Optimus Thread: Apprentice Challenge 8

[mania]

As I'd said, I think the Battery logo, if simplified/"retro-fied" has some potential. Not sold on the name, and I think, if you're referring to the War of Independence, Red/White/Blue need to be the color scheme. I might myself play around with a Miners logo tomorrow, see what I can come up with.

An important thing to notice.. is with all of these teams that won admittence into the NHL, the only team that had any kind of secondary logo was the Kings, and it's just a simplification of their primary. Don't focus on special wordmarks or shoulder patches. Just get a strong primary look that fits in with the time.

Only one team in the 67-68 season had shoulder patches. Remember that.

[gingerbreadmann]

I just got a PM from someone who apparently knows more about rock n' roll than we do, because he says Cleveland did indeed have a history with the genre before 1965. Take this how you want, I still like it but we can still go another direction if that works for us. I haven't hit anything solid in my sketches so far, but I guess I'll keep trying.

alan freed was dj at wjw radio in cleveland in 1950s when he was first person to call uptempo rthm and blues music "rock n roll". freed also sponsor 1952 moondog coronation ball in cleveland which is considerd first rock n roll concert. this is why cleveland wanted to be site of rock and roll hall of fame. alan freed was in first group inducted to rock and roll hall of fame because of this. this is clevelands long history with rock and roll music.

[Cola]

it is also why the mascot for the Cleveland Cavs is "Moondog". actually, when I was doing research...i thought about going with the name "Cleveland Moondogs".

[Cola]

Here is another option I worked on trying to think back into a mindset of simplicity regarding the era. To be honest, I am not so sure the judges are paying attention to that aspect of the design...I didn't think Prodigy's design for the Super Bowl fit 1926 by any means, although it was a good looking design overall. Just my .02 on that matter. However, I tried to stick with it here again.

Louisville is obviously the home of the Kentucky Derby and the event is what comes to my mind when I think of it...so I didn't want to force anything else. For the mascot, I wanted to do "Pacers" but realized it didn't fit exactly with the thoroughbred racing done in the event...so I just went with "Racers"- although I seriously thought about going with "Rose Runners", too...so I just found a good image of the race and vectored it for the primary. I chose purple and yellow initially because I couldn't think of another franchise with those colors...but then again, I'm the farthest away you can get from being a hockey fan- only the fights interest me lol. The dark blue and "burnt gold" are the city colors of Louisville...a strong option as well.

Anyhow, what do you think?

[Cola]

can someone link me to a good vector template for the uniform? i found GhettoFarmBoy's that I REALLY liked but for some reason said it wasn't compatible with my Illustrator (CS2). Thanks.

[gingerbreadmann]

I'll be honest, I don't think I like the Racers idea too much and I don't see the logos fitting the time. I think bruschi was hinting that only one team had a secondary logo. however... I did some more research and I think we could use the Kentucky Oaks. I think that might be our best bet.

I couldn't get an Oak leaf to look right around the O, and obviously I didn't even try to depict a horse, but I think this logo idea more or less fits the era and the city of Louisville. The colors are just random colors as well. Do you think you could build off that or something?

For some hockey templates look in my SVG Movement thread, I recommend Speedy's.

[Cola]

Can you explain why the logo doesn't fit the era? To me, it is almost as simple as you can get by being just a silhouette and there isn't a lot of shading/accents on the logo. The secondary with the "L" and "R" doesn't have to be used either, it was just a neat idea that hit me when I played with the letters. I have to admit that I am also not very fond of the name "Racers", but nothing fits Louisville like the image of a horse/jockey- like I said earlier, anything else to me is forced (except for a Cardinal, which is the state bird). That being said, the logo doesn't HAVE to fit the city in all situations (are there any Raptors in Toronto...or Trojans in Southern California?) but I just felt like for this challenge, that was more of a focus.

Again, I am not saying the logo is perfect by any means...but I think it could work and maybe will look a bit better if seen on a jersey.

[Cola]

Also, I work in Illustrator so I need an AI file or EPS file...those wouldn't work for me, they opened blank.

I think we also have to use the city names given...so not Kentucky for Louisville or Ohio for Cleveland, but you can check on that.

