Oklahoma City Thunder Brand Concept

[AAO]

So, realizing that the zeus and lightning themed logos didn't really apply to Oklahoma, at least not as well as a bison would, I came up with this. I decided upon a brown based color scheme. The darkest color is a deep brown, which I originally had as black, but decided that the dark brown would suit better. Still working on different ideas for a secondary as opposed to the 'thundering OKC' if you will. There are also a few versions at the bottom that I am working on, just variations of the bison. I wanted to put more than one bison in there, but I couldn't do it without making it overly busy. Font is a modified version of Great Lakes.

EDIT 8/25:

[AAO]

EDIT: See edits above.

[LMU]

The shadowing around the nose can almost be mistaken as being a mouth, with the nose looking like a tooth, making the face look more like a demon than a bison.

Try removing the right curve of the shadow, because when I tried covering that with my finger, it looked much more bison-like.

[patsox]

It looks like the bison just farted in the partial logo.

Edit: Seriously though, what I was getting at with the fart thing was that it has kind of an evil snarl thing going on like LMU said. Also, the body looks too lean to me. And do bison leap like that? It kind of looks more like a horse to me. I think you need to bulken the body up and as for the face I would go with more of a majestic look.

The color scheme is tight though Ian and I like the idea in general, however. I'm excited to see how this one turns out.

[AAO]

LMU, do you mean like this:

EDIT 8/13:

[ldswoosh33]

The front legs seem to short. and the bump on the back legs looks a little to big. But really good concept I like

[LMU]

Now it looks more like a tapir. Try to really reduce the size of the shadow arc on the right, because that really seems to be dominating the face, which takes away from the actual anatomy.

[AAO]

Bison' legs are actually really short. I should probably add ears

[RichNCreamy]

It just doesnt look anything like a bison, IMO. The structure is just all wrong.

Your execution, though, as always, is fantastic. I love the colors and the subtle little thunderbolts going on. And the secondary OKC/cloud logo is top notch. Just work on the buffalo rendering and you'll have an excellent concept.

[ldswoosh33]

Bison' legs are actually really short. I should probably add ears

my bad... still a great logo... nice work

[LMU]

LMU, you mean like this:

Bingo. Looks MUCH more like a bison.

[AAO]

I really don't think that bison can run like that, and I knew that the horse comparisons would come up. However, I did try to bulk up the body as much as possible without losing the legs in the midst of it. But how can you have a thundering bison, if bison can't move fast? And if that is indeed the direction the team is actually going, how would they go about it?

Marshall Thundering Herd have just the bison head representing their logo.

The Bills have a leaping silhouette of a bison; so I guess some artistic leisure is allowed here. Or else you really wouldn't be able to imply a thundering bison.

Does anyone else think that I should make the horns smaller?

And LMU, thanks, really does more look bison-ish now.

Posted the edit in the full set above.

[BenQR]

I like the concept, but I think an image depicting multiple bison would better represent the team. One bison charging is loud.... seven bison charging is thunderous... if that makes any sense...

[Ted Cunningham]

I think the bulge on the back leg looks a bit too big or circular to be just a thigh muscle. It looks a bit like a growth. Also, I'm glad you went with brown smoke/dust behind the buffalo instead of black. I don't think too many of them run on diesel

[Cola]

As said, the legs appear too short. Regardless of how they appear in real life, I think an exception has to be made when designing sometimes to get things across...and if it can't be done with proper shadowing or other means...they should be increased in length. They look stubby.

[BroadwayBlueshirt]

Maybe keep the head lower while the rest of the body is rearing up?

[quantum]

First, props to you for your approach to wordmark detail. You are arguably the best on this board in that regard. I like this overall and I like the colors used. The one thing that bugs me is the hind leg muscle. It comes off looking like a tumor and considering the motion of the animal, the muscle should be elongated and smoother.

On a presentation note, and this applies to all of your concepts, the first image you posted looks like you applied a gaussian blur to it. It just seems a bit blurry. Not sure if it is your graphic styling or what, but I wonder if that is a consideration. The larger images don't have this issue.

[Ted Cunningham]

Yeah, come to it, that's another thing that was off about this concept. The buffalo's body isn't shaped much like a buffalo's body. It doesn't have the hump on the back. And judging from the photos, the back end of your buffalo is too big/powerful looking, and the legs of a real buffalo are quite a bit longer.

[AAO]

Thanks for the feedback. I agree the head does need to be lower and the hind leg muscle adjusted But the legs I think are the right length because they are really, really short indeed. They might look a little too short maybe because one of the hind legs in the primary is supposed to be behind the dust cloud, thus making it look shorter than the rest.

I don't use gaussian blurs at all; the top version appears that way because when uploaded on photobucket, it automatically resized because it's length was much more than 800 pixels, the alotted amount.

Here's a look at the bison with some edits:

[quantum]

I don't use gaussian blurs at all; the top version appears that way because when uploaded on photobucket, it automatically resized because it's length was much more than 800 pixels, the alotted amount.

It may be. I think line weight of the graphics is too narrow and is being effected adversely by this resizing. Maybe individual pics should be loaded to prevent this, especially with the wordmark treatment.