49ers Logotype Concept

[9erssteve]

Simple premise really, with the 49ers unveiling their new "retro" styled uni's this summer I thought this would be a good opportunity to revise their Logotype, which I'll be honest I've never been a big fan of. I know the genuine article was designed by a fellow (far more respected) board member but the truth is I've had issues with it since day one.

I can understand the reasoning behind changing it, to make all the type throughout all the graphics the same, but I have issues with the face they've used, it's heavier than the SF on the helmet and the serifs are a different shape. I also dont like the 9 it looks really forced, if the serif from the bottom of the S rather than the top had been used at the bottom of the 9 it might have been better but even then I'm not sure. My biggest issue of all however is it makes no attempt to even acknowledge the logotype that came before. Now I know the old one was just 49ERS set in Quentin by Linotype but it had a certain style that suited the mining/prospecting heritage of the team and the new one has none of that and as a result seems pretty bland and soulless to me.

So with that in mind I've tried my best to keep the good from the new (uniform type to match the helmet logo) and combine it with a nod to the old and have come up with the concept below, C&C welcome. Oh and dont worry despite my user name I promise not every concept I do will be a 9ers one!

9erssteve

[chestnutz]

I really don't like the full color one, but I LOVE the one color red version, and it looks fantastic on the helmet.

2 things I think would make the logo worlds better - on the "uniform use" one, make the outermost red block (the third outline) gold, and I think that should be the full logotype right there. Second, The top part of the leg on the 4 needs to change, the angle should match that of where it almost meets, if you know what I mean.

Also, you should get rid of those tiny little hitches on the outermost red stroke, and make it just one solid, straight line across. The E, the R, and the S all look a bit stretched too.

How did you do that jersey mockup anyhow?

Great job.

[JayJaxon]

I think it looks great. I agree with that chestnutz said to make it better. But it is a beautiful logo.

[RIPmetrodome]

this is a great way to begin your career/hobby as a logo designer. i like the logo, and the only problem i have with it is the notches on the 4 and S. other than that, its a great first concept. (much of an improvement over their current wordmark).

[oddball]

It just doesn't have the feeling I'd expect out of a 49ers wordmark/logo. The 9 looks crooked, the "R" just doesn't seem to fit. What it looks like to me, are different elements slapped together that are similar, but don't fit. You'd be better off using the standard Rosewood font or even Oklahoma font, as yes, they may be cliche, but they have that 1800's feel to them and that's what the 49ers are named after 1849 gold rush. It's the same problem I have with the Lions font, it is too wimpy, and just doesn't say, "Lions" to me. Lions should be big, bold, and in your face, and yet they have this nice, thin, flowy font. UGH.

[Wasatch]

As a 49er fan, I really don't mind the wordmark even though I know they could have done a much better job. I agree with chestnutz, the full color doesn't do it for me, while the solid red looks pretty good. The strokes need to be consistent and solid, none of this "hang nail" crap!

[DanDismounts]

The thing that stands out to me the most and keeps annoying me is how much thicker the 9 is when compared to the 4 if the leg of the 4 was wider it would help immensely IMO. I do think it's a great improvement tho. If you thicken that leg I'd give it 5 out of 5

[9erssteve]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Chestnutz - Yeah I feel exactly the same way about the current one that there is something about the full colour version that doesn't work as well as the single colour version, so I'm not surprised to hear someone say they feel the same way about mine. I also think mine looks better single colour but I always feel teams miss a trick when they dont use all their colours in their logotype so that's why I included a full colour version, but I'll take a look and see if there are other ways to make it more successful.

As much as everyone seems to dislike the broken keyline there is a strong case for keeping it. It was inspired by the keyline in the old style logotype and to remove the break in the line would totally negate that and there'd be no point having the line at all. Maybe I'll change up the end caps on them or something (although round one like in the old logotype suck I've tried them already!) but I think the breaks gonna stay.

The jersey mock up is 100% photoshop fake. It's all just pattern fills and distortion masks to create the fabric, then the logo was placed on in layers depending on color and a series of filters and effects applied to create the stitching. The red stitching is all just one layer, the white is done on three different layers to fake thread direction then the whole thing distorted to give it perspective then lens blurred to change the focus and depth of field.

Oddball - I can see where you're coming from but this project was never meant as a total redesign. Like I said in my intro I dont mind the reasoning behind the changes made to logotype by Rare Design (creating something which uses the same font as the helmet logo) I just felt they'd gone to far and cleaned out EVERYTHING that had a connection to the old era and all I was trying to do here was bring a little of that back, with subtle nods to the old logo.

I could have gone to town and created something from scratch but there's really no challenge there, the fun here was trying to keep elements from one and find a way to work in elements from a previous design. You're right about the R it still needs some work and I'll get on that. Oh and if I was creating this from scratch, Rosewood? C'mon seriously?! That clown font, not only is it cliched it's also terrible!

Dan - Another good catch, I'll get to equalising the widths of the 4 and the 9 in the next iteration.

Again thanks for all the feed back guys, if anyone else has anymore I'm all ears and hopefully will have alterations up in the next few days.

9erssteve

[Wasatch]

9erssteve,

You can officially call me an idiot, I seriously thought these were official 49er wordmarks introduced this year! Seriously, I have to applaud you for your great design and work on these, because you honestly fooled me! Perhaps I need to read the original posts of topics a bit more.

[9erssteve]

9erssteve,

You can officially call me an idiot, I seriously thought these were official 49er wordmarks introduced this year! Seriously, I have to applaud you for your great design and work on these, because you honestly fooled me! Perhaps I need to read the original posts of topics a bit more.

