be what it is.

This is great feedback, and not just because you agree with my original idea. Yeah, crocodiles don't inhabit the Carolinas, but like you said, I was trying to do something outside the box with a fun name I could envision a fanbase embracing.

 

If everything has to make sense from the drawing board and fit in our pre-existing boxes, then that leaves little room for creativity. North American sports have pretty much exhausted traditional nicknames like Eagles and Tigers, so why not embrace the fun at times, and go with the unexpected. In time, everything becomes normal with exposure anyway, and this league is meant to be a mix of traditional-sounding with a few not-so-traditional.

 

All that said, I kept my Carolina version saved just in case I change my mind, so I will rethink if I should keep the Crocs in South Florida or go back to Carolinas, and anyone with thoughts feel free to chime in! I also will be asking input on the final team name soon, which may again bring up the issue of an animal not really living in a certain region.

[sky1324]

1 hour ago, jaha32 said:

This is great feedback, and not just because you agree with my original idea. Yeah, crocodiles don't inhabit the Carolinas, but like you said, I was trying to do something outside the box with a fun name I could envision a fanbase embracing.

 

If everything has to make sense from the drawing board and fit in our pre-existing boxes, then that leaves little room for creativity. North American sports have pretty much exhausted traditional nicknames like Eagles and Tigers, so why not embrace the fun at times, and go with the unexpected. In time, everything becomes normal with exposure anyway, and this league is meant to be a mix of traditional-sounding with a few not-so-traditional.

 

All that said, I kept my Carolina version saved just in case I change my mind, so I will rethink if I should keep the Crocs in South Florida or go back to Carolinas, and anyone with thoughts feel free to chime in! I also will be asking input on the final team name soon, which may again bring up the issue of an animal not really living in a certain region.

I can always appreciate going out of the box - but it just doesn't work here. You've aimed for locally-relevant, creative names so far, but "Crocs" was simply an alliterative pick with a unique name, nothing to do with the Carolinas. Any Carolina team comes from the era of hyperlocal branding so trying to force something that isn't doesn't make sense realistically and even if we ignore time periods there's just not a reason for Crocs to be picked at all for Carolina. There are still unique, unorthodox names that could be used for the Carolinas, plenty of fun wildlife species that haven't been tapped for their logo potential live in the region (Cuckoos for alliteration, owls are a fantastic brand, any number of snakes, salamanders, etc) but I just don't think "Crocs" is a good fit for the Carolinas. Every other team gets something that makes sense, why wouldn't Carolina?

[jaha32]

On 4/19/2022 at 12:48 PM, QCS said:

Every other team gets something that makes sense, why wouldn't Carolina?

This is true. And as of now there have been more comments against Carolina than in favor of it, so you may be in the majority.

___

Also, I have gone back to Chicago's and added a version that is closer to an actual maroon. I don't know how I originally ended up with that plum/dark magenta the first time.

[sky1324]

Yeah I really like Chicago. The new maroon looks really nice and it's a super unique color scheme.

[jaha32]

It may be another week or two before I have the last team up. I have an old logo of mine that I may update or I may make something completely new based on an idea I just had. 

 

And once that's done, the last portion of this project will be making courts for each team.

[jaha32]

And here is the 20th and final team. The Hawaii Tropics. Earlier I had mentioned putting this last team in the Pacific Northwest, but then I decided to go back to the drawing board and make something totally new with the name Tropics. The logo contains a palm tree inside the letter 'H' and sunlight. I took my time when making the sun rays, wanting to give it some energetic motion, and also fit seamlessly around both the ball and the 'H".

 

On the jerseys, the sun rays from the logo are repeated on the trimming, as are the triangular shapes from within the 'H'. You may notice the logo has an orange ball, but I intentionally left orange off the jerseys to keep them looking clean.

 

This completes the 20-team league. I still need to make a USBL league logo and the courts. Hopefully I can get to that soon. Thanks to everyone who's been following and offering feedback along the way!

