Reimagined World Football League Concepts (Complete- Whole League Helmet & Logo Sheets Posted)

[Wildcomet]

There's been several great threads recently by various forum members sharing concepts for the NFL, XFL and USFL and seeing them helped give me the urge to do a project like that again (I have in the past tried my hand at the USFL, Arena Football League and Pre-Superbowl era NFL), but rather than retread old ground or compete with some of the excellent work of others on this forum I decided to try tackling an older league that I haven't seen much done for: The World Football League (WFL). For those needing a primer, this league existed 1974-1975. Despite its name, nearly all of the teams were in the US.  I decided to pick 8 of the teams to at least start with and try my hand at imagining what their logos, helmets and uniforms could look like today. In past sets I only did logos/helmets, so uniforms are a change of pace for me.

 

I referenced this site and general web searches for the logos, and a mix of web searches and the Gridiron Uniform Database to get a handle on how the original teams looked. I'm generally trying to keep a connection between how teams looked then and how I imagine them here, but am allowing myself to make some changes in a couple cases, whether it's to differentiate teams from each other or make the team's brand stand out more (one team that I will post sooner than later will be very noticeably changed but for what I think is a valid reason). One thing I noticed was that the IRL uniform designs all had similar elements to them (triple stripe helmets, sleeves and pants for example), so I have a goal to let each team show some more personality and identity in their designs.

 

To introduce this concept series I have an updated league logo below and will be immediately posting a map showing the cities and planned color schemes for the teams I chose to work on in the next post (separating them for easier viewing). I wanted to give this logo a greater sense of depth and lighting, but still be recognizable to anyone familiar with the original league logo.  Different file sources had different shades of colors, so I went with what appealed most to me. An image of the original is posted next to it for comparison (Source: sportslogos.net)

 

EDIT: I made a couple changes to my updated league logo and have updated the post to show the newest version; anyone looking to see the original updated version can see it in posts for the first three teams (Birmingham, Chicago and Detroit).

          

[Wildcomet]

As stated above, here is the map of where my first 8 teams will be located, as well as the color schemes I plan to use for them (they are all in various stages of completion as I write this). Some of these cities hosted multiple teams between 1974 and 1975, or the same team with a new name, so some may be guessed pretty easily by those familiar with the league, but others probably not as much.

 

 

Here's the teams I have done so far:

 

Birmingham Vulcans

Chicago Fire

Detroit Wheels

Houston Texans

Memphis Southmen

New York Stars

Philadelphia Bell

San Antonio Wings

Southern California Sun

 

Coming Soon:

Whole League Graphics

[Wildcomet]

I decided not to wait too long to share the first one, since it basically is ready to go. Here is my take on the Birmingham Vulcans. The primary was changed to make the flames a little more dynamic and have them go into the negative space of the V to add some shading to the football shape made in that space, and making the V a bit bigger gave it a bit of an Avengers logo vibe that I liked.  The secondary logo is inspired by the statue in Birmingham that the team is named after, as it include a spear about to be thrown.

 

The flames coming off the spear head are meant to form a sort of B shape. I changed up the colors on the uniforms some; the originals had white pants which is shared by a couple other teams on my list so the change helps them stand out. Since those are now blue, I made the home jersey red, as I didn't like the idea of an all-blue look them. The helmet stays mostly true to the original, just with the updated primary. The pants incorporate white striping with the secondary logo to convey the idea of it flying through the air.

 

EDIT: Adding a link to my source for the original helmet and uniforms, and elaborated on uniform changes a bit more.

 

 

 

Hope everyone likes this first one, the next will likely be coming from Chicago (my aim is for alphabetical order with this series). Thanks for looking, C & C is always appreciated!

[BengalErnst]

I’m pretty unfamiliar with the WFL as it was way before my time so I’m excited for this project on these boards. I would like to see you get a better template for the uniforms however as your logo and helmet are so clean relatively 

[Wildcomet]

5 hours ago, BengalErnst said:

I’m pretty unfamiliar with the WFL as it was way before my time so I’m excited for this project on these boards. I would like to see you get a better template for the uniforms however as your logo and helmet are so clean relatively 

 

That's fair. I'd love a good realistic one like I have for the helmet, but I just haven't had much luck with finding or making one yet.  If that changes coming back and redoing uniforms would definitely be on the table, but for now I'm working with what I got. I can try modify this template to tone down those seams more though; I was debating how much of them to leave in vs take out from what I started with. Thanks for the feedback!

