How'd you get your start?

[buckeyes]

Pretty self-explanitory, How'd you get your start in designing logos? I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place, but I'm sure it can be moved without a problem. Anyways, here's my story. I started as a young child obcessed with sports and everything about it. My first memories are coloring in team logos in my NHL for kids coloring books. I distinctly remember being proud of my Blues and Canucks logos. I then would have my dad trace logos for me and I'd color them in. The next form of designing came when I got my NHL and NBA bed sheets. The NHL sheets had every logo on them, I'd spend hours looking at logos and tracing them. The NBA sheets had the jerseys of every team in the leauge. After tracing and drawing these jerseys for some time I came up with a crude template and I started designing my own jerseys with my favorite players numbers and names on them. At this point I was basically drawing the logo of any team I got the apparel of. I got a UNC Tarheels hat and spent hours trying to perfect the heel logo on the back. Most of my elementary school art projects involved my favorite sports teams, colors, and logos. I drew logos all day during school. Eventually after years of doodling in the margins of my notes and homeworks I stumbled upon this site and had my eyes opened to the wonderful world of computer designing logos. I had worked with Paint and other design programs, but I had never thought to take my love for logos into the digital world. I started off in paint, where i still currently am, and worked on my skills, which still aren't very good, but I definetly have improved. And that takes us to where we are today. What about all of you guys? How'd you get into what you're doing now?

[Viper]

In 2001 I took over as commissioner of two fantasy football leagues and thought it would be cool to have helmet graphics for each team. Most of them I just took from the Helmet Depot site, but I had specific logo concepts in mind for my teams, so I used their templates and Paint to create them myself. Anyway, HD used to have a links page (which seems to have disappeared from the site) which had a banner link to CCSLC, which is how I wound up here. The rest, of course, is history.

[-(dp)-]

Well, way back in the day, I used to draw power rangers, and make new uniforms for them, no lie. That was like, at least two years ago though.. No, I really did though, when I was around 5-7. As I got more into sports I began to do it for sports teams, just using markers, etc... I think I might still have a couple, but not any really old ones. Sometimes I would do a logo too, but it usually wasn't too far from what the team actually had. I found the football uniforms past & present site, where I found that there were other people who were obsessed with sports uniforms, as I was. I don't remember many concepts on the forums there, though. After that site went down, it took quite a while before I found this site. Then I realized there were other weirdos like me who liked to make up new uniforms for sports teams! And there was technology to do so that was further advanced than pens + markers!!! My first time messing with illustrator was not a success, and I am sure some here remember my first lion logo.... But through practice, and getting more familiar with the programs, I have improved quite a bit, and hopefully I will continue to do so. There are some very inspiring designers on this board, and I hope to one day be close to their level. I am currently in school for graphic design, and never realized when I was younger, drawing power rangers and sports uniforms/logos, that I would actually find a possible career field where I could do something I loved. Now I just hope I can make it a reality.

[C's]

Yet to start, too stupid to know how to get started.

[scottysprings]

I remember once when I was in elementary school, probably around 1st or 2nd grade, I made up and illustrated football teams. I think I made a grand total of about 3 or 4 teams but I drew out the uniforms modeled by players and all. To be honest, I don't ever really remember drawing logos, but I always drew pictures of my favorite athletes using reference photos from my SI for kids magazines. I think in like 8th or 9th grade I stumbled across this site somehow. It took me a long time to figure out it had a forum, so for a while I just spent my time looking at all the logos and thinking how cool they were. As soon as I actually stumbled upon the forum and was exposed to what the people were doing here, I was immediately drawn in. I think the thing that got me most motivated to start designing logos and uniforms was seeing a logo concept of a forest ranger done by axl. I never really put much thought into it I suppose but it shocked me that everyday people were capable of designing logos that looked as good as the ones used by pro sports teams. Well, certainly I was (and still am) not capable of designing logos of that quality but I got started on paint, worked my way into photoshop within a year or so, then about another few months after that, I realized Illustrator was what I needed to take it to the next level. I'm sure I've developed quite a bit since I first joined the site but it's definitely a non-stop learning process. It really is great to know that I, and every other member here, are surrounded by some of the very best professional designers out there. That's about that, best of luck to everyone in the future

[Discrim]

well, back in 01 I figured out that there were nuts out there like me. At the same time, I began making concepts after discovering that I could do so. Funny thing, I was using a vector program for 7+ years and hadn't realized it for about 5 of those years.

[Braden]

What a great topic!

My start came from the Logolympiad contests done here a few years ago. That's the first time I took all the crazy concepts I was doing and actually applied it to conventional things. Back then I used CorelDRAW. I had been using that program to doodle since I was little. The first year I participated, I won 3 medals, and in the second year I participated, I won more medals than anyone. I think I still have them in my photobucket account.

That contest made me realize that I would love to do this as a living and the rest is history. It's a big reason why I'm so grateful for how this community has changed my life.