 

 

 

[Bomba Tomba]

My Top 5

 

5. Owls
4. Cyclones
3. Bees
2. Empire
1. Miners

[cLuTcHy]

What a way to finalize the 20 teams! Hawaii looks fantastic man! I really enjoyed you spicing up the boards with this content. It’s nice to get away from the big 4 leagues redesigns and get some good ole fictional leagues in here. Can’t wait to see what else this thread has in store! Whether you continue with this or not it’s been quite an enjoyable ride fs.

[southernbaseballteams2019]

I can't wait to see some more stuff, you've have in stores.

[jaha32]

22 hours ago, Bomba Tomba said:

My Top 5

 

5. Owls
4. Cyclones
3. Bees
2. Empire
1. Miners

The fact that you have the Miners as number one shows that oftentimes simple is best. It’s one of the simpler designs but one of my favorites as well.

 

19 hours ago, cLuTcHy said:

What a way to finalize the 20 teams! Hawaii looks fantastic man! I really enjoyed you spicing up the boards with this content. It’s nice to get away from the big 4 leagues redesigns and get some good ole fictional leagues in here. Can’t wait to see what else this thread has in store! Whether you continue with this or not it’s been quite an enjoyable ride fs.

I appreciate it! Thanks! Yeah I tend to enjoy creating fictional teams since you can do whatever you want.
 

15 hours ago, southernbaseballteams2019 said:

I can't wait to see some more stuff, you've have in stores.

There will be courts here. They’ll probably be traditional looking, but we shall see when the inspiration strikes.

[teeray01]

I have enjoyed this fictional thread!  Pretty good stuff here!

[teeray01]

Have you done any other fictional sports concepts?  Like baseball?

[jaha32]

8 hours ago, teeray01 said:

Have you done any other fictional sports concepts?  Like baseball?

I have done baseball concepts a long, long time ago, and I used to sketch ballparks for fun, but nothing I’ve fleshed out on Illustrator. Right now I have no plans to do another league like this. Maybe someday.

[jaha32]

I've finally started making courts for these teams. I'm going to post these courts in sets of five. These are the first five Eastern Conference teams in alphabetical order (there are no divisions, just East and West).

 

With a lot of these of these courts, I'm going to keep it simple, and on others I'm going to incorporate some design elements from the jerseys. That way there should be a mix and balance across the league. 
 

I left off the arena names and any sidecourt advertising but they could exist in the empty space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dakotapalm]

I really like how Nashville's colors look on the court. Enjoying this whole series.

[Bomba Tomba]

Would like to see slogans on some of the courts, like say "Buzz Buzz" or "Feel the Rhythm" (my examples are ass, but you get the point)

[jaha32]

4 hours ago, dakotapalm said:

I really like how Nashville's colors look on the court. Enjoying this whole series.

Thanks for following!

 

2 hours ago, Bomba Tomba said:

Would like to see slogans on some of the courts, like say "Buzz Buzz" or "Feel the Rhythm" (my examples are ass, but you get the point)

"Feel the Rhythm" doesn't sound too bad but I don't have that kind of phrasal creativity to come up with 20 different slogans. I'm just focusing on basic court designs and color distribution without including things like twitter handles, venue names, or slogans. Those could be added anytime.

 

[jaha32]

Here is the next bunch of courts. These are the first five Western Conference team in alphabetical order. Again, I incorporated some design elements from the jerseys, like the orange gradient on California's, and the diamond pattern from Las Vegas' jerseys is reinforced here with the diamond parquet floor. I wanted one team to have the inner three-point arc filled in with color, so that's what Hawaii gets, along with the triangle pattern from their jerseys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bomba Tomba]

Why not stars on the black part of the court, so it looks like a night sky?

[jaha32]

On 5/30/2022 at 4:55 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

Why not stars on the black part of the court, so it looks like a night sky?

That's a good idea. I have added stars to the black areas on the side of Las Vegas' court. The stars vary in size to give in that night sky look you mentioned.