Seattle Sounders FC announce plan to "explore the club's identity"

[McCall]

I kinda feel like the way they use the new Rave Green and the Aqua makes them clash. The blue separating them coupled with the aqua only being the outline, almost makes it feel like they clicked on the wrong color for the outline. Almost like they just needed to add the aqua in there somewhere and just threw it on there. I think the colors work alright together, just not in the way they used it with the primary.

[VampyrRabbit]

2 hours ago, McCall said:

I kinda feel like the way they use the new Rave Green and the Aqua makes them clash. The blue separating them coupled with the aqua only being the outline, almost makes it feel like they clicked on the wrong color for the outline. Almost like they just needed to add the aqua in there somewhere and just threw it on there. I think the colors work alright together, just not in the way they used it with the primary.

According to the marketing fluff, the aqua was used only as an outline because the Green and Blue are the main colours going forward, and the Aqua is a link to the NASL days. I wouldn't be surprised if for the new home kit, the only place the Aqua is used is on the crest.

[upperV03]

26 minutes ago, VampyrRabbit said:

According to the marketing fluff, the aqua was used only as an outline because the Green and Blue are the main colours going forward, and the Aqua is a link to the NASL days. I wouldn't be surprised if for the new home kit, the only place the Aqua is used is on the crest.

Speaking of the new kit, just gonna leave this pic of this hoodie here. May or may not have something to do with the new kit

[TLChandler]

This reminded me very much of a design I posted to this site 11 years ago, don't know where else to go with this.  Here's the side by side and overlay, no dimensions were changed just resized to match and the original post as well. Is there anything I can do with this? 

[Brave-Bird 08]

^ Yeah, I know it's the space needle, so it can only be rendered in so many ways, but it surely seems like they somehow stumbled upon your logo and used it as a framework -- the core disc area is almost identical. I'm not an expert on the legal actions to take here, or how intellectual property works, but this is quite a find. I've had my work stolen multiple times before (one time it was a college logo concept so I couldn't claim it as IP, or something like that, it was a decade ago so I can't recall the exact explanation). I can sympathize with the way you might feel seeing this, maybe ping Chris directly and see if he can give it some air play?

 

::EDIT:: I do see the below explanation on how easy it would have been to render those objects in the exact same way. So maybe this is just a coincidence! 

 

Moving on, after a day, I agree with some other comments that there's too much of a disconnection between the three colors. The hues of the rave green and blue are pretty bright and rich, and go together well. The aqua looks like an accident, it just doesn't mesh well as just a keyline, nor does it combine well with the green and blue. That hoodie photo really showcases how awkward the colors are together. 

 

A deeper blue and aqua works, which they even showcased in their graphic package, and I am sure there will be opportunities with merch and such to use that colorway. 

 

But the more I've sat with this, I feel like there's an awkward lack of definition on what their colors are and what they want to look like. 

 

 

[PaleVermilion81]

30 minutes ago, TLChandler said:

This reminded me very much of a design I posted to this site 11 years ago, don't know where else to go with this.  Here's the side by side and overlay, no dimensions were changed just resized to match and the original post as well. Is there anything I can do with this? 

 

Considering it's based off of the Space Needle, there's bound to very similar logos out there. There's enough variation in some of the curves and other things like the middle thickness of the middle ring (yours gets narrow, the Sounders doesn't) that they could reasonably argue you both just used the same source photo when creating the illustration. Whether that's the case or not I'm not sure. It's very similar to be sure, but it's reasonable to argue that a structure created in 1962 that has had countless logos created in that time could eventually have 2 logos created that are unintentionally identical. I'm not going to defend the creator of the Sounders logo, though, but also not gonna attack them. 

 

[TaylorMade]

1 hour ago, upperV03 said:

Speaking of the new kit, just gonna leave this pic of this hoodie here. May or may not have something to do with the new kit

 

I would be surprised if the Sounders' primary wasn't Rave Green

[upperV03]

22 minutes ago, TaylorMade said:

 

I would be surprised if the Sounders' primary wasn't Rave Green

Of course it is (Adidas has a different name for it, but still). That’s not what I meant by my comment.

