Nashville Predators Redesign

[pastajoe]

Their current logo looks better, and the uniform looks too much like the Sabres.

[burgundy]

Here's the update, with sharper edges. I think it came out pretty well.

[Kit]

I like the thinking behind the concept but I think the proportions of the cat's head are off.

Cats have very round heads and short snouts. A good place to look at for reference is this photo:

If you overlay your logo on that photo, you'll see it gets a lot right, but it's the general shapes that are different and which most significantly detract from the illustration's integrity.

The shape the mouth makes between the top and bottom jaws is quite a straight line and rakes backwards (like in the current logo):

Yours is too round. You should also consider raising the top lip into more of a snarl like both the photo and the current logo like the animal is baring its teeth more deliberately.

Likewise, the lower jaw (representing the bottom edge of the animal's head) should be tending up toward its ear near where it joins the skull, whereas yours appears to be joining the body at the neck.

Also, your eye is too high on the brow, and the effect is exaggerated by the long leading blue line. While I think your eye looks terrific, it should be brought forward and down so it meets more at the point the snout joins the rest of the head.

It's also worth considering rotating the head a little forward so the menacing eyes are more present in the leading edge of the animal. Draw an imaginary shape in the filled-in space of the head and the photo version looks like a large triangle (whereas your logo looks more like a T-bone steak, where there's a triangle, but the snout pulls too far away from the expected point.

I think the logo itself is well rendered and I like the guitar-pick idea a lot. You might be able to subtly reference the former logo by letting the logo extend outside the shield on the left side too:

I do think the new jerseys are very Sabres-ish, which is a natural problem for these sorts of jerseys. I think an important consideration is that the inward-facing hooks on the shoulders will likely be bent by the natural fold in the fabric when the player's arms are held by his sides which would ruin the effect somewhat.

Sorry for all the criticism; I can get a little precious over the teams I like (even when I can clearly notice that the team needs some help with its look). Hopefully the pending "original 6 style" thirds will address some of my concerns.

[burgundy]

Wow, thanks for the in depth info. A few things:

- That is actually a pic I used for reference (along with living big cats), but for my logo I decided to go with more of a growl, rather than a full on roar, which is why things aren't the same as the pic. It's still not exactly perfect, but I took artistic license on it.

- You're right about the eye. I'll have to fix that

- I see what you're saying about extending the logo beyond the left boundary, but the way I currently have it is made to fit the crest, and looks terrible if extended. I may rework it, but I really like it the way it is.

-For the jerseys, really it's kinda hard to avoid, but beyond similar colors the designs are fairly different. I tried to keep silver prominent to distinguish them better.

[illwauk]

I love the pick idea, but I would like to see the cat's head superimposed over it (the pick) so it's more subtle, but still has that "crest" shape.

[burgundy]

Here's the latest incarnation. Thanks again everyone for the input. I'm really liking what this has turned into.

[chickenfish13]

That's really cool. It's getting better and better, nice progression.

[Kit]

That's mountains better that it was. Just an incredible improvement with just a minimal change. The lower jaw is the most clearly improved.

I still think the shape of the mouth could be more dynamic, but it's much less awkward-looking now. The added neck makes a huge difference.

Do you envisage the pick/shield being in the same reflective silver the Preds currently use, or more of a flat grey?

I still think the sabretooth motif on the shoulders won't work when the arms are lowered to a natural stance, though.

[CAB]

This is looking really nice, I love everything about it. Although there is one thing that's bothering me; on the back part of the mouth (?) is looking sorta like a tongue to me, I don't know if that was intentional.

Either way, good job taking C&C to make this better.

[undead]

Each update is better than the last, I don't know how you do it.

[rentz]

This is looking fantastic, great updates. It's great as is and if you want to keep it like this that's fine, you've certainly done plenty with it, but my one suggestion would to utilize the empty yellow space in the middle of the cat, whether it's lengthening the whiskers or one of the stripes, or maybe moving the white fur up a bit.

Really tremendous job on this.

[burgundy]

Thanks so much everyone. With your help this really turned out great.

Do you envisage the pick/shield being in the same reflective silver the Preds currently use, or more of a flat grey?

I was thinking it would be reflective, but with a bluer hue than the current silver.

This is looking really nice, I love everything about it. Although there is one thing that's bothering me; on the back part of the mouth (?) is looking sorta like a tongue to me, I don't know if that was intentional.

If you mean the separate gold part above the jaw, yes, that's a tongue.

This is looking fantastic, great updates. It's great as is and if you want to keep it like this that's fine, you've certainly done plenty with it, but my one suggestion would to utilize the empty yellow space in the middle of the cat, whether it's lengthening the whiskers or one of the stripes, or maybe moving the white fur up a bit.

I see what you're saying, but unless it needs any major changes I think I'm done for now. I looked back, and I already have 32 versions of this thing throughout the process. I need a break.

[Patchez]

[burgundy]

Wow! That looks pretty cool patchez. Thanks! Any chance you could do that with the last one I posted? If you have the time of course.

[9erssteve]

You know what's really weird is that sometime you dont spot something until you see it done a slightly different way! I've seen this logo what at least a half dozen times and thought all was cool until I see the embroidered version and now suddenly the poor cat looks like it's trying to look back over his shoulder because when it's stitched the white bit which was the iris of it's eye in "print" form now appears more like the white of his eye! Now when I go back and look at the "print" ones again I now have the same issue, crazy that I never saw it that way before but now I cant stop seeing it that way. It may be something you want to address either by moving the white to the natural position in the eye or by changing the iris area to yellow so it's a more natural eye colour (especially for a cat)

Love the progression here though it's come on leaps and bounds (if you'll pardon the pun!) Your latest version is by far the strongest and the only thing I'd say other than the eye is to be careful of how the tooth on the bottom jaw is interacting with the curve of the shield the tongue tooth and yellow between shield and sabre tooth is becoming a little cluttered. But other than that it's looking good and improving with each edition.

9erssteve

[charger77]

Their current logo looks better, and the uniform looks too much like the Sabres.

Tough crowd!

-Dan

[hockeybums]

Id try to make the logo look a little more intimidating like a dog drooling from the mouth at his prey.

[elsephen]

The Preds have one of the ugliest uniforms in hockey, and I wish they'd stumble across this thread somehow and make you an offer. Good job on a redesign that is much needed.

Have you tried tilting the head any? Seems like a simple way to make it more aggressive, as if it's looking downward.

[Patchez]

See other logos with this embroidered effect in another thread (get it?) within Concepts.

[burgundy]

Thanks Patchez! That's really cool. The flat gold stitching works much better. One thing I noticed though is that the top left corner got rounded off. You don't need to re-do this one, but you may want to keep an eye out for stuff like that on other stitch designs. Again, thanks for the great render.