AFL Rebrands

[Kryptik]

Love the work on all three, especially the Battlewings. And if this topic is really going to be revived again, I would love to see a take on the Orlando Predators. The AFL marks have always been kinda weak, but the Predators always struck me as one of the ugliest of the surviving bunch from the original AFL.

[9erssteve]

It's the zombie AFL thread, back from the dead... AGAIN! Lol, I swear you couldn't kill this thing with a stick just when you think it's safe I drag it back again.

Someone was talking AFL in the sports logos thread and it reminded me I had sketches for updates to the Talons identity and sketches for the Sharks I'd done nothing with, and technically still haven't, cos they're still sketches. For now.

Have at them let me know what you think, altho remember they are just sketches and will probably morph and change once on the computer, but as always other peoples opinions are gratefully received.

Proposed Talons update to concept posted earlier

Early draft of Jax Sharks concept (Apologies to any Sharks fans out there I fear this may spell the death of your team... all the other teams I've touched have either folded or relocated! SORRY!)

Thanks for looking

9erssteve

[henburg]

Wow! There is some really fantastic work in this thread, it's good to see that you are continuing it! The AFL could really learn a thing or two about branding from you.

I have to say that the Vigilantes concept is my favorite, your rendering of the skull is really great. Your sketches look good as well, it will be exciting to see what they look like when you vectorize them.

[9erssteve]

Ok here's the first draft of the Jacksonville Sharks logo and helmet. I wanted to try something a bit different with this one, so decided to go with bold flat colours, no highlights or detailing, kinda similar to the Houston Texans. At the end of the day I dont want all the new logos looking like they've been done by the same person in the same way every time. Nothing revolutionary just wanted to make the shark look less chubby than the one they use just now, I even tried to keep the blood trailing from the mouth, although in a far more stylised way.

Logotype and Uni's to follow at some point soon, and then I'll get to the Talons redo as per the sketch above, but in the meantime all comments and critique gratefully received.

Thanks for viewing

9erssteve

[hugevolsfan]

I like it but something about the mouth is off I believe it is the teeth but not sure how to fix.

I would also consider doing something with the eye because right now the shark looks suprised.

[9erssteve]

Hey Vol, thanks for the feedback man. If you could have a think about what you feel is wrong with the mouth and let me know in a bit more detail that would be great. I appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback, cant believe the thread has had over a hundred new views and only one person's taken the time to say anything.

The eye was kind of a conscious decision, sharks don't really have eyebrows as such and cant really express emotion and to be honest I think that's actually what makes them so dam freaky! They just roll their eyes back to protect them when hunting. So I didn't really want to play around with the shape, but I'll think about it and maybe give it a go.

9erssteve

[CJworks]

Really interesting stuff here. Upon first go-around, I didn't really like it because I didn't understand your shapes. Now that I give it a closer look, I see why you arranged the forms the way you did as I get the picture. A lot more abstract than your other works, which is probably why.

Some of my quirks:

-The nostrils are confusing me for eyes, especially at first. Your best bet is to eliminate them for the sake of clarity, though I see why you included them.

-I would connect the right fin as the separation isn't exactly necessary. I'd just clean up the space a bit.

-The top and bottom thirds evoke a lot of perspective while the left fin doesn't do any to help it. Significantly enlarging it would do the trick (I think).

-I also think you could do without the white outline on a red helmet. It's making things cluttered.

I know it seems like I nitpicked, but those were my immediate reactions.

Love your work, man. Looking forward to an update!

EDIT: Actually, now that I look at your sketch, you could case the whole piece in a gray outline and color the underbelly black. Just a thought.

[hugevolsfan]

Hey Vol, thanks for the feedback man. If you could have a think about what you feel is wrong with the mouth and let me know in a bit more detail that would be great. I appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback, cant believe the thread has had over a hundred new views and only one person's taken the time to say anything.

The eye was kind of a conscious decision, sharks don't really have eyebrows as such and cant really express emotion and to be honest I think that's actually what makes them so dam freaky! They just roll their eyes back to protect them when hunting. So I didn't really want to play around with the shape, but I'll think about it and maybe give it a go.

9erssteve

I think what is bothering me about the mouth is it looks like you are giving another perspective but the mouth & nose does not convey it.

Maybe it is just the nose but honestly I liked your sketch but when you illustrated it the mouth & nose looked wrong.

If you outlined it like your sketch like CJ suggested it may fix the problem sorry I cannot pinpoint it better.

[Kryptik]

Very nice with the Sharks logo, but in tailing off some of the earlier suggestions:

1) Get rid of the nostrils entirely, and perhaps rotate the eye so it's more lengthwise with the perspective to avoid that 'surprised' look?

2) With the mouth, taper the red off slightly to suggest the corner of the mouth before thickening it back into that side stripe?

[jaha32]

Glad to see you're still working on this. The real Jacksonville Sharks is one of my favorite AFL logos (not saying much since most of the logos are terrible), and the blood is so bad@ss, so in my mind there's not a lot of room for improvement, but your design is so different and quite unique in its own simplistic way. It's really flat, but it works. I agree with Kryptik that you could lose the inner nostril. I just miss the blood that the real logo has.

Was it you a while back who did the attacking wolf with the blood streak? I think it was. Adding some blood would be a nice touch if you feel like spicing this up a little. The only problem would be that this design is quite sharp and edgy, while flowing blood would be smooth and rounded so it might be difficult to pull off. Anyone, nice job on experimenting with a new style.

[Patchey13]

That sharks logo is fantastic. I had an almost identical sketch for a sharks logo about a year ago, but I like yours even more.

[9erssteve]

Ok here's the update for the San Antonio Talons. The logo has changed a fair bit since the sketch. I felt the wings were far to prominent and that the talons (obviously) should be the point of focus. So a few tweaks, and a couple of weeks later we have this...

Decided to try something a bit different with the helmet as well. I've gone matte, nothing terribly new there, it seems matte is the new black and everyone is doing it, but rather than have the normal gloss vinyl decals on it, I thought it might be cool to try printing on a silver foil type material as it would give really good contrast against the matte shell. Not sure how practical it would be in real life, they might not hold up to the rigors of football to well, but this is a concept and I think it would look pretty sweet and that's all that matters here.

As always comments and critique encouraged and welcomed. Hope you like it.

9erssteve

ps Sharks update to follow this week hopefully.

[rtrich11]

I really like the eagle head there. Overall, cool.