[PaleVermilion81]

1 hour ago, Brave-Bird 08 said:

^ Yeah, I know it's the space needle, so it can only be rendered in so many ways, but it surely seems like they somehow stumbled upon your logo and used it as a framework -- the core disc area is almost identical. I'm not an expert on the legal actions to take here, or how intellectual property works, but this is quite a find. I've had my work stolen multiple times before (one time it was a college logo concept so I couldn't claim it as IP, or something like that, it was a decade ago so I can't recall the exact explanation). I can sympathize with the way you might feel seeing this, maybe ping Chris directly and see if he can give it some air play?

 

I think that's the tricky part in this case, too. TLChandler I think does have a case to at least raise the question of "did they take their design". But the Space Needle is trademarked property and to use it by itself in your logo requires special permission (https://www.spaceneedle.com/trademark). So even if the agency who created this logo did steal it from TLChandler, if TLChander didn't have permission but the agency did it might be moot point. (not a lawyer so really not sure how this would be handled in the courts)

[Brave-Bird 08]

^ yeah that is kind of similar to what happened to me. I created a suite of Kennesaw State logos as concepts. Talked to a few of the club sports teams who considered them, but decided against it. But it got to the point where they were showing up on things like off-brand merch, and even on a mural in one of the campus apartments. Because it said "Kennesaw State" on them it was default not my property. Took the L, it was still cool to see my logos around every once in a while lol

[seasaltvanilla]

All due respect,  there's only so many ways one can draw the Space Needle. 

[VikWings]

3 hours ago, upperV03 said:

Speaking of the new kit, just gonna leave this pic of this hoodie here. May or may not have something to do with the new kit

 

I really like that hoody.

[jzn110]

On 9/26/2023 at 4:34 PM, Rygi13 said:

I imagine they're going to have a hard time rendering those colors in different mediums (Jerseys, print, hats, etc.).

I'm not sure if it's because of the saturation of both the rave green and blue colors, but they don't seem to have enough contrast when used next to each other. It kind of hurts my eyes.

Earlier in the thread, it was shown the official Pantone and CMYK values for the new colors. They'll be able to match those in print and textile.

[TLChandler]

Thank you everyone for the responses, it has helped ease my mind. Yesterday I saw on twitter the new logo, and my immediate reaction was "that looks like what I made" and then started digging up my old posts and files. It is a weird, bittersweet feeling.

[FiddySicks]

Meh, it’s ok. I didn’t hate the old logo like some of you seemingly do (although, after looking at it closer, I do understand the complaints), so I’m glad it’s not too drastic of a departure from the old logo. I was thinking they were going to swap from the Space Needle to an orca, and I wasn’t too thrilled with that. I’m glad the new orca logo was just left as an alternate. 

[Bmac]

The vivid green and vivid blue are too much together. A white stroke between green and blue throughout the branding would go a long way.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, Bmac said:

The vivid green and vivid blue are too much together. A white stroke between green and blue throughout the branding would go a long way.

Fully disagree. There is definitely enough contrast that the royal blue and rave green are fine next too each other. Far more than the previous logo. A white stroke would be completely unnecessary and over intrusive.

[vtgco]

More gorgeous unused concepts that the team has posted:

 

Alongside the ones posted in the original video...

On 9/26/2023 at 12:15 PM, YELDARBfield said:

I'm not where I can screenshot at the moment, but check out around the 1:28 mark of this video:

https://www.soundersfc.com/video/watch-the-making-of-our-brand-evolution

 

 

I'm glad we didn't go with "SFC" on the primary mark, but other than that, these are all great too!

I also feel like the carnation on that whiteboard looks a bit less rose-like than the logo they actually released, so I think that unused one might've been better for rivalry reasons but not aesthetic reasons.

[tBBP]

14 minutes ago, vtgco said:

 

 

Okay...how did this one miss the final cut?? A blend of orca, Space Needle and water? In THAT  simplified a composition??? 

 

I need to see a full-color and black+white version of this one like stat...

[BrySmalls]

I like the colors of the new crest. However, am I the only one who thinks this club is named the Seattle Space Needles instead of the Sounders?