 

EDIT: So naturally, shortly after I publicly say I'm not sure how to improve my uniform template a new idea on how to do that popped into my head (basically a targeted combination of layered semi-transparent lines and gradients). After a little while of tinkering, I got it looking much better I think. Here's a retouched version of Birmingham with the changes to my uniform template. 

[BengalErnst]

Major step up. Nice work. 

[Wildcomet]

Thanks to everyone who liked and commented thus far, if anyone else has comments feel free to continue to share them, but I am going to go ahead and share team #2 of 8, the Chicago Fire!

 

On updating the logo, I mainly focused on modernizing the design of the helmet itself, but I also added a 2nd darker shade of red to the flames, and small flames coming out the ear holes. The new secondary uses the same flame graphic, but replaces the the helmet with a black version of the star from Chicago's flag. The flames take the place of the top point of the star.

 

The helmet is a big departure from the original design, but considering the logo is a black helmet with flames, to not have the helmet also be black with flames just seems like a missed branding opportunity that I have the chance to correct. Flames are on the front, and coming out the major vents in the helmet. Since I changed the helmet quite a bit, I stayed fairly true to the original uniforms. I kept the overall color schemes for home and away, and a the 3-strip pattern on the sleeves and pants (though executed a bit different). My additions are small patches of the primary logo on the chest, adding the secondary logo to the stripes on the sleeves and pants, and side panels under the jersey arms with the dark red shade I introduced. Those interested can view my source for the originals here.

 

 

I hope everyone enjoys, but C&C is always appreciated. Thanks for looking!

[Wildcomet]

Any C&C for Chicago will still be welcome, but I'm going to move forward and post my next one- the Detroit Wheels.

 

Here's a link to see the original uniforms from Gridiron Uniform Database. My two main updates to the primary logo were removing the W (I wanted to keep it but it just felt too busy, so I imagine it as an alternate secondary logo), and changing the design from a wheel inside a lowercase D to a wheel with a smoke trail forming the shape of a lowercase D. I think this lets the wheel take on more prominence. The new secondary is a capital D with a tire tread pattern inside of it. 

 

My helmet is pretty close to the original in basic concept (logo on the side, black-red-black center stripes on a yellow shell with yellow facemask), but executed in a way that emphasizes the team's identity. Letter logos are often problematic on helmets, so I rotated the primary so that the smoke is more under/behind the wheel on the helmet. This way it works equally well on both sides. The red center stripe is admittedly hard to see here, but it uses the same tire tread pattern seen elsewhere on the uniform and secondary logo. The helmet is taking a cue from the DC Defenders, and has a yellow "painted pavement" texture pattern on the shell.

 

The uniform also largely follows the originals in base colors and striping patterns, but the sleeve stripes were changed to tire treads on either side of a double-yellow center line as seen on many streets. The pant stripe mirrors the helmet center stripe design. "Wheels" and "Detroit" wordmarks adorn the chests above the numbers. The numbers and collars use the same pavement texture as the helmet shell.

 

 

Please let me know what you think; should the W come back as an official secondary logo, go back into the primary or just stay away? Did I overdo it with the pavement texture use and/or tire tread patterns? I was aiming for modern and unique to the brand, but not obnoxious. I'll be back in a couple of days likely with the original Houston Texans on deck. Thanks for looking!

[VampyrRabbit]

I find the d hard to read as a wheel and smoke, the wheel is clear enough, but the smoke trail doesn't read as one to me. Perhaps flipping the trail Horizontally or rotating it 180 clockwise could help with that. I also think the pavement texture is a bit much and takes away the spotlight from the tire tracks, which look really good and would probably be enough on their own.

[Wildcomet]

3 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

I find the d hard to read as a wheel and smoke, the wheel is clear enough, but the smoke trail doesn't read as one to me. Perhaps flipping the trail vertically could help with that. I also think the pavement texture is a bit much and takes away the spotlight from the tire tracks, which look really good and would probably be enough on their own.

Thanks for the thoughtful suggestions @VampyrRabbit!

 

I decided to implement them quick while it was fresh on my mind. I took the texture off the collars and numbers (for now I left the helmet alone, but change that also), and flipped & rotated the smoke trail on the primary logo. I also went ahead and officially made the additional secondary logo inspired by the W from the original. Having the versions to directly compare I do think removing the texture from the jerseys is the right call; it looks much cleaner now and is less distracting.

 

[VampyrRabbit]

Sorry, I mean't horizontally not vertically in my original post, which I edited and also added rotating it 180 degrees. Dumb mistake on my part, my bad.

