Into the 414-Verse (Milwaukee Mustangs - AFL 3.0)

[Wildcomet]

On 6/16/2024 at 3:17 PM, Sec19Row53 said:

I get it. You sorta did what I was asking g for with this and ... I don't know if I like it. This version looks more like a stencil M, but all is see is the V in the middle.

 

I got nothing

 

That's fair, and I see the V too haha. It's not as bad as a normal M on its own but rounding it off for the oval really makes it stand out. I think this one will go in the "keep tinkering with it" pile for now, and if I get something I think can work better I'll post the update.

 

Anyway, let's move the series along and jump up to the wonderful era of the 1990s. Let's see what if... the Bradley Center lured the NHL to Milwaukee in the 1990s? 

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In the early 1990s, there was a public interest in expansion for the then-21-team NHL, and a group who helped to finance the construction of the Bradley Center was looking to get an NHL team to help occupy it. Market research showed potential for a successful team in the market, as demonstrated by multiple NHL exhibition games drawing roughly 16,000 fans. The now AHL Admirals even played some games around Madison, Green Bay, etc hoping to expand the market for hockey in preparation for the new team coming to town. No single issue kept a team from happening; there were about 20 million of them. The group backing the effort was prepared for and expecting a $30 million expansion fee, but found out the NHL was drawing a hard line on a fee of $50 million. This proved to be an insurmountable hurdle, especially given that 11 other cities were in contention for expansion teams, including the eventual new teams in Tampa and Ottawa.

 

In this timeline, Pettit and his group were able to secure additional partners to afford the higher price tag, and the Milwaukee Spirits took to the ice for the first time in 1994 (Note: I found no good sources on potential team names for the proposed team, so I went with my own). The Admirals eventually made a move to nearby Madison and became the Spirits’ primary affiliate. The NHL would still want to continue growing into the major Southern cities, so I see the league getting larger slightly sooner than in real life.

 

Design: 

Spoiler

While the branding leaned in a more supernatural direction better fitting the 90s, the Spirits name was initially inspired by the city and state’s many distilleries and drinking establishments. Milwaukee does have its local legends for haunted hotels and bars so the name works on a couple levels. The Navy/Lavender/Gray color scheme felt like something that could come into being in that era and largely survive to the modern day. I found a wordmark font that rides a line between a speakeasy style and a ghost-like wispiness, which also became the basis for the main logo. I took the S and added a Voorhees-inspired hockey mask under the upper end of the letter. The top of the S forms a nice hooded cloak shape around the mask, which is what the Secondary logo became. I also modified the M from the font into the cloaked figure logo with a front-view of the hockey mask and a hood over it.

 

The home and away sweaters have a wavy pattern along the bottom inspired by the bottom of the M logo, while the lavender details in the navy side panels and under-arms of the design are inspired by similar features in the main logo. The alternate sweater minimizes the gray to focus on navy with lavender highlights, and again takes inspiration from the main logo for the striping design on the sleeves.

 

Note: I struggled to find a good template with pants and other aspects of a hockey uniform, so I figured this one with the sweater was better than nothing or some other really janky thing with other parts. If anyone knows of or has a good hockey template that can work on Paint.NET, I’d welcome it.

 

I hope you all enjoy this one! It was a fun one to basically have a blank slate to work with as far as the design goes, especially as it evolved from an initially alcohol-based inspiration to the more supernatural theme it ended with and is one of my first ever hockey concepts.

[FCMacbeth]

Any reason why you went with Spirits for a Milwaukee-based hockey team? Did it have anything to do the city itself, or is it just rule of cool?

[Wildcomet]

8 hours ago, FCMacbeth said:

Any reason why you went with Spirits for a Milwaukee-based hockey team? Did it have anything to do the city itself, or is it just rule of cool?

A bit of both I suppose... Initially the name was inspired by the alcohol meaning of the word which fits Milwaukee real well (may be better known for the beer industry but it has its share of distilleries and cocktail bars), but through the development process evolved into the more supernatural theme. Finding the font where the switch in my head from alcohol theme to ghost theme happened. I came across it in a search for speakeasy style fonts and something about its capital S inspired the switch.