Haha, that explains it then, when I read your "hang nail" comment in your first post I was like whoa Wasatch is being a little more "constructive" with his criticism than usual but thought, okay no worries.

You're right about the shape at the ends of the key line though it is perhaps a bit on the sharp side, especially on the 4. I wanted to try something really different to the olds style rounded end caps as they looked terrible on this design, but they're maybe just too much and it's something I'll look at revising in the next stage.

Again thanks to everyone for their comments and hopefully have alts up really soon.

9erssteve

[Wasatch]

9erssteve,

You can officially call me an idiot, I seriously thought these were official 49er wordmarks introduced this year! Seriously, I have to applaud you for your great design and work on these, because you honestly fooled me! Perhaps I need to read the original posts of topics a bit more.

Haha, that explains it then, when I read your "hang nail" comment in your first post I was like whoa Wasatch is being a little more "constructive" with his criticism than usual but thought, okay no worries.

You're right about the shape at the ends of the key line though it is perhaps a bit on the sharp side, especially on the 4. I wanted to try something really different to the olds style rounded end caps as they looked terrible on this design, but they're maybe just too much and it's something I'll look at revising in the next stage.

Again thanks to everyone for their comments and hopefully have alts up really soon.

9erssteve

Ouch, you don't think I can offer constructive criticism for a design??? It's true, if there's a design that I like, I usually just say what I like about it and not really offer my advice on how I'd improve it. I'm still pretty new to the board, so I'm learning how people react to any kind of criticism period. The last thing I want to do is nitpick someone's logo and have them take offense to it.

[9erssteve]

9erssteve,

You can officially call me an idiot, I seriously thought these were official 49er wordmarks introduced this year! Seriously, I have to applaud you for your great design and work on these, because you honestly fooled me! Perhaps I need to read the original posts of topics a bit more.

Haha, that explains it then, when I read your "hang nail" comment in your first post I was like whoa Wasatch is being a little more "constructive" with his criticism than usual but thought, okay no worries.

You're right about the shape at the ends of the key line though it is perhaps a bit on the sharp side, especially on the 4. I wanted to try something really different to the olds style rounded end caps as they looked terrible on this design, but they're maybe just too much and it's something I'll look at revising in the next stage.

Again thanks to everyone for their comments and hopefully have alts up really soon.

9erssteve

Ouch, you don't think I can offer constructive criticism for a design??? It's true, if there's a design that I like, I usually just say what I like about it and not really offer my advice on how I'd improve it. I'm still pretty new to the board, so I'm learning how people react to any kind of criticism period. The last thing I want to do is nitpick someone's logo and have them take offense to it.

Oh no, no you misunderstood man, I'm all for criticism and I value your opinion as much as the next persons. I don't think the number of posts a person's made or how long they've been on the board (hey I've only been here a few months myself!) changes whether their point is valid or not. It's just that your first post in this thread was first time I could remember you call something crap while giving feedback is all, that's why constructive was in quotation marks, it just seemed a little stronger than usual is all I meant. I just put it down to you really not liking it, hey not everyone gonna love everything right? or having a bad day or something, it's cool. But then when you said you hadn't realised it was a concept in your second post and said you liked it I thought that perhaps that explained the more strongly worded than usual evaluation first time round thats all.

There was never any offense taken, you made a valid point and like I said if a points valid it's valid, how long someone's been a member doesn't matter to me. In hind sight I shouldn't have mentioned it. Thanks for your opinions in the first post as I mentioned earlier I'll try and address those in the next version, thanks for the compliments in the second post much appreciated and apologies if you thought I was making out like you shouldn't or cant offer constructive criticism as neither are true.

9erssteve

[Wasatch]

Oh no, no you misunderstood man, I'm all for criticism and I value your opinion as much as the next persons. I don't think the number of posts a person's made or how long they've been on the board (hey I've only been here a few months myself!) changes whether their point is valid or not. It's just that your first post in this thread was first time I could remember you call something crap while giving feedback is all, that's why constructive was in quotation marks, it just seemed a little stronger than usual is all I meant. I just put it down to you really not liking it, hey not everyone gonna love everything right? or having a bad day or something, it's cool. But then when you said you hadn't realised it was a concept in your second post and said you liked it I thought that perhaps that explained the more strongly worded than usual evaluation first time round thats all.

There was never any offense taken, you made a valid point and like I said if a points valid it's valid, how long someone's been a member doesn't matter to me. In hind sight I shouldn't have mentioned it. Thanks for your opinions in the first post as I mentioned earlier I'll try and address those in the next version, thanks for the compliments in the second post much appreciated and apologies if you thought I was making out like you shouldn't or cant offer constructive criticism as neither are true.

9erssteve

My bad man, sorry to misconstruing things the way I did. In reference to commenting on logos (official or not), to be honest, I think most designs on here are really creative and unique, and most of the people designing them really try to put their best foot forward (including you), so I try to respect their designs and refrain from making any negative comments about their designs. When I originally thought this wordmark was a 49er official logo, I guess the door was propped a little bit more open for criticism. So really, I guess I shouldn't hold back on critiquing a design if in the end it'll improve the end result!

I'm just now looking over my original post and I can see how you may have taken my "crap" comment as a "constructive" or slightly more negative comment, but honestly, I really don't mind your original wordmark.....especially now you explained why you threw in the "hang nails".

Anyway, no worries, I think you're a great member here and I love what you bring to the table with your design and suggestions!

Game on and keep up the great work!