NHL Rebrands -- #2 Pittsburgh Penguins

[CS85]

I love your ventures into the abstract and experimental - it's quite daring as a designer, for that I tip my hat.

As for your overall scheme, when you finish all the NHL teams I'm sure they will all look unique and in styles to your liking. I'm trying to judge this penguins concept on that standard - not on what's commercially viable. The penguins concept I was not a huge fan of, the thing that held it back was the uniforms. The logos I thought were great. The futuristic wordmark and numerals, while artistically satisfying felt out of place. You mentioned the hard-working blue-collar nature of the town of pittsburgh you wanted to get across, I'm not sure if the font/wordmark really hit home. the primary/alternate i liked quite a bit, and the barberpoles on the uniforms was a great touch. The pinstripes on the unis that complete the barberpoles seem to make the uniforms far too busy and took away from the arm barberpoles.

But on the whole, another great job. I can't wait to see the rest.

[dgnmrwrw]

I can tell I'm in the minority here, but I still want to get my opinions out there. elliot, I tend to love your work, and I'm really impressed by the amount of thought and effort you've put into these two concepts, but I'm just not feeling either one.

As far as the Islanders concept is concerned, I think you've got the basis for a really fantastic logo there. In fact, in the series of iterations you posted, I think the second logo from the left is by far the strongest. I think by adding the softer, lighter versions of the blue and orange, you've muddied things up a bit. I think that second logo is much stronger in terms of simplicity and clarity, especially from a distance--I can see the final logo you posted becoming much less sharp from the nosebleed seats (for what that's worth). At this point, it's become more of an illustration than a logo.

The secondary logo just isn't working for me. I see what you were going for, but the NY is really difficult for me to pull out, and it ends up being simply a strange amalgamation of elements from the primary.

I'm also not sure about the addition of the "skyscrapers." I get that this team has the words "New York" in their nickname, but really, they play pretty far from anything that could be considered a skyscraper. It just seems like the lighthouse and the skyscrapers are taken from two mutually exclusive worlds, and it looks a bit forced. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about it, but it seems like you've gone out of your way to produce a well-conceived concept (which is fantastically laudable), and this look just doesn't work for me. The skyscrapers just don't fit into a 'north Atlantic island' look. All that said, I think the lighthouse itself is very strong, especially in only one shade of blue and one shade of orange.

...Which kinda sucks, because I really like where you were going with the uniforms. The dual shades of orange and blue seem to work here. I love the inclusion of some patterning, and the numerals are pretty awesome in their uniqueness (still not sure if they fit the whole 'north Atlantic island' theme, though). I do have some minor qualms--for instance, I think the blue jerseys are much stronger than the white ones; and the sock stripes and pants numbers seem HUGE--but in general, the uniforms are pretty good.

The Penguins concept just isn't working at all. Again, I love the amount of effort you put into it, but it just isn't coming together for me. The primary logo is just odd. The crescent shaped white section on the lower beak makes him look 'jowly,' the 'P' looks completely forced and breaks up what should be a solid white belly, and the stripes (while I understand that you were trying to establish a running theme) on the underside of the wings/flippers look really odd. He also seems to be strutting, which seems a bit out of style for a hockey logo (if that makes sense).

The wordmark is a mess. I like that you developed your own characters, but these are simply strange looking. Especially with the shade of gold you used, they'd be hard to distinguish from a distance with that really thick outline (I notice you didn't use them on the nameplates), and the wordmark doesn't really feel like a wordmark proper--it's just individual characters tracked really far apart.

Unlike the Isles, the uniforms here aren't good (for my tastes). Again, I like that you tried a theme, and the reasoning behind the 'blue collar' look seems solid, but I'm not sure how 'blue collar' equals a strange almost-but-not-quite-white color. When I think of a penguin, the white becomes glaringly white, because it contrasts so much with the rest of the animal, which is black. I do really like the idea of pinstripes, but I don't think they work for this team in this situation, especially when paired with the barber pole-type sections, which they clash with.

Whew. I know that was really long, and mostly negative. I really don't want rain on your parade, because I love the chances and risks you are taking. They're a welcome change here. I'm just not sure they are working in these two particular instances. However, I do respect the amount of thought, time, and effort you are putting into these, and I very much look forward to seeing more.

[Jhero34]

great job coming up with some original art! i feel like more concepts should be over the top and creative as this is! kudos

[TopCat]

You can't make a bad concept, can you? The approach you've taken for the Penguins is outstanding. As always, beautiful work!

[maz]

Maybe it's because im usually a purist in general, especially when it comes to the pens, but I just do not like anything about the Pittsburgh concept. I'm sorry, but all of it looks bad to me. Usually I love your work, but I feel you really dropped the ball here.

[VC//]

Maybe it's because im usually a purist in general, especially when it comes to the pens, but I just do not like anything about the Pittsburgh concept. I'm sorry, but all of it looks bad to me. Usually I love your work, but I feel you really dropped the ball here.

As another Pens fan here, I agree. I don't like it at all. If anything, I'd love to see them go back to the old black and yellow and ditch the vegas gold. But that Penguins logo in the concept looks....well...odd.

[Legend]

The lighthouse logo with the NY in the lights is so freaking cool I can't explain. That logo is amazing, great work man.

The Pens isn't bad, although if I were skilled enough to make these concepts, I'd go back to the previous gold and black shades.

How do you make logos like that? Are there programs where you can draw and shape on the computer? Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I'm not sure how these are made. They are so cool, I wish I had this talent.

[eRay]

Wow! Phenomenal work. Maybe it isn't traditional like other people's concepts...but damn you if you don't like looking at this. I imagine that your background isn't in sports logo design, but that just makes your ideas more interesting. Sort of like getting a painter into photography. Their POV gives them a unique voice and style. If I'm wrong about this then you're just good at testing boundaries. Your designs are waaaaay out there, yet they make a lot of sense and have a lot of work put into them. I love these. Keep up the good work.