 

Milwaukee does have its stories of haunted hotels, bars, etc., so there is a small connection to the area. That said, if you ask locals what Milwaukee is known for, I doubt hauntings would end up high on the list so there's some 'rule of cool' in there also I guess.

[Sec19Row53]

9 minutes ago, Wildcomet said:

A bit of both I suppose... Initially the name was inspired by the alcohol meaning of the word which fits Milwaukee real well (may be better known for the beer industry but it has its share of distilleries and cocktail bars), but through the development process evolved into the more supernatural theme. Finding the font where the switch in my head from alcohol theme to ghost theme happened. I came across it in a search for speakeasy style fonts and something about its capital S inspired the switch.

 

Milwaukee does have its stories of haunted hotels, bars, etc., so there is a small connection to the area. That said, if you ask locals what Milwaukee is known for, I doubt hauntings would end up high on the list so there's some 'rule of cool' in there also I guess.

Then again, so many visiting teams say at the Pfister Hotel, which is well known as being haunted, so you've got that connection as well.

[Wildcomet]

34 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Then again, so many visiting teams say at the Pfister Hotel, which is well known as being haunted, so you've got that connection as well.

I knew the Pfister was one of those haunted hotels, but did not know it was a place that visiting teams often stay at. Cool, thanks for the info!

[Discrim]

Not really feeling the red-heavy look or the number font for the Robins.  Figuring a reddish orange, or failing that, straight up orange, would fit better.

 

Wasn't feeling "Spirits" at first, but I gotta admit it fits somewhat well.  Figuring the Pettits would likely have gone with what they knew worked, though: Admirals.

[Wildcomet]

1 hour ago, Discrim said:

Not really feeling the red-heavy look or the number font for the Robins.  Figuring a reddish orange, or failing that, straight up orange, would fit better.

 

Wasn't feeling "Spirits" at first, but I gotta admit it fits somewhat well.  Figuring the Pettits would likely have gone with what they knew worked, though: Admirals.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the thoughts about the Robins design. What I imagined is that the Robins started off with a more orange color (see the sweater in the throwback logo), but evolved to the color scheme I used in their modern logos in part due to jersey sales, etc.  Arguably not the best fit for the brand I admit, but potentially more marketable. Kind of like the Raptors (an inspiration for the concept) over time downplaying and then basically removing purple from their color scheme. It's something I could give some more thought to though, along with the jersey numbers. It may be something I circle back to.

 

I took the Admirals playing games around Wisconsin in the 90's during the time where they courted an NHL team as a sign that the Admirals could move and share the state with that expansion team, as opposed to becoming the NHL team themselves. Plus, the modern Admirals logo and brand is one of my favorites and frankly I do not believe I could do anything with the name that would live up to the real-life work. I frankly preferred to just start from scratch.

[Wildcomet]

We get one more concept in the 90s before moving into the 21st century. Time to check out what could have been if... the Milwaukee Does had been revived in 1999.

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

The WNBA launched in the mid-1990s with the support of the NBA, and after a couple years of initial success began to look to expand as the 90’s turned into the 2000’s, and 4 teams joined the league in 1999. Prior to the WNBA, there had been past attempts for women’s basketball to make it at a professional level, and one of those pioneering attempts was the Milwaukee Does, who played in the Women’s Professional Basketball League from 1978-1980. While sharing a city, arena, and having similar names, the team had no official affiliation with their male counterparts.

 

In this corner of the 414-Verse, an ownership group got the rights to the name and branding and decided to revive the team for WNBA play, and the rebooted Does joined the WNBA in 1999. This was a time that saw the league begin to expand in a bigger way following its first couple years of operation. Like many of the teams in the league, they had their ups and downs and may not have made it if not for the NBA’s support of the league in the earlier years, but have found themselves on fairly solid footing in the 2020s as women’s pro sports begin to cement their place in the market.

Design:

Spoiler

The team attempted to maintain its connection with the past; while updating the font choices and upping the vibrance and contrast of the color scheme, they kept the 70’s era lime green/purple colors and the design took cues from the original wordmark when designing the updated version. I do envision the lime green being downplayed for the darker, almost aqua, shade of green over time though. By the modern day, the lime is more or less an accent color in practice.