I'm just finishing my program in school, and about to head out, portfolio in hand, to the design world.

[Bmac]

I, like many of you, have been fascinated i logos and uniforms scince I was young. I would always look at my MLB bed sheets as well. My dad had/has all these different types of standings boards for MLB, NFL, NHL, and the BIg 12 (Husker Fans of course). I would always look at them and draw them and redesign them and all kinds of things. At the start of every season, my dad would get the updated logo or hat or helmet for the leagues. He would always split the old ones up between me and my brother. We would always study them, and then make our own version of each logo. (Quick story: My brother once made a Steelers logo that included a guy robbing a bank and the word Stealers below.) Eventually I made my own leagues with logos for each team. Then I began to draw up uniforms as well. I began to look on the internet for logos and came across sportslogos.net. Every now and then I would print one off and trace it or something. One day, I was watching the Vikes destroy the Lions and noticed the Lions Blue jersey was lighter than the navy blue used on the field. So I made a nvy Lions jersey. My first ever. Eventually I had my mom trace a uniform and make some copies and I would color it in. I expanded to all sports. Then I figured out how to do it on the computer, thanks to this site. I continue to make new logos and uniforms to this day. That's my story!

BTW, I enjoyed reading each of the other posts. Good luck to all in your futures, especially to Braden going out to design the world!

[burgundy]

I've been drawing sports logos and uniforms for as long as I can remember. At first I would just mimic real logos and helmets, but I think my first true "concepts" were these goalie masks that I drew when I was 6 or so. I have no idea what happened to them though. I've always loved the create-a-team features in games aswell. My brother would always get on me about how I spent too much time creating my own teams, but I didn't care. I also have a bunch of concepts that I did in paint over the years, and looking back, they're rather crude, but some hade some really good ideas. As for this site, I came across sportslogos.net during CAD class sophomore year. We were doing a project and I was looking for logos, when I came upon the motherload. For a while I didn't really notice the forum and just looked around main site occasionally. Then I ventured in here, and I've become obsessed with designing since. In fact, I'm in the process right now of changing my major from architecture to graphic design.

[Drew22]

I started when I made my own basketball league at age 6 or 7. I came up with like 30 teams and in this notebook I had, I made info pages about all the teams. Then I realized, if I turned and index card on it's side, it looked like a basketball jersey. I drew a little 'V' at the top for the neck hole, then I started making jerseys for each team from there. They were pretty bad looking back, but they gave me my start.

I found this site looking for some logo. I found later it had a forum and that's where I started. My first post was asking for football numbers to put on jerseys. That topic was pretty funny.

[robbman21]

I got my start in art at the age of around 3-4. My cousin was an engineering major in college and was a great artist...I looked up to him and it made me want to draw things, and I just had a natural knack for it. When I was 5 I won a school-wide art contest in my elementary school with the winner moving on to the state fair art competition in Little Rock. I painted a giant portrait of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and it won not only for my kindergarten group...it won for the entire school and went on to the state fair...where it won 1st place among all elementary school entries in Arkansas. I still can't believe I did that as a 5 year old. From there I started drawing Star Wars characters and KISS (the band) and just developed it more and more through the years. I looked into a career in graphic design but at the time it was not the money-making industry that it is now, plus I was dead-set on joining the Air Force and being pilot and hopefully becoming an astronaut one day. I was dreaming big haha. As fate would have it I failed my physical for the USAF and had to fall back on something, and that was my art. In the 10th grade, Beckett Football Card Monthly published an article on sports artist Daniel M. Smith and I was absoultely floored. He painted photo-realistic paintings of NFL'ers that were brilliant, and suddenly it's like my love of art and sports converged in that moment. Right after that I made a large painting in art class of John Stallworth's famous TD grab in SB XIV.

For the next 10 years I tried my hand at the realism-style art of athletes, mostly of footballers but I did a little bit of everything, and then the logos started coming into play slowly around my SR year of high school, and then fantasy sports took off, and then I started playing and coaching in different rec leagues and making the jerseys for that, and it was just a gradual process that brought me to where I'm at today. I don't do nearly as many sports logos as I used to because design is now a career for me and less of a hobby, but I still dust it off every so often and pull out a concept or two.

[TFoA]

In elementary school, I was on my school's football team (yes, the elementary schools had football teams in Moss Point. That way, they could start learning the system as quickly as possible, and they'd already know the playbook in and out by the time they made it to JV & Varsity. I ended up switching to the rival school district. ), and I spent most of my time in the after-school program drawing up logos & uniforms for not only my school team, but the other school teams. My school was a blue version of the 49ers. I kept on doing that as I moved up every school level, and my concept for my high school football team was seriously considered as being the school's new uniforms (until they decided to go with Denver Broncos knockoffs. I was hurt. lol).

