XFL23 Edits - Trying to improve the latest iteration of the XFL - Orlando Revamp

[jackkmart]

 

Editing the 2023 XFL

 

Firstly, I would like to mention that my first sport is hockey, and I primarily design for said sport as a hobby. However, I saw the latest XFL team reveals and felt like they left a bit to be desired. Judging by the some of the reactions in the CCSLC XFL 2023 thread I don't think I'm alone in that assessment. I also would just generally like to work on my football design 'skills' as it were.

 

I do want to stress the word 'edit' though, as I don't want to stray too far from the original branding (locations included) or aesthetic in these concepts. I also think this thread will be very iterative and I welcome others to post their changes/ recommendations/ concepts if they so please. And, as the XFL 23 teams aren't really all that substantially different from the XFL 20 teams pulling design elements from either seems logical (maybe even some references to the original XFL). 

 

I think the XFL this time around is going for a very e-sports adjacent look and in this thread I will try to thread the needle between more traditional football design and that e-sports look the XFL seems to be actively trying to achieve.

 

As always C&C is very much appreciated, and, because of my lack of experience designing for football, I think it will be necessary to actually create worthwhile, likeable concepts.

 

For reference here are all the REAL logos for the XFL 2023 season.

 

 

Edited logos so far..

 

 

 

Contents

St. Louis Battlehawks V1 - Uniforms V1

Seattle Sea Dragons V1

(Las?) Vegas Vipers V1 V2 V3 - Uniforms V1

San Antonio Brahmas V1 V2

Orlando Guardians V1 V2

Houston Roughnecks

DC Defenders

Arlington Renegades

 

 

[jackkmart]

St. Louis Battlehawks V1

 

This is my first iteration of an edited Battlehawks logo. The biggest change is returning to the aesthetic of their old logo. I think the more angular look is a downgrade, if only a minor one, but a downgrade nonetheless. I tried to keep the same general idea intact with a  sword and wing logo but I'm open to more drastic changes.

 

I also changed the color palette a little to soften the grey making it a bit more blue in hue, which I'm not sure is a positive change. I also included the St. Louis arch in the negative space created by 'unifying' the shape of the logo. Let me know what you think!

 

Also, I plan on doing uniforms eventually, but I want to get a few logos in a good spot first! 

 

[BengalErnst]

Ooh I’m excited for this and what a wonderful start. This is an upgrade and I love how you threw the St. Louis arch behind the sword. This is the league’s best logo and you improved on it which gives me hope for the rest of the league. 

[jackkmart]

DC Defenders V1

 

I didn't need to do too much for the first draft of this one. The original Defenders logo was solid and recognizable and they even updated it and made it even more distinct in XFL23 but relegated it to secondary logo status... So I re-upgraded (if that makes sense) that logo back to primary status over the DC mark - which is a decent logo in and of itself but less recognizable and, in my opinion, worse than the pentagon lightning bolt logo. I also modified the Pentagon logo a little adding elements back in from their old logo and modifying the way the lightning bolts interact with each other and the overall line weights and things.

 

This one is still pretty rough, and very much a first draft,  but I think it's a good start.

 

 

 

 

Here is my updated version of the D logo for reference as well. Not much has changed here but I made the '3D' elements less prominent and changed the size of the star and C.

 

 

 

[jackkmart]

Seattle Sea Dragons V1

 

Alright, this one was tough and definitely needs some refinement. I'm not even sure this is the actual form the logo should take but it's my first attempt at blending the new and old Seattle logo. The new one is nice in that it integrates an S shape  (for Seattle presumably... or Sea, I guess) and it's more angular design is kind of nice looking but it was simplified so much that it lost a lot of the charm the original had. 

 

This first draft is still a little simple for my tastes and I may try a completely different version that is more reminiscent of the OG logo but which integrates the S form as well. For now though this is a good start.

