Minor League Hockey Defunct Redesign

[Puck]

Thanks for all the comments on this one. It went through several different logos and styles before I settled on this one, and I'm definitely happy about it.

The scales are, I admit, problematic. For the hydra's skin I tried just solid color, motion lines, heavy shadows, stippled texture, and finally settled on the scales. It really needed some sort of texture to show how the necks and tail curve. I was hoping that from a distance the scales would cause the aqua and plum to blend into a darker aqua, which I think is happening. That way, it wouldn't look so busy from afar. Of course, when reproducing this as an actual sewn crest, it would be very difficult to reproduce that many scales. They'd probably need to be "scaled back" (ba-zing!) to fewer elements that were a larger size, or be replaced with a simpler texture.

I have nothing but love for the Beast redesign, but I have to admit, I was hoping to see the New Haven Nighthawks make the list before the Beast.

[Evan]

This is just awesome. The detail work on the hydra is fantastic. The scales, as well as the underbelly. Not to mention the head has a great definition to it.

the only suggestion I have is more purple in the white jersey. Perhaps throw some purple in the side panel.

But besides that, this is amazing.

[DustDevil61]

All those work excellent, and I love what you did with New Haven's logo while keeping the "Beast" singular. I would have never thought of that in many years. I know that I'm the umpteenth person to do this, but I'd love to see what your take on the Salt Lake Golden Eagles would be. They had an awsome color set, originally (green/yellow-gold, though red/yellow-gold and blue/yellow-gold had their perks).

[kc51design]

I really enjoyed your designs, but all the photos are gone, can you put them back?

[dgnmrwrw]

#16: Louisville River Frogs // Louisville, KY

I've had this one (in one form or another) sitting around for a while. It's gone through lots of changes, and it's probably gotten lost in the shuffle lately as I've been doing other things. But I thought I'd throw it out there to keep this series going. Anyway, the colors are green, dark steel blue, and Columbia blue. I also wanted to do a different style logo--no fierce frog here--and create a custom script wordmark. As far as those goals are concerned, I'm happy with how this turned out.

For the uniforms, I wanted consistent stripes of the three colors (sometimes in a wave shape) that would "flow" into each other. The primary crest consists of the frog in an oval, set with a triple wave and a triangle. I almost went with green pants and helmets, but it was just too bright for my eyes, and it took emphasis off the steel blue. On the shoulders, there's a circular patch with the team named and a silhouetted frog, flanked by two fleurs-de-lis from the Louisville city seal.

The alternate uniform is solid steel blue, with the "River Frogs" wordmark as the primary crest. The jersey uses simple green and light blue striping in curved shapes. The circular type patch is on the shoulders.

[chickenfish13]

Good to see this continue.

I actually really like what you've done here. The script looks really well done for being custom, and it's nice to see someone do something a bit differently. Nice work on this, even if others dont agree.

[CJworks]

I love everything but the primary frog. He just looks really awkward and just doesn't flow well. The perspective doesn't look right. When you cover up the mouth, it looks like an overhead shot, but when you uncover it, the two perspectives clash, and it throws the whole thing off.

[bohob]

The River Frogs one is pretty cool, although I get a slight Colgate vibe from the jersey crest. But man, the Beast one is insanely awesome! Good stuff.

[chestnutz]

Wow, that custom wordmark is kickass. Really wish I was able to do a custom mark like that, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make a custon font look good.

[Blitz]

This is great... I guess your frog could look a little more intimidating, but it's still way better than the old logo - It was just gross looking - GrOsS!!!

[dgnmrwrw]

#17: Madison Monsters // Madison, WI

This one was fun. The colors are dark forest green, bright green, and orange. (There are touches of silver in the logos only.) Yeah, that's a bigfoot/sasquatch/forest critter. I wanted to create a nighttime forest feel to everything. If the type looks a bit ragged, it should. I used a face with some irregularities, trying to create a campy 50's horror b-movie look.

The home and away unis are pretty clean and simple. The primary crest is the monster set inside a white triangle. There's diagonal striping on the sleeves, side panels, and socks that mimic the shape of the logo, along with piping that connects everything. On the shoulder, there's a circular patch with a forest scene and two Ms. (I'm not sure about those eyes.)

The alternate uniform is, well, a bit crazy. But let's all keep in mind that this is an alternate jersey for a minor league team in the UHL that once used pinstripes on its jerseys. So there's the forest-and-stars motif on the sleeves, side panels, and socks. The crest also features that motif, with the monster head and team name in a circle. I know it's busy, but from a distance I think the forest sections would blur into dark bands and the star sections into light bands.