Also, the original logo for the Wheels looks pretty modern, would never have guessed it was a 1970s design.

[Wildcomet]

11 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

Sorry, I mean't horizontally not vertically in my original post, which I edited and also added rotating it 180 degrees. Dumb mistake on my part, my bad.

 

All good, I'll admit I was not sold on the vertical flip but posted it to see what others would think. I tried the horizontal flip this time and I think this might be a winner. It feels more connected as a single graphic now I think, and I hope its new orientation will help with it seeing as a smoke trail from the tire. I also tweaked the logo on the helmet to reflect the change.

 

 

11 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

Also, the original logo for the Wheels looks pretty modern, would never have guessed it was a 1970s design.

 

Yeah it was a bit ahead of its time, I'd agree.  It's a little busy, and the wheel having the drop-shadow while the surrounding D looks flat kind of bugs me a bit and drove most of my changes, but it is not particularly dated like some of the others from this league are (understandably so, being 50 yrs old and all). The wheel itself looks pretty solid so I tried not to change too much there.

[Karnage84]

4 hours ago, Wildcomet said:

 

All good, I'll admit I was not sold on the vertical flip but posted it to see what others would think. I tried the horizontal flip this time and I think this might be a winner. It feels more connected as a single graphic now I think, and I hope its new orientation will help with it seeing as a smoke trail from the tire. I also tweaked the logo on the helmet to reflect the change.

 

 

 

Yeah it was a bit ahead of its time, I'd agree.  It's a little busy, and the wheel having the drop-shadow while the surrounding D looks flat kind of bugs me a bit and drove most of my changes, but it is not particularly dated like some of the others from this league are (understandably so, being 50 yrs old and all). The wheel itself looks pretty solid so I tried not to change too much there.

I feel like you need more red on the away jersey. 

I don't know a ton about the WFL but looking up the Wheels' old jerseys, there's a lot that you can draw inspiration from.

 

• Colours: A dark navy would be much better than black. There's also a history of this with the team (see below)
• Numbers: It looks like they utilized a stencil font
• Stripes: Two tire tread patterns over a fat solid would add texture and keeping it fresh while also paying homage to the original. 

 

[BengalErnst]

I’m just not feeling the smoke trail. Without being told I wouldn’t have had the slightest inclination of what that was exactly 

[Wildcomet]

Thanks for the insightful comments @Karnage84!

 

I didn't implement all of the suggestions, mainly because I'm not sure that picture is an accurate depiction of their original uniform. While I agree the Navy may look better, and did try it to see, all of the in-game images or pics of actual jerseys I can find along with the Gridiron Uniform Database seem to show them in black. I also have not seen that number style on any other images. 

 

  and 

 

That all said, I did take to heart much of your other ideas for this latest iteration. I altered my sleeve striping to better match both the originals and my new helmet and pants' stripe pattern. I also widened the pants stripes more like the originals, and recolored the away numbers to red and outlined the numbers. All told I think this is now both closer to the originals and more cohesive with a single striping pattern, which is very similar to the originals with the tire tread taking the place of the middle stripes. Thanks again and I hope you and others like this update!

 

[Wildcomet]

15 hours ago, BengalErnst said:

I’m just not feeling the smoke trail. Without being told I wouldn’t have had the slightest inclination of what that was exactly 

 

I decided to try this out to see if it helps; I added some red to give it a bit more of a fire like appearance. I think it also helps balance the primary logo a bit, and with the larger emphasis on red in the uniform getting more red in the logo feels fitting. Does this help?

 

 

[Wildcomet]

Thanks again for all the comments on the Wheels concept, I think it's ended up at a much better place than it started out at and all the help is the reason why. Feel free to continue to share thoughts on it, but for now I am going to share my next team, the Houston Texans- Yes, there was a Houston Texans in the 1970s, so here's my take on them.

 

I redid the concept around the main logo a bit; mainly by making it 2D, putting the H over the Western part of the state, then adding a lone star over where Houston would be on the map. I think the Western borders made for an interesting H shape that honors the geometric design of the original, and the 3D drop shadow elements felt dated today. I also decided to put more emphasis on green to help them stand out from other teams with yellow and/or white in their logos, uniforms, etc. The secondary is taking the Western part of the Texas border as inspiration for the top of the T shape, and then the center is inspired by the Texas flag.

