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Bloomington (IL) Underwriters


sbirgells

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Earlier this year, Bloomington, IL was awarded an ECHL franchise to begin play in a new state-of-the-art downtown arena in 2006-07:

http://www.echl.com/cgi-bin/mpublic.cgi?ac...ow_news&id=2483

The team has yet to receive a nickname. Based on Bloomington-Normal's status as an insurance capital (State Farm and Country Companies are the two leading employers, with both corporations' international corporate headquarters residing in the Twin Cities), I am proposing the unique name of either the Bloomington or Twin Cities "Underwriters."

McLean county is also the largest corn-producing county in the State of Illinois, explaining the etimology of the tassels/color scheme.

I have thrown together some initial concepts and would love the expert feedback of this board. After some constructive criticism, I look forward to going back to the drawing board and creating an official identity and uniform package to submit to the franchise's front office.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

WORDMARKS:

wordmarks.gif

LOGOS:

logos.gif

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I really like what you've got here. Very simple and not overtly hokey. I appreciate nicknames that have a tie to the area and, of course, don't just throw "Ice" in front of something, or end in "Cats," "Dogs," "Hogs," or anything that ends with the letter z.

I would recommend using Bloomington or, perhaps, Bloomington-Normal. I hear "Twin Cities" and immediately think of Minneapolis/St. Paul. My hometown of Springfield, MO is called "The Queen City of the Ozarks" or just simply the "Queen City" by some, but most people associate "Queen City" with Cincinnati or any other city near them that calls itself the Queen City.

Good work.

SpringfieldCardinalsWord.gif
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I wouldn't use the corn stalks as the W in the last two wordmarks. It doesn't read as a W at all, and makes it somewhat confusing to read (riters?) It might look better if it were all spelled out normally, and maybe you can put the staffs underneath the wordmark, similar to what the Milwaukee Brewers have in their logo.

I do like your color scheme, there's enough contrast between the green and the gold to keep everything legible.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Conceptually, you've given yourself a hard idea to put out visually. The middle logo with the corn stalk/feather thing in the circle is good, but it doesn't necessarily relate to "underwriters". Plus, you might have to go with Bloomington-Normal instead of Twin Cities, because you're going to confuse the team with th Champaign-Urbana area, or the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

Back-to-Back Fatal Forty Champion 2015 & 2016

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You've come up with a very unique identity for Bloomington's ECHL expansion franchise. Here's what it says to me.

For some reason, when I hear the name Underwriters, I think of middle-management. When I think of middle-management, I picture the 1950s. So, I'd go retro with the look.

While it might pre-date the 1950s, I'm drawn to the idea of developing a mascot character rendered in the relative simplicity of the illustrations from Monopoly's "Community Chest" and "Chance" cards. A solid-colored body, with a head that's slightly too large for the body... very cariacture-like. Kind of like the millionaire is rendered on the aforementioned cards/boardgame. Have the barest of details on the body... just enough to depict the lapels on a conservative business suit, a hint of white dress shirt and a tie. The head should sport a no-nonsense, parted-on-the-side, short haircut (or maybe, a flat-top crew-cut). Large, heavy-framed, "nerd" glasses are worn by the character. In one hand he brandishes a piece of paper that reads POLICY in large letters across the top, in the other hand he holds a pen.

For a jersey logo, we might see just the upper portion of the mascot's body leaning through a circle. His head extends in front of the containment circle's edge, obscuring the upper part of the circle. Likewise, his arms and hands extend out to the sides, brandishing the policy and the pen in front of the circle's edges. On the lower half of the circle itself is written BLOOMINGTON in block letters, with Underwriters written in a cursive font beneath the circular logo. Or, you could have UNDERWRITERS in block letters on the lower half of the circle, with Bloomington written in a cursive font beneath the circular logo.

As a secondary, we could see a piece of paper - slightly curling backwards at the top - with the block letters B and U on the sheet. A pen could lay across the bottom of the piece of paper at a slight angle.

P.S. For what it's worth, I envision the character positioned so that he is in 3/4 perspective, facing towrads our left.

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Whipped up some early uniform ideas as well. Regarding the two alternates, I was torn on the more "classic" look of alt #1, versus what I think is a more aesthetically pleasing alternate #2. I suppose for functionality sake, the first one would probably work for better contrast as a road alt. Again, can't wait to hear you guys rip/make suggestions on the infant stages of this project:

HOME:

home-uniform.gif

ROAD:

http://www.sethbirgells.com/underwriters/road-uniform.gif

ALT #1

http://www.sethbirgells.com/underwriters/a...e-uniform-1.gif

ALT #2

http://www.sethbirgells.com/underwriters/a...e-uniform-2.gif

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