Updating Pre-Superbowl NFL Team Logos (Helmets for Racine, Toledo & Buffalo)

[Wildcomet]

Greeting's all! I recently posted a concept that I enjoyed creating for updating the Green Bay Packers logo, as it was in 1961 (that thread and design can be viewed here). I have decided that I want to keep going and try my hand at some other logos from the past, whether they be defunct teams or logos no longer in use by current existing franchises. The goal will be to update the designs, ideally with minimal changes to the basic design concept. The first logo of this expanded series is going to be the Racine Legion, who played in the NFL from 1922-1924 (the team had returned in 1926 but under a new name). Starting out at least most of these will likely be Midwest/Great Lakes region teams as those are ones I know best starting off.

 

I did take a bit more liberty to add onto this logo than I did the '61 Packers update. This was based partially on the simplicity of the original logo, and in part because- had the team endured- it would have had 100 years for the logo to evolve beyond a simple letter and lines. That said, all of the additions drew inspiration from aspects of the team's roots and identity. The shield in the center was inspired by the idea of a Roman Legionnaire's shield, while the idea of adding the wreath and star behind it came from imagery associated with the American Legion, whom the Legion were named after. Aside from inverting the color from Maroon to White, I kept the original R logo as-is and front and center in the new look. While not in the original logo, the team did use gold in its uniforms based on pics I found online so here I added it to the logo itself. It also again reminds me of imagery of Roman Legionnaires so it works on that front also.

 

 

C & C is always welcome, but I hope you all enjoy!

 

EDIT: I thought it would be good to put a list of teams I have plans on updating. If there's a team logo you'd like to see updated that's not on the list feel free to share!

 

Done:

Green Bay Packers (1961) - In the other linked thread.

Racine Legion

Toledo Maroons

Chicago Cardinals (with later revision)

Dayton Triangles

Akron Pros

Milwaukee Badgers

Duluth Eskimos (also a rebrand as the Duluth Nevers)

Detroit Heralds

Los Angeles Rams (1950)

What if? NBC Sunday Night Football Lineup

Buffalo All-Americans

Providence Steam Rollers

Akron Pros Helmet

Chicago Cardinals Helmet

Dayton Triangles Helmet

Duluth Eskimos Helmet

Duluth Nevers (Eskimos rebrand) Helmet

Detroit Heralds Helmet

Green Bay Packers Helmet

Los Angeles Rams Helmet

Milwaukee Badgers Helmet

Racine Legion Helmet

Toledo Maroons Helmet

Buffalo All-Americans Helmet

 

 

Does anyone want to see me do a Phase 2 of this series with helmets, or are there any other teams you'd like to see done? If so let me know!

 

 

[MilSox]

Looks pretty damn good! Might we see this in silver rather than gold though? No one uses red & silver in the NFL and those are the Racine Raiders colors.

[Wildcomet]

7 hours ago, NicDB said:

Looks pretty damn good! Might we see this in silver rather than gold though? No one uses red & silver in the NFL and those are the Racine Raiders colors.

 

Thanks, appreciate it! I am planning to give the Toledo Maroons the maroon & silver treatment, but it didn't take much to change a color so here's the Legion doing their best Racine Raiders impersonation.

 

 

Hope you like it!

 

Also, for anyone who is interested I am planning to list the teams I am going to try to tackle on the first post. I'm open to suggestions if there's an old team logo that anyone would like to see updated.

[MilSox]

Love it!

 

The Milwaukee Badgers, Dayton Triangles, and Duluth Eskimos are the ones I'd love to see you take on.

 

[Wildcomet]

We're back! Today I have a concept for the Toledo Maroons to show off.

 

The original logo doesn't give a lot to work with frankly, but I kept with its original concept of being a T. I did thicken the font and create some negative space inside of it; this was mainly to allow me to create the appearance of a letter M (for Maroons of course) inside of the shape while it could still on a quick view appear as a T. The little flare out on the bottom calls back to the original having the tips sticking out on the bottom and ends and gives it a bit more aggressive profile. The original colors were Maroon and White, so I gave it a 3rd Silver since most logos now have 3 or colors as a standard and it's a color that plays well with both Maroon and White. 