 

 

       

 

 

 

[BengalErnst]

Upgrade over the 2023 version but I still like the 2020 version better 

[jackkmart]

20 minutes ago, BengalErnst said:

Upgrade over the 2023 version but I still like the 2020 version better 

 

yea I'm thinking of doing a more 2020 version as well. I'll probably try multiple variations of each logo

[jackkmart]

Las Vegas Vipers V1

 

Alright, I'm changing the name here from 'Vegas' to 'Las Vegas' so as to actually make their new secondary logo make sense. Also, I think people can contract the name to Vegas in colloquial speech anyway no need to officially drop 'Las' in my opinion. 

 

With this logo I've gone a little wild. It's a pretty hard departure from their current or past logo but it is instead a refresh of the Vipers 2020 secondary logo. I've made it super angular to match their LV secondary and added similar shading to create some cohesion across their brand. I also think it looks a little like beveled playing cards or really fancy casino chips so that also helps to ground the team in their new city. 

 

The shadow work here could definitely use a good amount of work though so I will likely do multiple passes on it but this is just a proof of concept for now for people to critique. Is this better than their weird V 'fang' logo? Or should I just try to recreate the old V logo in a more interesting way?

 

Primary

 

 

 

Secondary

 

 

 

 

 

[BengalErnst]

I’d rather have the V (old or new) as the secondary rather than the newer secondary, which is just terrible. I like the route you took with the primary tho. 

[jackkmart]

Las Vegas Vipers V2

 

New Secondary

Redoing the Viper's old 'V' logo in the same style as the viper head I posted.

 

 

[BengalErnst]

Huge upgrade, however I still don't see a football logo here. This also gives me the vibes of a LFL team logo.. maybe for the Vegas Vampires or Vixens haha

[jackkmart]

 

Some Helmet Designs

 

Just some preliminary Helmet ideas for LV, DC, and STL.

 

 

This one is barely changed from their old helmet which was already pretty good

 

 

Version one of the LV helmet with the viper head on the helmet.

 

 

Here is the same helmet but with the V logo on it. I'm not sure which I prefer at this point, but as a standalone logo I definitely prefer the Viper Head.

 

 

For STL I removed their center line, sword motif and instead put oversized wings on the helmet. I tried to make the wing follow the facemask more like an Oregon helmet instead of the wings following along the top of the helmet like their old helmet and the Eagles have/ had. It's a little more plain but their old helmet was pretty busy and didn't really make use of the side of the helmet as much as the Wings could.

[jackkmart]

2 hours ago, BengalErnst said:

Huge upgrade, however I still don't see a football logo here. This also gives me the vibes of a LFL team logo.. maybe for the Vegas Vampires or Vixens haha

 

I tend to agree but I think it's partially because a V logo alone is kinda hard to pull off and often V is associated with more 'feminine' names or mascots like you mentioned.  So I also created an interlocking LV logo based on an unused logo from the LV Outlaws of the original XFL. I have changed it to match the style of the original Viper head as well. 

 

I'm also maybe thinking of adding a 'Vegas Gold' to their palette to further tie them into Vegas and somewhat match the Golden Knights, like how Pitt teams share similar colors a lot of the time.

 

 

 

 

I think this looks pretty good on a helmet actually.

[Wildcomet]

2 hours ago, jackkmart said:

Las Vegas Vipers V2

 

New Secondary

Redoing the Viper's old 'V' logo in the same style as the viper head I posted.

 

1 hour ago, BengalErnst said:

Huge upgrade, however I still don't see a football logo here. This also gives me the vibes of a LFL team logo.. maybe for the Vegas Vampires or Vixens haha

 

I think I'd agree at least somewhat with Bengal, it's a good looking logo but could also use a little something extra to better convey 'snake themed football team'... maybe in the middle try some sort of snake tongue/football laces design?

[jbird669]

I'm loving this series!