So yeah, it basically started because I wanted to know how my school and other schools would look with updated uniforms. If I can ever find them in my closet (I am too much of a packrat. lol.), I'll scan em and put em on the internet.

[JayJaxon]

This is a great topic!

I was always an artist. When I was real young I would draw dinosaurs and later Ninja Turtles and the characters from video games. When I was in middle school I won a contest to re-design the logo for the school, and I was hooked on logos after that. I would draw baseball and football logos, sometimes drawing them as they were, but most of the time I would put my own spin on things. I found myself doodling all the time. After I joined the Marine Corps, I only did artwork when it was tattoos for friends or t-shirts for my unit. I didn't get into doing it on the computer until just last year when I was trying to take my art to the next level. I am a fan of uni-watch and I saw the prototypes column. I decided then that I would try my hand at uniform design. While looking for a Braves logo, I stumbled upon this website, and just being here over the past 9 months has helped me improve my digital art in so many ways. I discovered how to do things with Photoshop that I didn't think I could do, and in no time I was cranking out concepts. Suddenly I was introduced to a whole new World of ways to create. I got into the computer design kind of late in the game, but I'm confident that one day I will be able to produce on the same level as some of the others on here.

[patsox]

It was obvious that I was a little obsessed with logos when I could draw most of the major car logos and the Nike, adidas, and Reebok logos perfectly at about age 5. I liked to draw to begin and people were one of my favorite things to draw. At around age 10, I did my first baseball concept (The Roxington Homers). Made up city, made up name. I continued to draw other fantasy logos from then on, but it wasn't until I found this place in January '05 that I started doing concepts for real teams and really figured out that I noticed logos more than the average person.

[tBBP]

I believe many of us have similar stories.

As for me, I think it started sometime around middle school...when I really began to get into football. Once school was out for the summer I'd always look for the new Street & Smith's or Athlon Sports NFL Preview mags so I could read up on all the teams. Some of those magazines had some real nice photos and layouts. (I think it was Athlon that had the sidebars on the pages.) I recall liking the page design and layout as well. (This also spilled over into a good many of my classwork assignments in middle and high school, as I found myself doing "decorative headings" on my looseleafs, one for each subject.) In any case, eventually the football uniforms started getting to me, and since I loved to color back in those days, it didn't take long for me to start ripping football pictures out of those magazines and anywhere else I could find, taping them to a window, taping another piece of looseleaf over it and start tracing the football pictures, which led to me creating my own "fantasy league" about the time I was 12 or 13. (I wish I still had all that stuff.) Well all that continued on through high school and sorta followed me into college, first back home and then later up in Pittsburgh. After a bit of a hiatus from doing all that (joining the Army and being sent all around the globe will do that to you) I re-enrolled at IADT-Pitt back in '05, and I believe it was at that time that I rediscovered my knack for fantasy "concepts" (at that time I didn't know what term to apply to those).

Here's what jumpstarted my concepts on this board: someone in one of my classes was laughing hysterically at some hockey jersey he saw and showed it to me. When I got back to my own computer I googled it and it took me to this site (that was back in the days when you could still log in as a guest) and what I found once I got up in here dumbfounded me...that there were so many other logo/uniform nuts in the world suprised the hell out of me AND brought about a sense a relief like "whew...I AIN'T the only one!". Then at work I got bored one day and started looking at all the planes sitting outside on the ramp while sketching football pictures, ended up sketching an airline logo onto a helmet, and that piece of creative divine intervention is what birthed the Airline Football League. The rest, as they say, is history.

[Shumway]

I've dabbled in concepts and sports logos for as long as I can remember, actually. Way back in first grade, my friends and I would basically challenge other teams at basketball at recess. I think we were called the Storm, or something of the like. The whole making logos thing just kind of kept going from then. My dad used to buy my brother and I newsprint pads that we basically filled with drawing logos of either real or imaginary teams. When Iw as in middle school, I did somewhat of an MLB fantasy draft, just for fun, and made logos and uniforms for every team. For what reason, I don't know. I still have a couple of the lineup cards I made. Most of the logos were ripoffs of actual teams or just pictures I found, but they worked. Once high school rolled around, I started playing rec roller hockey. Every year(or whichever year we decided to get new jerseys), I made the logos. At the time, I hadn't discovered illustrator, so I had to make a really nice freehand drawing for the printer to put on our jerseys. The first one I did is still my favorite jersey I own, and a lot of people in the league still compliment those jerseys (seen below). From there, we had a logo of a porkchop (as in a piece of meat), my friend, and currently, the Swedish Chef. During my sophomore year of college, I discovered this site because I was looking for some inspiration/reference for a logo Iw as doing for a team. The rest, as they say, is history.

Oh, and here's my favorite logo concept I've ever done. I mean, it's a Hamburglar jersey I've been meaning to update the logo and possibly return to that name in my hockey league, but I've got no issue with my Swedes logo.