South Suburban Conference Logo

[The Fixer]

So today i was browsing our school website when I noticed in small print, "South Suburban Conference Logo Design Contest". I was instantly IN. The Lake Conference (MN) is one of the best conferences in MN, but as of next season some teams will be leaving some with be staying. Its a whole mess, but my school Eagan will be joining the newly formed South Suburban Conference. I think this would be an amazing way to kick of my "career" . Its payed work! first place is $250, 2nd is $100, and 3rd is $50. I doubt many people will enter, have to be a student.

What I need my logo to be (copied from the contest rules):

SPECIFICATIONS: We are seeking a logo that can be printed in black only as well as black and two (2) or

three (3) additional colors. Must be clean, easy to read and reproducible.This name must appear in or with the logo.

So ive been messing around for a little while today and here is what i came up with.

NOTES: The stars are the bottom will be fixed for the final version (10 stars for 10 teams), just didnt wanna spend a lot of time on them for a rough draft.

Blue was chosen because its the color of state flag. If you have any other ideas on how to color it let me know! (not exact shad of blue, thatll be fixed though by final draft)

I also have to make a version without the name but not sure how thatll look with that much empty space. ideas?

any other ideas for me?

CC please!! Thank you!

[dicebaseball]

Perhaps not coloring in the letters which lay outside the actual state? That is one thing that sticks out to me which is not appealing to the eye.

[gordie_delini]

Your kerning/tracking is terrible. The text needs to be legible and even at this size it's not, I don't even want to imagine it reduced. Overall, it's not bad, but it doesn't blow my skirt off.

[raysox]

It's a pretty good start. I would use colours of a Minnesota team, like navy and red or something. The inside looked like it had edges, instead of round, but what if you made the outside a decagon? Something original, like that. I like the state, with the star. The font also needs to be adjusted.

But good luck with this!

[altosax29b]

This was kind of touched upon but the instructions do say "Must be clean, easy to read and reproducible". Where it says "South Suburban Conference" it's very difficult to read. Are you planning on changing that font to something more readable since this is only your rough draft? That's your biggest problem right now without a doubt in my opinion.

[MNTwins]

Hey cool - I'm not the only Eaganite on this board!

And about the logo, I do agree that if you change up that typeface you've got a sweet logo.

[BJBerthiaume]

Wow if I have time I might have to enter this contest.

EDIT: Nevermind only students of the schools going into the SSC can participate.

[The Fixer]

Wow if I have time I might have to enter this contest.

EDIT: Nevermind only students of the schools going into the SSC can participate.

haha that is why i mentioned it. didnt want people to get hopes up. less competition for me though!

here is another version. figured out the stars. changed the fonts (but in the final version ill trace them so they are less choppy)

but not it looks kinda plain?

and im working on some other ideas but just liked this one the best so im sharing this one

[9erssteve]

Wow if I have time I might have to enter this contest.

EDIT: Nevermind only students of the schools going into the SSC can participate.

haha that is why i mentioned it. didnt want people to get hopes up. less competition for me though!

here is another version. figured out the stars. changed the fonts (but in the final version ill trace them so they are less choppy)

but not it looks kinda plain?

and im working on some other ideas but just liked this one the best so im sharing this one

Okay, honestly, it's alright, but that's about as enthusiastic as I can get about it. Right now it is what it is: it's all the elements you think you need placed in a circle (badly) with the state map in there too and some stars. Is there a reason for the stars? Or for the number of stars or are they just filler? Right now you have a collection of elements, it's not a logo as such.

There's no creativity, there's no concept or idea, there's little or no interplay between the elements and there's no other dimension to it. For it to succeed as a good logo there needs to be a bit more to it.

Is the conference for all sports or just one? If it's for one (or even many) should some element from it perhaps not be included? That could give you a creative way to produce the letters for example, or a more exciting shape to hold the name in. For a logo that's for a sports conference it's also VERY static. There's no movement to be had anywhere, everything is horizontal all the fonts regular, look at ways of bringing more action or life to your idea, look at orientation, does S.S.C have to sit on a horizontal baseline, could it not perhaps run across the logo at an angle? Could certain fonts not perhaps be italicised, Could the whole crest not perhaps be skewed slightly, take a look at the UFL logo for example, it's not great but it's also not a straight on shield like the NFL it has a bit more life to it, you get the idea.