 

The home and away uniforms have a lightly sublimated deer hoof pattern on the bottom halves of the jerseys, with a thin lime green accent along the sides and arm holes, while the collar is more of a gradient. I got inspiration for those features from a couple different modern WNBA jerseys, along with some things like the league logo on the back and the name below the number, which seem to be consistent across the league from what I could tell. The throwback uniform is intended to be a more faithful adaptation of the 70s Does uniforms. One note, this was one of the first uniform concepts I worked on and had not fully settled on the idea that all the uniforms would be modern day concepts, so I originally started making a uniform that I felt would fit well in the late 90s, which I decided to keep here as my alternate jersey (it was inspired by the 90s Bucks alternate jerseys).

 

I look forward to any comments or reactions people might have for this. It was another first for me, in the sense that I had not done a concept specific to the WNBA before. I have another opportunity later in this series, as the name will be reappearing in the context of the Bucks starting a WNBA team so that could create a fun comparison for people to check out later. The next concept will be a return to baseball in the 2000s. Thanks for looking!

[packerfan21396]

In 1956, the Packers had been blue and gold more often than green and gold by a good margin, so it is possible if the Packers were to have moved to Milwaukee, there might not have been a need for Lombardi to push for green as the primary color full time in 1959 and the Milwaukee Packers stay Lambeau's Norte Dame blue and gold.

[BlueMoon18]

50 minutes ago, packerfan21396 said:

In 1956, the Packers had been blue and gold more often than green and gold by a good margin, so it is possible if the Packers were to have moved to Milwaukee, there might not have been a need for Lombardi to push for green as the primary color full time in 1959 and the Milwaukee Packers stay Lambeau's Norte Dame blue and gold.

That’s a fair point. They probably would change the gold to be more of a wheat gold to tie in with the brewing industry (Miller).

[Wildcomet]

Appreciate the feedback, thanks!

 

Here's the next one, introducing what could happen if Miller Park got delayed for too long?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In the 1990s there was beginning to be pressure on Milwaukee to either replace Milwaukee County Stadium or lose another MLB team in the Brewers. In what was a controversial decision at the time, public funding via taxes was voted on to help fund the construction of what is now American Family Field. Construction was hampered by a tragic accident resulting in the deaths of three workers, but eventually completed in 2001, allowing the Brewers to remain in Milwaukee.

 

In this timeline, political pressures became too much to bear after the accident (as it was, a local politician lost a recall for supporting the sales tax used to fund it), and the project was halted indefinitely. This resulted in the forced movement of the Brewers, though the league would hold the Brewers name/logo rights for a potential future expansion team which would get priority rights to the market. This led to the elevation of the AAA Nashville Sounds- the affiliate of the Brewers- with the help of the then-Brewers owners officially buying into the team. While they could not use the Brewers name, the Sounds felt it made sense to in turn form a new AAA team in Milwaukee using the eventually constructed Miller Park until a new MLB team came to town, and the team took the field in 2006. Up to this point, they have not gotten that opportunity as there has been no expansion or relocation (though Lax Vegas won out as a future home for the A's). The current prospects are for the team to compete with the likes of San Antonio, Montreal, Mexico City and Portland for one of two rumored expansion teams to bring the league to 32 teams.

 

Design:

Spoiler

Unable to use Brewers name, the team was named the Milwaukee Riverwalkers, after Milwaukee’s Riverwalk. The Riverwalk runs along Milwaukee’s three rivers which all converge near downtown Milwaukee. The primary logo is inspired by some of the emblems you can find along the walking path. The colors are the same as the Sounds colors, and a guitar pick from the Sounds logo is inside home plate on the primary logo. The three rivers are represented throughout the brand with many design features coming in sets of three. One of the more famous landmarks along the Riverwalk is a Fonzie statue, after the character from ‘Happy Days’, which was set in Milwaukee. This show, synonymous with its 1950s setting and rock n roll music, played into the identity with the secondary baseball record logo, the record in the background of the wordmark, the Thumbs up logo and their mascot- Fonzie Walker. The primary logo is inspired by plaques which can be seen in the sidewalk along the path. The colors are the same as those from the Sounds.