 

 

Looking forward, on request I've added the Duluth Eskimos to the list, and I added the 1950 Los Angeles Rams to the docket as well. The next team to be unveiled I believe will be the Chicago Cardinals, but that could change. As always C & C is appreciated and encouraged, and I hope you all enjoy!

[Wildcomet]

I know there hasn't been much time for people to see and/or react to the Toledo logo, but I'm going to go ahead and move forward with my next one, which is an update to this logo used by the Chicago Cardinals.

 

Nothing too drastic with this update. I mainly tried to clean it up and simplify it in some respects, while adding some interesting touches to other areas. The ball in the original is a lot of empty white space, so I tried to introduce some shades of black and silver to give it some depth and make it more interesting to look at. Since I shaded the ball I also added a slightly darker cardinal color to shade the underside of the Cardinal as well. 

 

 

C & C is appreciated as always. Not sure what I'll put out next but I should be able to put something out again tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy!

[MilSox]

The cardinal looks more burnt orange than anything. 

 

Also, your shading makes the football look like a metal lime with a wedge cut out. Try making the panels with the stitching the same color, then use the silver color to shade the outer panels.

[Wildcomet]

2 hours ago, NicDB said:

The cardinal looks more burnt orange than anything. 

 

Also, your shading makes the football look like a metal lime with a wedge cut out. Try making the panels with the stitching the same color, then use the silver color to shade the outer panels.

 

Something about the football had felt a bit off at times to me but I was not sure why, but I think you nailed it. I'll try that idea to see what I can do with it. A revision may not be the next thing I share, but I'll definitely come back to this one and try that change out.

 

Agreed about the burnt orange color. It's not my favorite, but it's the color in the original logo (sampled it directly from that image) so I stuck with it. I don't want to start changing team colors much beyond adding a color or two here or there at the risk of getting too far away from the original team identities. Thanks for the feedback!

[jaha32]

1 hour ago, Wildcomet said:

Agreed about the burnt orange color. It's not my favorite, but it's the color in the original logo (sampled it directly from that image) so I stuck with it. I don't want to start changing team colors much beyond adding a color or two here or there at the risk of getting too far away from the original team identities. Thanks for the feedback!

 

I think updating colors would be a big part of the overall updating process, and I can't imagine a team named Cardinals sticking with a brown/burnt orange color scheme. I'm pretty sure the Chicago Cardinals wore red or burgundy jerseys.

[MilSox]

That, and the color of older logos isn't always the most reliable.

[raz]

They got the name Cardinals because that was the shade of red they wore. The color came before the bird, so burnt orange is incorrect. 

[Wildcomet]

9 hours ago, ralphz said:

They got the name Cardinals because that was the shade of red they wore. The color came before the bird, so burnt orange is incorrect. 

 

10 hours ago, jaha32 said:

 

I think updating colors would be a big part of the overall updating process, and I can't imagine a team named Cardinals sticking with a brown/burnt orange color scheme. I'm pretty sure the Chicago Cardinals wore red or burgundy jerseys.

 

I've gotten some flack in the past about being too liberal with changing color schemes or logo concepts in a similar modernization project so I've been extra cautious on that issue this go around, but based on this feedback and information I have confidence to do it on this one. Plus I prefer the red look.  I actually had some time last night (by that I mean insomnia lol) so I was able to put in some time on revising this one and have it ready to go! I think this is a definite upgrade, I hope others agree. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Wildcomet]

Here's the other one I had ready to drop today. Let's take a look at the updated Dayton Triangles!

 

I used the source logo's dark blue, but decided to add a lighter blue to compliment it and the white. I decided to embrace the geometric nature of the name (I know they were named after the park they called home, not the shape) with the updated wordmark font and logo by introducing some sharper angles along seams and shadows and the overall player design. I modernized the player's appearance to have modern equipment and uniform, and beveled the triangle to give it a more interesting and geometric appearance. 

 

 

[Wildcomet]

I got the next logo ready to drop tonight. Let's check out the Akron Pros.

