United Soccer League Team Logo Concepts

[Saturn]

Per request, I didn't get to work on it that long, but here is the Westchester Flames FC update.

Let me know how I can make it better

You worked on it long enough. Its perfect.

[Brian in Boston]

I don't know how I missed this thread previously, as I'm a major soccer fan and a sports branding enthusiast. I'm certainly glad that I stumbled upon it.

Overall, I'd say that your work shows a great deal of maturity. That said, there are areas in which I think each of your concepts could be improved. Without further ado, here are my straightforward and unvarnished opinions about your efforts, along with suggestions for some of the concepts.

Charleston Battery

To my mind, your Charleston Battery concept is the most "complete" of your redesigned USL logos. The reworked fonts for both "Charleston" and "Battery" are major improvements. I also like the simplification of the details in the cannon, though I do feel that you may have gone a bit too far in the other direction. If I have one slight quibble with the rendering of the cannon in your logo, it is that the solid black shading now accounts for half of each cannon's barrel, as opposed to the shaded area in the original mark comprising approximately a third of each barrel. The result is that the cannon in your logo seem a bit "dark"... a tad "heavy" in their rendering. Again, a slight concern. Overall, a text-book example of rendering an old logo with modern techniques.

California Victory

I concur with your own assessment that this concept "...may have too many elements". I would suggest forming a "V" in the logo using a pair of swords, crossed at their points. The swords would be entwined in the marvelous ribbon element you created. I might suggest spreading the upper and lower portions of the ribbon away from each other just a bit. In this way a slightly larger space can be created between them. "California" and "Victory" would still be emblazoned on said ribbon. In the space created in the middle of the swords and ribbon, I would do away with the warrior's bust. While it is very well-rendered, it is somewhat superfluous given the presence of the swords in the logo. Instead, I would place a Pale Blue silhoutte of the State of California in the space, outlined in Dark Blue. Diagonally running down the State of California would be "2006" in Dark Blue. A White star outlined in Dark Blue would be positioned on the State of California over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rochester Raging Rhinos

To my mind, your concept for this team is the weakest of your offerings. Put plainly, you simply haven't managed to effectively render a rhinoceros. In your effort to streamline the team's mascot and seamlessly integrate said mascot into the shield's containment shape, you've created an animal that - were it not for the horns - looks more like some sort of bear/pig hybrid. I'm afraid that you've got to start from scratch with the rendering of the rhino. You have to elongate the animal's head and more accurately depict the beast's ears, smaller horn... well, you have to more accurately capture the very essence of a rhino. They're not sleek, streamlined animals. They're large, imposing, thundering, powerful creatures. Embrace that fact. I also happen to believe that your efforts would be made much simpler if you used Grey as the color in which you rendered the greatest portion of your logo's rhino. I understand that you were trying to limit your palette to the team's official colors of Dark green, Yellow and Black. However, there's a reason that the graphic designers who created Rochester's current logo opted to render the rhinoceros in Grey: it helps the animal to "pop" as a design element in the logo.

Western Massachusetts Pioneers

This concept is another "miss" in my opinion. From an artistic standpoint, it has a stark - in fact, "unfinished" - feel to it. However, I'll attribute that to the fact that I'm not sure if you realize why the team's current identity package exists as it does. Allow me to explain and I believe it might provide you with inspiration to create a truly unique - and suitable - identity package for the Western Massachusetts Pioneers.

This franchise's nickname is derived from the fact that the region the team represents is known as "The Pioneer Valley". Roughly speaking, said region encompasses the valley created by the Connecticut River as it passes through Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties in the State of Massachusetts. As for the "flaming soccer ball" device, it is a holdover from the USL's days as the Southwest Indoor Soccer League... aka SISL... aka "Sizzle". The device was actually a part of the league's logo. Unfortunately, many of both the SISL and USL's lazier front-offices routinely incorporated the "flaming ball" into their own logos. In short, said "flaming ball" is simply a derivative symbol of the league's history... and has absolutely nothing to do with the Pioneers name.

In short, the Western Massachusetts Pioneers name is the one aspect of this team's identity package that should not be lost. On the other hand, the fire motif can be given the heave-ho.

Miami FC

Artistically, your logo is stunning. I love both the manner in which you've rendered the seagull and the logo's overall simplicity. That said, I'll echo those who feel that the badge doesn't necessarily say "Miami". Frankly, I agree with Mockba's assessment that Miami FC's badge took a significant step back with the elimination of the palm tree device from the original design. I'd like to see what you could achieve in the way of a Miami FC redesign by reintroducing such tropical symbolism into the mix.

Cleveland City

Very simple and traditional. I'm not a huge fan of the additional star at the top of the logo, as I don't see what it adds to the overall design. I'd have preferred that the serifs at the end of the left-hand letter "C" be visible from beneath the right-hand letter "C", thus eliminating any confusion that might arise over the significance of the "crescent moon". I don't know whether you realize it or not, but the City of Cleveland's original seal featured a laurel wreath/olive branch device at the bottom. A bow tied the halves of said device together. It would be nice to see a similar bow added in between the branches on your logo as a subtle nod to an aspect of Cleveland's history. Overall, an extremely classy, "old school" logo/badge.