Go look at existing sports division and conference logos you like at put your logo next to them and then ask what is it you like about those logos and then ask yourself does your logo have any of those qualities. I'm not saying take bits from one and bits from another to create yours but if you look a few different ones and can spot things you like across a range of logos it might help steer you towards a more successful outcome.

Do your research and then come back to it, and if you do that you'll have a stronger finished product as a result.

Keep at it, and keep us posted, and good luck in the competition.

9erssteve

[The Fixer]

ya 10 teams 10 stars. good advice! ill work on it

before i read all that i started this. pretty rough but its an idea. kinda seems like a northstars logo concept to me?

and my computer wont let me install fonts anymore?saying that this font isnt valid, yet i know they are, ive tried many. any troubleshooting tips?

[altosax29b]

I like how you're thinking outside the box now. I'll let the experts give you the real advice. Is it possible you based your first logo off of the South Suburban Conference logo of Illinois?

[The Fixer]

Wow no I didn't but that's a really weird coincidence. Guess not too much creativity at all

[jaha32]

is this supposed to be only one color? the north star isnt centered above the rest of the logo.. right now its a little to the left. also, your font choice makes me think this is more for a fight club or a prison inmate. i dont know maybe this is a real rough black and blue badass conference, but if not, i dont know if it works.

[tajmccall]

I'd suggest concentrating more on a word mark than a logo. Most conference logos are type heavy, rather than logomark heavy.

This is my conference (well the Lake is, but its basically the Lake with Prior Lake instead of EP and Chaska) growing up, so feel free to bounce a few ideas off me if you need via PM. I'd be happy to help.

[Cola]

I'd think outside of the box a bit more. Right now, it is pretty generic and what one what consider the "minimum" for a conference logo. You have stars, an outline of the representative area, and a circle.

Start off with eliminating the circle...go with a different overall shape and don't start off confining the logo to the shape. Your text should also be legible. The second is better with that, but still off. Don't go lowercase and don't go "emo paintbrush" script.

[The Fixer]

Thanks for a lot of the new ideas

still I wish some people would READ. I know the fonts are bad but it's a filler til I get my pc fixed.

[The Fixer]

So i think this one is a bit better than the rest

I got everything but the big star and the pine trees then My train of thought was,well for suburban i could do some tree silhouettes mixed with some city skyline but then the debate is what city. i picked minneapolis but it all looked too crowded. so i decided to skip both and try something different. then i thought hmmm i big North star would work good in there if i skewed it. I tried it and noticed the similarities with the wilds logo. then that set me off chasing the wilds trees. i thought it looked good.

So here is what i came up with. i told you that so you wouldnt out right accuse me of taking some major elements of the wilds logo. i actually had the ideas and just thought well the wild is sort of like that. the pro: easily recognized brand up here, the cons:i think they are too similar. i probably wont go with this but it points in the right direction.

[CJworks]

i think this looks really nice. i love the way the tree silhouettes blend right in with the minnesota state. stylisticly, this would work great as a conference logo.

[mcrosby]

I would like to see you attempt the trees and skyline blend, I think it could look really nice. The large north star isn't really working for me either, as this is a southern conference, granted it is in Minnesota, but I think you should be looking in context of where it is in the state. That and the north star is looking a bit Star Trekky to me. An idea you may try is having the black trees coming out into the white as you have now, and then mirror them inside the black state with some white buildings. I like where this is going, it's much more original than the first few, keep it up. You might want to separate the SSC letters from each other just a bit, it will help when the logo is scaled down.

[sergeimakarenkov44]

I like the new one, but I'm not sold on the giant wiggly star thing. I think if you were to work on that and make it blend with the surroundings better it would be a really nice looking concept