[Karnage84]

This is looking like a great series so far. My thoughts:

 

- St. Louis - I am digging the updates overall. I really like the helmet design

- DC - I really liked the previous identity and I'm glad that you're drawing back on it. I wouldn't change the new primary logo as much but I would relegate it to a secondary logo/shoulder patch

- Seattle: Looks great. I don't see a reason to make any other changes. 

- Las Vegas: I think you've done a really good job overall here. I really like the snake head logo as a primary. The 'V' is integrated (you could even argue the sides of the mouth are L's) but fits well into the logo. I'm digging the interlocking LV logo. If you do add gold I would want to keep it to a tasteful minimum. Red, Black, White is a good balanced colour scheme. Adding in gold can throw that a bit off balance and make things too busy if not done correctly. 

 

The quality of the images and presentation are on point. Keep it up. 

[Brian in Boston]

18 hours ago, jackkmart said:

Seattle Sea Dragons V1

 

Alright, this one was tough and definitely needs some refinement. I'm not even sure this is the actual form the logo should take but it's my first attempt at blending the new and old Seattle logo. The new one is nice in that it integrates an S shape  (for Seattle presumably... or Sea, I guess) and it's more angular design is kind of nice looking but it was simplified so much that it lost a lot of the charm the original had. 

 

This first draft is still a little simple for my tastes and I may try a completely different version that is more reminiscent of the OG logo but which integrates the S form as well. For now though this is a good start.

 

I’ll be honest with you: I think you’ve nailed a “blending of the new and old” Seattle XFL marks. While this is your project, I’m not of the mind that the logo you’ve unveiled requires anything in the way of “refinement”.

[jackkmart]

Just wanted to appreciate all the C&C/ kind words everyone has thrown in so far, it means a lot! Orlando an Houston are probably next and I likely won't be making many sweeping changes as I think the old Guardians logo - which I will probably be reverting to for Orlando - is pretty solid and the new Houston logo is probably the best of the official XFL23 teams. Unfortunately, for Orlando, it will be difficult to massively improve the branding as the team name itself is the real issue as opposed to the execution behind the logo. And, for now at least, I don't plan on changing their name/ mascot.

[Brian in Boston]

18 hours ago, jackkmart said:

Seattle Sea Dragons V1

 

Alright, this one was tough and definitely needs some refinement. I'm not even sure this is the actual form the logo should take but it's my first attempt at blending the new and old Seattle logo. The new one is nice in that it integrates an S shape  (for Seattle presumably... or Sea, I guess) and it's more angular design is kind of nice looking but it was simplified so much that it lost a lot of the charm the original had. 

 

This first draft is still a little simple for my tastes and I may try a completely different version that is more reminiscent of the OG logo but which integrates the S form as well. For now though this is a good start.

 

I’ll be honest with you: I think you’ve already nailed a perfect “blending of the new and old” Seattle XFL marks. While this is obviously your project, I’m not of the mind that the logo you’ve unveiled requires anything in the way of “refinement”. In fact, I fear that “refinement” will result in a lesser logo.

 

Now, I’ll concede that my trepidation is based upon the fact that I didn’t find the original Seattle XFL mark to possess any “charm” whatsoever. I thought it was over-designed to the point of fussiness, leaning more towards appearing as though lifted from an illustration or an animated cartoon cel than a sports branding package.

 

If further honing is in this mark’s future, I’m hoping it will be minor. I would preach restraint, because - as I mentioned earlier - I find this logo to be outstanding just as it is.

[jackkmart]

Houston Roughnecks

 

I'm just gonna get this post out of the way because I didn't change anything. Houston looks good as is and is arguably the only logo that improved on it's XFL 2020 counterpart in any significant way. But I did slightly alter their helmet design while keeping the general idea the same.

 

 

       

 

The helmet will have a more chrome appearance in real-life as the Roughnecks' helmet did in 2020. I've basically changed some strap coloring and replaced the simple red center line with a 'steel' pattern to match the new logo.