 

This patch was the only logo I could find online, so I am hoping it's accurate for them. I liked the idea of the overlapping AP as well as how it looks to use the gold for the letter with red drop-shadows and black outlines so I kept that concept, but switched the font to something clearer and easier to read on a helmet or score bug and possessing a more aerodynamic feel to it. The wordmark carries through the same changes, using the same font as the logo itself.  It was a simple change that really changed the look and feel of the logo despite using the same basic concept, layout, colors, etc. Hope you all like it, but C & C is always appreciated!

 

[Wildcomet]

Greetings! Time to share the next design, the Milwaukee Badgers!

 

The general concept behind this one to me was pretty strong; but whether it was the picture I could find or the actual logo but it definitely needed to be cleaned up a bit. My main changes were to the wordmark; I have it a more modern font that I felt worked well with the overall design of the logo, while giving it an outline to match the Badger itself. I wasn't sure if that light yellow in some places was due to age of the image or part of the design, but I decided to make those parts the same eggshell color I used on the rest of the light areas. 

 

 

[Sec19Row53]

On 4/5/2022 at 12:35 PM, Wildcomet said:

 

Thanks, appreciate it! I am planning to give the Toledo Maroons the maroon & silver treatment, but it didn't take much to change a color so here's the Legion doing their best Racine Raiders impersonation.

 

 

Hope you like it!

 

Also, for anyone who is interested I am planning to list the teams I am going to try to tackle on the first post. I'm open to suggestions if there's an old team logo that anyone would like to see updated.

Just a thought--without black, those colors call to mind the Racine Threat more than the Racine Raiders.

[Wildcomet]

On 4/10/2022 at 6:57 PM, Sec19Row53 said:

Just a thought--without black, those colors call to mind the Racine Threat more than the Racine Raiders.

 

I suppose they do. I wasn't really familiar with the Threat but I looked them up and I can definitely see that now.

[Wildcomet]

I'll hope I get some more feedback on some of the last couple postings, but I'm going to move forward with the next entry on my list: the Duluth Eskimos.

 

I was tempted to give them a larger rebrand, as names based on Indigenous groups are not exactly looked upon well these days (and I may do another post along those lines in the future) but for the sake of this project I elected to assume the team would pull a Washington and hold onto the name as long as they could.  This logo was the best I could find for a source or reference, so I went with the colors that were described on Wikipedia (though the hex code for Midnight Blue came out looking pretty purple to me but it works here) and added a lighter purple which felt like a good fit and give them a pretty unique color scheme. The original appeared like it was supposed to be a geometric shape but rounded off kind of, so I decided to update it with a more aggressive, angular outline, and placed a greater emphasis on the 3D nature and shading of the igloo design. The new wordmark font evoked a cool, smooth sense of ice to me so I went with it.

 

 

I got two teams left; Detroit and Los Angeles. Both are nearly completed, so I will either share them both tomorrow or over the next two days depending on how active this thread is at the time.

 

I was also thinking about making some helmets for these updated teams; I don't have a uniform template at this time but I do have a pretty good helmet template so if anyone would be interested in seeing some helmets with these designs please let me know! As always, C & C is also appreciated, thanks!

[Wildcomet]

So I decided to go ahead with a possible rebrand of Duluth to a non-indigenous name, since it's pretty likely if the team made it to this point they would not have kept the name. So I'm going to introduce the Duluth Nevers!

 

The name honors the team's history, as Hall of Famer Ernie Nevers played for and was an owner of the team for part of their time in the NFL. The logo puts an N front and center, with the ends wrapping around behind the letter to connect in a never-ending loop. I also decided to swap the light purple color out for a silver/gray color. 

 

 

In addition, I'm going to share out my concept for the old Detroit Heralds. I kept the DH being the main focus of the logo, but enclosed the H in the D so that it would feel like one graphic instead of two, and I worked a horn with a banner hanging down into the H to give it some character related to the identity. I added a blue to the logo, as that just feels like a good fit for a Detroit franchise to me given other teams using similar colors.

 

 

Tomorrow will be the redone 1950 Rams logo as well as a summary graphic of all the logos. Hope you all enjoy!

[jaha32]

On the first Eskimos version, that outer geometric shape seems to clash with the smooth curves of the igloo, particularly since it’s just empty blue space, even if inspired by the original. I think choosing another background shape with less sides would better frame the igloo.