 

The stripe pattern from the secondary is the basis for the stripes on the pants and helmet. The helmet otherwise keeps the colors and layout of the original bar the updated logo. The numbers and wordmarks use a geometric font inspired by the logo. The home uniforms keep the color pattern of the originals, with the only major changes being the pants stripes and sleeves now sporting the primary logo. The away uniforms changed the pants color to green (again to help them stand out among others in the league), and reversed the colors of the numbers and outline to help keep a balance of green and yellow in the uniform. Here's the Gridiron Uniform Database entry for the Texans for reference.

 

[chestnutz]

Great topic! I knew very little about the WFL before this, so it's been interesting to see your takes on them!

 

I'm going to give some feedback here (I hope it doesn't sound too harsh, but just giving my thoughts!)

 

WFL logo - I'm not sure this is an improvement on the original (which, I think is freaking perfect already, so kind of an impossible task). You made it have more depth with the curved latitude lines, but the football is still flat as the laces are completely straight, which, if you're trying to give it the same roundedness as the globe, they would be more curved. The laces area also quite thin, I see they're the same width as the latitude lines but I think they could all be thickened for better legibility from a distance. Lastly, the shape of the football is a bit oblong and looks more like a rugby ball (maybe it's the rounded edges).

 

Birmingham - I really like your secondary, and the changes to the primary are nice (if a bit detailed). Only thing I'm not a fan of is the lighter blue shading in the logo, it gives off a very Web 2.0 look.

 

Chicago - This is a case where I actually dig the added depth to the logo, the flames feel slightly modernized but still keeps what makes the original so great. 60's and 70's logos are my absolute favorite, so it's a bit tough to improve on them IMO. I do think you could lose some of the detail in your version (namely the added facemask bars like above the eyes, and the very tiny flames coming out of the ears are unnecessary). Simple is better, and you want to avoid things looking too cluttered. Secondary is great!

 

Detroit - Really appreciate what you were going for with the "d". I think your latest version is the closest yet, but I'm still not sure about some of the details, or where the yellow and red accent lines overlap. Also not sure about flipping the logo on its side on the helmet - I think that kind of defeats the purpose of making it a "d" in the first place if the primary way people will see it is rotated. Love the more simplified tire marks on the sleeves in your latest version though, great touch.

 

Houston - Again this is a toughie, because I really love the original logo in all its 70's glory. Couple of thoughts - I think your version would again benefit from simplifying it and following what the original does re: state outline - straighter lines with a lot less jagged points. As it is now, the "h" is pretty funky, with it jutting out to the left randomly and the bottom following the jagged border while the top of the letter is completely straight. Getting rid of a lot of that state outline detail would help logofy it. For the secondary, I'm not sure what the two points coming out the top of the "T" are, I think you could lose them. I do love the inspo taken from the TX flag for that beveled look, great idea. Lastly, I think using the "western" part of the state as inspo in anything Houston would be a big mistake - HTX is East Texas and proud - it'd be like using a SoCal element for a team in Sacramento.

 

Anyways, I don't expect you to go back and change any of your previous concepts just based on my feedback, but some things to perhaps keep in mind going forward! This is a really cool series and it's great seeing how open you are to feedback, so I'm stoked to see more!

[Wildcomet]

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback @chestnutz! I'm glad you've liked the series overall so far, and you had some really good points that I will keep in mind moving forward, and I may go back to some of the ones I've already done in time (your feedback was the first I'd gotten for Chicago, so I'll give that another look at some point). I did update my league logo based on the feedback. In my head I was thinking the laces would be focal point and not look curved, but I tried curving them and like it. The laces are also thicker now. The updated league logo will be on the team graphics moving forward.

 

You had some excellent points about the Texans logos. I was really inspired by how geometric the original's H was, which is why I went with the angles on my update. They aren't all gone, but I did tone them down and reduce the number of angles quite a bit. The H lost the part that followed the edge of the state to the left; part of me still finds it more interesting with it on there but I see the merit in going without. I also redid the secondary logo to use the eastern border for the T shape rather than the western border (that cultural aspect was a very helpful note to give) and smooth the top out. Aside from updating the logos used, the helmet and uniform are same as before.

 

 

Hope everyone likes Texans version 2.0! Next up is the Memphis Southmen.

 

[chestnutz]

The WFL logo update is wonderful, reads so much better following the same curve as the latitude lines. Great stuff!

 

nice work on the Houston update as well, I think this is much cleaner. And no worries about the east/west thing, before I moved to Texas a few years ago I never would’ve thought about it, but if I’ve learned anything it’s that Texans take their identity verrrry seriously haha. Luckily your secondary concept still works either way!