 

The primary logo features on the sleeves of the home and away jerseys with the triple stripes running from the collar to the logo on both sides. The triple stripe pattern is also along the pant legs. On the chest of each of those jersey is a wordmark logo for either the  city or team name in front of a version of the secondary record logo. The socks also have the triple stripe. The alternate jersey swaps the primary logo for the secondary record logo on the cap, and also uses that logo on the chest. The sleeves sport the thumbs up alternate logo, and the triple stripe now becomes a pattern along the left side of the jersey along the buttons and collar. The font for the wordmarks and numbers was inspired by the Happy Days show logo.

 

I hope everyone like this latest entry. if not, I'm sorrr-rr-rr... so-rr-rrr-yrrr... lol (hopefully those who've watched Happy Days appreciate the joke).  The pace will likely be picking up to finish this initial run through the series; the next couple entries will have a couple concepts each as we dive deeper into a single timeline! 

[Wildcomet]

Time for the next set of concepts to drop. Here's Part 1 of what I'm calling the Deer Sports Timeline. For this and the next I'll give the backstory first for all the concepts here, then the design notes after each concept. If anyone is interested, this is sort of a sequel to a smaller series I did about 4 years ago, so you can see some earlier versions of the main concept logos here. This and the next share-out will add additional logos and uniforms to those brands.

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In 2017 the Milwaukee Bucks ownership group added a NBA G-League team to their portfolio, which has the Bucks, and the property surrounding the Fiserv Forum. The group added no more teams to their portfolio, but this led me to imagine… What if they branched out to other sports like other ownership groups in Washington and Cleveland have? All the teams would share some common traits regarding their branding, like the Bucks and Herd do in real life.

 

In this imagined timeline, which I’m calling the Deer Sports Timeline, they incrementally began to add more teams to their portfolio. The Bucks initially decided following their G-League expansion to bring three other franchises to life. These teams would play in the WNBA, National Lacrosse League (NLL), and the NHL.

 

For the WNBA team-  the ownership group secured the rights to the “Milwaukee Does” name used by a pioneering women’s professional basketball team in the 1970s. They did this in recognition of its connections to the sport, the city and the inherent synergy with their brand. They managed to launch the team shortly after the Herd, for the 2018 WNBA season. 

 

The group quickly shared their interest in a team with NHL officials and submitted a formal bid for an expansion franchise in late 2018. This team gained approval to begin play in the 2021 season alongside teams in Seattle and Houston. It was ultimately the 4th franchise of this branch-timeline to begin playing, but it was the 2nd one that ownership pursued. 

 

Also around this time, the NLL had been steadily showing signs of growing strength over the previous several years, with franchises like the Colorado Mammoth being successful in less traditional markets for the sport. This led the group to pursue an expansion team in the league, which became the 2nd of the teams to play its first game in this timeline.

 

Edit: For some reason this one image is refusing to show for me when I paste it here, so in case that's true for everyone here's a direct link.

Design:

Spoiler

The logo imagines a female version of the Bucks logo, with the antlers removed, and its aggressive lines and edges are made sleeker with some curves introduced. To both help the team stand out a bit while also calling back to the brand’s history, the team revived the purple color used in the Ray Allen-Vin Baker era in place of the Bucks’ modern blue accents, and gave them a greater emphasis in this brand. Most of the secondary logos and wordmarks are fairly derived from the Bucks logo set, being a sister franchise to them. 

 

The home, away and alt uniforms are pretty close to what the Bucks used in the era this team would have begun playing. In the years since they have largely maintained the look in an effort to solidify their brand. While the Bucks did wildly different alternates yearly, the Does largely stuck with what they started with.