[undead]

This Monsters concept is cool as hell. I think you should use the primary with the wordmark on the jerseys instead of the triangle logo. Great color combo. The logo is very detailed, maybe a bit too much. I like the detail on the monster but do you need so many stars? I really dig the alternate logo with just the face. The hands and face are rendered with a very excellent treatment. I do get that 50's scifi vibe.

Superior work!

[GFB]

Just a few observations...

1) I think for almost every concept you have done, you have used a shield, and it's usually in some sort of triangle-shape. I'd like to see your logos start taking on a more free-form shape, depending less and less on the use of shields and circles, which seem to be your crutch of some-sort.

2) I understand what you are going for in the font, but the shape/outline of the logo itself is so clean (clean body silhouette w/circle) that the font either is A ) too off-beat or B ) not enough off-beat. You are in an awkward middle ground where you can tell that something about letterform is off, but it's not off enough to establish that "yes, this type was purposefully made to be off." For some other font options I would like you to investigate, check out some of these faux-retro movie posters: Strongstuff's Posters

3) I would like you to try a little crazier of a hockey stick... If you want to try something a little over the top, do a broken off branch or a piece of lumber. Once again, I think this concept is split between being clean/professional and being a little over the top, and it's kind of an awkward place.

Now I love your concepts, but I really want to encourage you to take that next step in your design metamorphises.

[Burmy]

EXCELLENT design once again (though I can't help but think that's Chewbacca on the jerseys-wonder what a pep talk in the locker room would sound like)

[spamspamspamspam]

The primary crest is the monster set inside a white triangle.

I've noticed that you seem to have a fondness for uniform logos with triangles. I counted about 11 of these concepts that feature them.

[rentz]

I agree. Your work is absolutely top-notch, and beautifully rendered, but there are some reoccurring elements that I feel could be varied-- the aforementioned triangle crests, the half-silver wordmarks. Personally for the Monsters I think the circle used in the primary logo would look better than the triangle, even if you omitted the wordmark.

For the primary logo, the moon looks too detailed. I feel you could reduce that to white and silver; you seem to be using many shades.

But the concept is excellent. This series produces some of the most consistently great concepts I see on the boards.

[bohob]

I'm definitely getting a swamp thing vibe from this, and that's a good thing! I agree that the eyes in the shoulder patch might not fit. What about using the alt. crest there? On the jerseys, the side panel is the opposite of the sleeves when the player's arms are down, and I think it could go the other way. Great job otherwise!

[mcrosby]

Good to see the Madison monsters, though I was hoping to see the pinstripea back (I think I will do a pinstripe hockey concept soon). I agree with the above posts, you seem to have picked a couple themes and run with them. Your logos have gone a bit towards illustrations with an excess of detail. Simplify just a bit and your logos will be much better.

[CJworks]

Dude... just stop. We all know you're talent is outstanding. No need to show off...I'm jokin'.

No but seriously, this concept is ridiculous, gotta be one of my favorites. I actually saw The Wolfman this past weekend, kinda reminded of that.

I have noticed the triangle/shield crest occurences, but I haven't said anything. I feel the overall talent that you showcase outweighs that. Well done.

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

Lots of people complained about the triangle, so let me try to defend its use. First, whenever I can use a free form logo, I do. I'll only resort to a framing shape of some kind when I think it's warranted either by the size of the logo (where I want to focus on a particular part, as in the Worchester crest) or by the shape (where there isn't a good place to truncate the logo, as in the Madison crest).

Maybe I'm partial to a triangular shape because I like the way it "frames" what I want to show. But I went back and crunched the numbers for this series, and I don't really think that's the case. Here's the data I compiled, showing the basic shape used for each team's primary and alternate jersey crests. You'll notice that only 6 of the 34 logos have been triangles. If anything, I've been using an overabundance of free form logos or circular frames. And no, I do not consider a shield to be the same shape as a triangle. One has curved sides and one has straight. Of course, even if I were to count the triangles, shields, and wedges together, that's still only 11 out of 34, less than the 13 free form logos.

A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that several of the more recent logos have indeed used triangles (Madison, New Haven, Philadelphia). But I think an honest look at the complete series shows that there hasn't been an overabundance of triangles. All that said, I will continue to try to use free form whenever possible, and I'll make an extra effort to avoid triangles in the concepts coming up.

GFB, I understand what you're saying about the hockey stick, but I don't think it's going to happen here. First, it's not really my style to lean to the hyperbolic like that. But more importantly, given the size of the monster's hand (it's pretty much normal human), he'd have to be holding a twig, not a tree trunk. Not sure that would be what I want here.

But many thanks to the link for the posters. Those are all freakin' gorgeous, and I'll try to find some inspiration for an improved wordmark. I'll get an update posted whenever I can.