Grey Cup logo concept

[raysox]

The Canadian Football League's Grey Cup was last weekend. The Toronto Argonauts stopped a three-peat by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a game that featured blocked field goals on each of the last two possessions. It was a very good game. The league rebranded a decade ago to one of the worst logos a league has in professional sports in my opinion. It's completely lifeless, bad font, and empty. This was during the renaissance of leagues moving away from graphic logos to more of a standardize logo set. Corporate.

Working with what I have, I think the current set of Grey Cup logos are as bad as their league logo. It feels like there's 7 things crammed into one small logo. Say what you want about the Super Bowl, but the logo FEELS like a big deal because it gives you all the information you need without wasted effort elsewhere. Same with the Stanley Cup logo, both of which allow for some personality with team or city colors. I don't think they can really go back to the logo execution from 2007-2011 either. That style seems to have been phased out, but also the league and the host cities are small. After a while, what are you going to do with Edmonton's logo? 

 

So that's my parameters. Make it say Grey Cup, make it feel like a big deal, show the trophy, and have some local coloring to make it different.

Here's what I made. For each city there is a light and dark logo, with the difference being the COUPE GREY CUP text having a little bit of color on it when applicable. I started with the trophy illustration, but had to rethink it's application when I couldn't escape my love of this font. I nearly went with a block font but I feel like this is more modern, especially paired with the bevels. Originally I had every single dark version have colored highlights, but I felt like the greyscale text looked better paired with red/yellow/orange. I took a cue from a mid-decade Grey Cup logo with the sliced maple leaf above the text, which was perfect for housing the game number.

 

[timberwolf]

As a Canadian, I see these logos a lot and every year they feel bland and uninspired.

 

I like this concept a lot more, but I wonder if there's room to add an extra element to represent the host...?

 

CN Tower for Toronto,  mountains for BC, stampede theme for Calgary. Maybe the host city bar has a different vibe every year? (i.e. the 2009 Calgary Grey Cup rodeo nameplate on the bottom)

 

Canada has a ton of different cultures spread out across the provinces, so this logo could be a really influential way to reflect some cool elements of the history/diversity in those respective cities. The Vancouver Canucks special warmup jerseys are a cool example of this.

 

That being said, this would be a monumental upgrade over the current mark!

[officeglenn]

I like the versions on the black background, but on the white background, having the black outline on the trophy and not on the lettering looks off to me. It feels like, with the bevelling and gradients and silver colouring, the letters are meant to mirror the trophy, but without the black outline, it feels incomplete.

 

The trophy is rendered very well, and the rest of the elements look great. This is something I could see being used for many years to come.

[raysox]

48 minutes ago, officeglenn said:

I like the versions on the black background, but on the white background, having the black outline on the trophy and not on the lettering looks off to me. It feels like, with the bevelling and gradients and silver colouring, the letters are meant to mirror the trophy, but without the black outline, it feels incomplete.

 

The trophy is rendered very well, and the rest of the elements look great. This is something I could see being used for many years to come.

Completely understand. I started with the version on dark then worked backwards. I felt like a stroke on the text was not working, but positioned to capitalize on the lighting on the right side of the trophy gave enough of a contrast. 
 

1 hour ago, timberwolf said:

As a Canadian, I see these logos a lot and every year they feel bland and uninspired.

 

I like this concept a lot more, but I wonder if there's room to add an extra element to represent the host...?

 

CN Tower for Toronto,  mountains for BC, stampede theme for Calgary. Maybe the host city bar has a different vibe every year? (i.e. the 2009 Calgary Grey Cup rodeo nameplate on the bottom)

 

Canada has a ton of different cultures spread out across the provinces, so this logo could be a really influential way to reflect some cool elements of the history/diversity in those respective cities. The Vancouver Canucks special warmup jerseys are a cool example of this.

 

That being said, this would be a monumental upgrade over the current mark!

Yeah so essentially the Final Four system vs the Super Bowl. I think there is a way to incorporate the unique city flavor, but you'd kind of fall into the trap of repeating ideas like the Calgary example. Same with down here and how out of town branding agencies treat everything New Orleans. However the Final Four is probably the strongest year over year brand in my opinion. Crazy how they've been so consistent over men's and women's finals. I might explore that at a later date but I may or may not have flipped every city in this style so I can post in a day or two.

[timberwolf]

4 hours ago, raysox said:

Completely understand. I started with the version on dark then worked backwards. I felt like a stroke on the text was not working, but positioned to capitalize on the lighting on the right side of the trophy gave enough of a contrast. 
 

Yeah so essentially the Final Four system vs the Super Bowl. I think there is a way to incorporate the unique city flavor, but you'd kind of fall into the trap of repeating ideas like the Calgary example. Same with down here and how out of town branding agencies treat everything New Orleans. However the Final Four is probably the strongest year over year brand in my opinion. Crazy how they've been so consistent over men's and women's finals. I might explore that at a later date but I may or may not have flipped every city in this style so I can post in a day or two.

 

100% agree on the Final Four take. Even though there's similarities, I find myself appreciating almost every iteration of it.

 

I also agree that this design could fall into a similar trap. On the flipside, it could inspire the designers to dig deep and find unique history about the province/city to make each year different.

 

Either way, I really dig this concept. Big upgrade on the current.

 

That New Orleans note is funny too, I have family down there so I visit often. Every New Orleans logo has the same 3-4 elements. There's more to the city than that!

[raysox]

As promised, here is all the other city's version of my Grey Cup logo, featuring a light version with some color accent highlights that I felt looked really neat.