 

Design:

Spoiler

The name comes from the blaze orange clothes hunters are required to wear for hunting season, and that color is added to the traditional Bucks color palette and takes center stage here. The primary logo takes the front-view Buck logo and Ghost Riders it, with a flaming deer skull. Cracks on the skull forehead form a shape inspired by the basket of a lacrosse stick. The wordmark is a blaze orange, outlined, italicized version of the Bucks standard font. Flaming lacrosse sticks and antlers round out the secondary logos.

 

The blaze didn’t have the Bucks and Does’ limits on the use of cream in their uniforms, so they embraced it for their home uniform, with the flame pattern featuring around the wrists, collar and side panels on both the home and away, both featuring the flaming skull logo. Drawing on the blaze orange inspiration for the name, the alternates take on a bold hunter-camo pattern for their alternate jersey with green panels under the arms and sides and feature the plainer monogram secondary logo on the front which stands out better against the camo pattern.

 

Design:

Spoiler

The name references Santa’s reindeer Comet, and features a side profile view of the Buck logo for the first time, with its head coming out of a flaming comet, which forms a C around the deer’s neck, and has flames coming off of it in the team’s colors ala a comet’s tail. The secondary logos by and large take inspiration from others within the organization.

 

The home & away sweaters again borrow some design notes from the Bucks and other franchises within the fold. A striping panel from the Bucks’ side panels appears here on the torso and forearms with the primary logo prominently on the chest. The alternate sweater swaps out the stripe pattern for antlers, and switches to the Goalie mask secondary logo on the chest, all over a cream base, which can be used for the same reason the Blaze could use it (doesn’t blend into the floor and screw up digital ads in those sports).

 

I had some issues getting the Milwaukee Does concept to show for me when I pasted it but it seems to be working now. If anyone could please let me know if it works or not for them that would be appreciated!

 

Hope you all enjoy! The next post will cover a Part 2 of this same timeline.

[Wildcomet]

Might as well go ahead and share out Part 2 of the Deer Sports Timeline!

 

Lore:

Spoiler

After the initial three teams, the ownership had covered the desired number of dates in the Fiserv Forum and they felt well positioned to potentially launch their own Regional Sports Network, which they saw as another potential revenue stream. That said, they continued to be on the lookout for additional opportunities to build their brand and adapt to a changing landscape.

 

Unique among the entries on this timeline, the Bucks’ 4th team (3rd to take the field) would become the group’s only outdoor sports team. Major League Rugby launched in 2018, and the Bucks kept a close eye on the upstart league. Initially it wasn’t a direction they intended to go, but saw a chance to get in on a different market on the ground floor, and with Milwaukee lacking an ideal place to play within the city, a chance to expand their reach a bit. The rugby’s global appeal was of interest to the group and thought it would connect well with the local communities. Being impressed by the league’s effort, they decided to launch an expansion team for the 2019 season.

 

 

A couple years later in 2021, needing to bring people back out to the Fiserv Forum and Deer District with fewer concert tours available to book, the group decided to enter the 5th new team from this timeline into the Indoor Football League (IFL). The league seemed to be on fairly stable footing, with groups such as the owners of the Vegas Golden Knights also buying into the league around the same time, and Milwaukee is a known football market without a team to call its own that previously supported the Arena League Milwaukee Mustangs well, so it seemed a solid opportunity.

 

 

Design:

Spoiler

The name was chosen due to its connection to England, it being a global hotbed for the sport of rugby. Since they play outside of the city, they decided to use Wisconsin instead of Milwaukee in the name, same as they did for the Herd. They also hoped the more inclusive name would help draw regional fans being a more niche sport. The primary logo is a shield with antlers along the top, with the top and bottom sections showing portions of the Deerand State logos. The deer secondary logo takes the modern Buck silhouette and modifies it with a broader neck, thicker antlers, and inverted color scheme giving it a much more white-forward appearance. The neck is also modified to form a W shape.

 

The White Harts’ home and away kits are reflections of each other, generally reversing the use of green and white while maintaining the cream trim for both. Reflecting the Wisconsin state slogan of “Forward”, the kits feature prominent patterns of arrows going left to right for the person looking at the uniforms. The pattern is also used on the shorts as an added trim feature. MLR does City Connect kits, and this one revives the banned design the Bucks used before the NBA told them Cream uniforms would not be allowed anymore. I chose Good City Brewing Co. for the kit sponsor, they are an anchor tenant in the Bucks' Deer District so it felt like a good fit.