Westchester Flames FC

An outstanding simplification - and significant improvement - of an original logo that was an absolute mish-mash. While you might think about simplifying/downsizing the shape/size of the flame portion of the logo (so that it is not quite so overlapped by the upper ribbon), this is another example of a modern take on an "old school" style badge.

Bravo! I've really enjoyed seeing your "reimaginings" of USL-1 and USL-2 club logos. Keep up the good work!

[BrySmalls]

Per request, I didn't get to work on it that long, but here is the Westchester Flames FC update.

Let me know how I can make it better

You worked on it long enough. Its perfect.

I agree, it's beautiful! The old logo is too complex for the oval shape. Also, I think it is redundant to say Westchester Flames F.C. AND "WF" as if the fans and players didn't know which football club it was.

By keeping the new logo simple and subtracting such qualities as the soccer ball, the WF and the horrible arching text, you made a logo of beauty. added bonus of including the date the FC was founded; def a 10/10.

[udubs03]

These are probably the most consistently well done redesigns I've ever seen. As a fan of US soccer, it's awesome to see someone with your talent put it to use on something like this. I hope the USL at leasts moves in this direction (if not actually use your designs). If soccer in the US wants to be taken more seriously, they need to move past some of the third rate identities they currently use.

I'm glad I caught this thread the second time around. Keep up the fantastic work.

[cyandlux]

I think the Victory ought to be using yours! Still the best of the series.

[creativelysain]

Thanks so much for the replies guys. Brian your comments are especially impressive. Thanks for taking the time to comment, I'm going to try and implement the changes you've suggested to see how they come out. I figure if you're taking the time to give such good criticism, I can at least try and work them in.

I've still got some fresh ones I'm sketching out, so those will come along with the updated versions.

[Viola73]

I thought with some time off I'd revive this project. With this one I did the Cleveland City Stars. I tried to take away from the amateurish look of the old, and give it an old world look with a non-traditional shield. I also got rid of the black, as I thought it was unecessary. I kept the original 2 stars, and added a third to represent a new generation of US Soccer & the rebranding of the team

Thoughts...?

The double 'C' with the star inside of the 'C' reminds me of the flag of Pakistan or a soccer club from Pakistan. Other than that it's better than what they have right now. It also has a Greek/Turkish soccer league flavor to it as well. Both are known for their simple designs with just one or two colours involved.

[creativelysain]

Here's a couple of updates to the California Victory logo. These updates are taken from some of Brian's comments (on the left) and I tried a similar one of my own next to it.

Here is one I may get blasted for, because it's a complete overhaul, but I saw no other way around it. This one is for the Seattle Sounders. I added an accent color using electric green, that goes with their other 2 primary colors. In this logo, you have the Space Needle as the focus, with the water below, and the vertical stripes representing trees for the forests and parks of Washington, and the jagged peaks above the blue water representing the mountains. Coming out from the crest is waves to form the bottom part and forming the Sounders banner. These waves are taken directly from the Seattle city flag, and thought it made a nice transition downward.

Let me know what you think...

[Krona]

I like the Sounders look a lot. Very Juventas. The only thing that might be a problem is the light blue outline on white. With the lack of contrast, it doesnt really pop. great work.

[gordie_delini]

I really like the Sounders crest - a fantastic update to the wordmark they have now

[-kj]

I like the Sounders idea, and the light blue on the white doesn't really bother me. Id make the "waves" coming out a bit thicker and more obvious, and I'd drop the FC and just leave it as "Sounders"--not because I hate using FC, but because the Sounders have never really used that designation.

As for the Victory, I'm going to disagree with Brian, I like the more filled-in version that you had before. Those versions look too stark to me, almost like you ran out of ideas as to what to put in the middle and just tried some kind of icon there. The second version without the completed triangle looks best to me, though the highlight at the bottom looks very out of place.

[Brian in Boston]

I truly love your update to the California Victory logo that features the State of California. That said, I believe that it can still be tweaked so as to address Mockba's concerns about the center portion of the logo seeming "stark".

My first suggestion would be to shift the State of California's angle slightly, so that the state's northernmost border is a flat, horizontal line. As currently rendered, it seems off-kilter. The alignment of the star and "2006" within the State of California will also have to be adjusted slightly so as to seem in balance with the state's new alignment. This change will necessitate one of two other changes: Either the Pale Blue of the state will have to overlap the Dark blue of the swords, or you will have to splay the hilt end of the swords a bit farther apart so as to create slightly more space in the center of the "V". Whichever method you choose, I would then insert a small soccer ball (of the same design as the one you used in your second update of the Victory concept) in the space to the upper righthand side of Northern California.

A second suggestion would be to place the bust of the warrior from your earlier California Victory concepts within the space in the center of these newer "V"-sword logos.

[iowahoo]

Please fix the Des Moines Menace and their buzz saw like logo.

[youcan'tseeme]

These are great man, the only thing I can kinda complain about is the alck of ears on the Rochester crest.

Could you do an update on the Toronto Lynx logo?

[kewp80]

I like the sounders one a lot, but I would agree with Mockba when he says make the waves more pronounced. I would also get rid of the FC. Everything else about it is beautiful, I wouldn't change anything else.

On a side note: While I was reading this thread I had an Oasis song stuck in my head and was singing it, then the sig above popped up on my screen, kinda weird, freaked me out a little, haha.