[mania]

I like the horse logo, don't like (at all) the LR side logo, think a name like Thoroughbreds or Stallions might work better, and have a hockey template in .AI if you want to PM me your email address.

[Cola]

Well, I think I like Stallions the most of those just because I feel like Thoroughbreds is a mouthful...a local high school here uses it as a mascot and it gets on my nerves everytime they try a chant with the word, usually they just say T-Breds. Anyhow, the only other issue is that not all participants in the Kentucky Derby are stallions (some are geldings, although they have very seldom won I believe), but I think it will still fit well.

I just want to get them on some uniforms and see how they look. I might even tweak the logo a bit as well in the meantime.

[Cola]

if possible, I need a different template bruschi...the one you sent me had about 100 too many layers and was confusing to work with especially since I know 0 about hockey and what portions of the uniform are called.

if someone could possibly open GhettoFarmBoy's template (it can be found on DevianArt by searching for "hockey template") and then saving it as an AI file for CS2, I would really appreciate it.

[Cola]

Alright, I did some uniforms with both color combinations. I will warn you, this is my first hockey uniform concept EVER and I have no clue what the "norm" is regarding hockey- I don't watch it or anything like that. I checked some other uniforms out and hopefully these are okay enough for now.

Thoughts? (click them to view high-res and get a better feel for them)

[mania]

I like the blue and orange set a lot, although, as I said in the email, it will need a lot of modification to fit the 1960s... if you want to send the .ai file to me, I'll see if I can't fix the collar/shell/etc.

[Cola]

I like the blue and orange set a lot, although, as I said in the email, it will need a lot of modification to fit the 1960s... if you want to send the .ai file to me, I'll see if I can't fix the collar/shell/etc.

Do you think the template needs to fit the era for this challenge? I was thinking as long as the design fit the challenge, it would be acceptable since there are only so many templates out there and it gets the point across. Anyhow, I will send you the AI file and maybe you can modify it to your liking. By the way, it is supposed to be a blue and old gold color, it is possible the colors on my laptop monitor aren't showing correctly though. They are the city colors of Louisville.

Personally, I like the purple and gold because no other teams have that color scheme currently...but then again, in 1965, no one had blue and gold either to my knowledge so I am fine with that too.

[mania]

Re-looking, I can see a yellow tint, but on my monitor, it looks like a washed out orange.

Just got the email, and I think the big thing is the collar. I'll hopefully have something done here in a few.

[gingerbreadmann]

I think bruschi meant more the actual jersey design, not the template they are shown on.

I like the Stallions name as well. The jockey logo also looks pretty nice, to be honest I don't think it needs much more although it might be a bit too sleek for the times, many of the logos were very detailed such as the Seals logo and the Blackhawks as well. This is more modern-y, you know?

The gold color does indeed look like gold to me but it does have too much orange IMO.

I like it so far. If you could post the SVG or EPS even, I might be able to take a crack at it as well. I have today off because of Rosh Hashanah.

[mania]

Actually, I kind of meant a lot of the dressing that the modern template has, along with the collar and what not. I also rounded off the yoke a little.

Here's what I came up with:

I've got the .ai saved, if you want it back Cola to make more revisions, I didn't have the Athletic font, so I just used a generic varsity block.... and I could see about exporting it as an .eps but I don't know what would be lost.

[Cola]

To be honest, I have no clue what a "yoke" is...I thought that was what you called the piece of wood that held oxen together on a farm lol.

Yeah, but go ahead and send the AI back to me in case I add anything and I want to work on a patch as well...which I am assuming doesn't have to go on the actual jersey but it is a requirement. I have a little idea for it, nothing flashy though.

[Cola]

The gold color does indeed look like gold to me but it does have too much orange IMO.

I like it so far. If you could post the SVG or EPS even, I might be able to take a crack at it as well. I have today off because of Rosh Hashanah.

Well I want to stick with that shade of gold (if we go that route) because it is from the official seal of the city...and I will post the SVG later on if bruschi doesn't.

Speaking of the colors, can you go ahead and cast your vote as to what colors you are leaning towards? If none of them, please suggest another scheme although we only have about 30 hours or so until we present.

[mania]

Hey GBM, shoot me an email at bruschimania AT gmail.com and I'll send you the EPS. I had uploaded it to PM to you, but your inbox is full.