 

 

Design:

Spoiler

The team takes several branding notes from the Bucks as expected; the Staghorn primary logo is a thicker, more muscly version of the Bucks logo. The frontal antlers were reshaped to hint at a football shape in this logo, with notches on its right drop-tine alluding to the ball’s laces. The secondary logos here are also generally modified versions of similar logos for the Bucks.

 

The uniforms also intentionally draw strongly from the Bucks uniforms. Ownership felt this would help sell football jerseys not just to future Staghorns fans, but Bucks fans as well. The home and away jerseys are modeled largely after the Bucks counterparts, but with side panels, helmet and pant stripes using the patchwork mural inspired pattern that would also adorn the Bucks city edition uniforms that upcoming season. The alternate uniform is modeled on the Bucks’ 2020/21 City Edition uniforms, with the wave pattern appearing on the helmet and jersey. The pants are a darker blue than those on the jersey, with the 3 shades representing Milwaukee’s three main rivers. The city name, numbers and team name along the pants all have thin outlines of the Bucks’ traditional shades of green and blue, and the antlers from the logo appear on the sleeves and the helmet.

 

 

Well we're nearing the end now of this first run of concepts, I hope people are still enjoying this first series. I do have a couple revisions or tweaks I'll share before wrapping up this thread along with the last few concepts in the pipeline. Thanks for checking this out and any C& C you may give!

[Wildcomet]

Let's do this one today, in honor of the AFL 3.0's latest announcement of holding the ArenaBowl in a glorified mall, lol. Here's what if... the AFL 3.0 relaunch had brought back the Milwaukee Mustangs!

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

Being that this would be something in this calendar year for a league in its inaugeral season, there isn't too much lore here. Basically, when Hutton and the others behind this bastardized reboot of the Arena Football League came back, they managed to target the Milwaukee market for a Mustangs revival. In similar circumstances to the Philadelphia Soul, Chicago Rush, etc, the league got the rights to the name they did not secure the rights to the logos, so the team was given a new set of logos. The team was set to play at UW-Milwaukee Arena, but after the league failed to pay had to move to the Oshkosh Arena (home of the G-League Herd) and staggered through its first season but did manage to avoid folding outright. Their future is like that of the league itself, uncertain but projecting some optimism.

 

Design:

Spoiler

I tried to come up with logos that could look... good... but still kinda fit alongside some of the logos for the other teams like the Myth (who just for branding I wish would have worked out). I think I did pretty well with the horse design and working the M into the mane, and I'm pretty happy with how the MKE secondary came out. I took some inspiration from the original Mustangs logo with the streaks coming off it on the left. I kept the Mustang's original colors, rather than the 2.0 version, and the throwback uniform (which in the lore never got purchased aside from the one concept mock-up) was a faithful adaptation of the original uniforms with the modern logos.

 

For the home and aways, I took inspiration from a few of the other AFL 3.0 teams, and tried to do the things that BSN tends to do with their templates (like the number font, which was pretty standard for the whole league). I did try to tie things in, like the lines on the sleeves are kind inspired by the streaks in the secondary and original 90's team logos. The triple stripe is a feature sort of carried from the originals to the modern look, though executed with that BSN Sports Victory flair.

 

This being the Arena Football League, I decided to do something kind of unorthodox with the helmet, letting the mane from the primary logo start at the top of the helmet and drape down just over the left side of the helmet, with the right side featuring the players' numbers. It may be a swing and miss, but I always felt like big swings with uniform design is/was a defining trait of the AFL, and I do find myself liking it still in a quirky way haha.

 

For whoever is interested, my plan is to wrap up the last couple posts of the initial run of the series (and maybe a revision or two) within the next several days before I get a nice long vacation where I'll be largely disconnected from the internet.  Any more revisions or anything that may exist (or if anyone gives me some more feedback about potential tweaks) it'd probably be a few weeks into July before I get anything like that posted due to the break. I had some fun with this one though, I hope you all enjoy it!