USBA Concepts (My Personal Basketball League)

[Phitin]

Ok, so when I was younger I used to create these fantasy teams as a part of my own basketball league. I never bothered to really design any logos, but now that I understand how Inkscape works and have gotten interested in logo design, I've decided to resurrect my league with a lot of new cities and a lot of new nicknames. I have separated the league into 8 divisions and 2 conferences, while trying to add in some cities that don't have professional sports teams (such as Louisville and Albuquerque) or just don't have an NBA team (such as Kansas City).

The name I decided on for the league is the United States Basketball Association (USBA). For the team nicknames, I stayed away from using existing pro sports nicknames, and also from singular nouns (personal preference). Some of the names relate directly to the city while some just sounded good to me. I've italicized the names that I just don't feel right about, and would love for any suggestions for replacement names.

**EDIT: Thanks to people who gave name suggestions. I updated my league below with all the team names I will be using now.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Northeast

Philadelphia Veterans

New York Knights

Boston Renegades

Buffalo Crows

Atlantic

Louisville Stallions

Carolina Pilots

Washington Generals

Baltimore Bandits

Southeast

Miami Vultures

Nashville Cougars

New Orleans Nighthawks

Atlanta Vipers

Central

Cleveland Condors

Pittsburgh Americans

Detroit Rhinos

Indianapolis Cheetahs

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northwest

Seattle Steamers

Portland Pioneers

Las Vegas Cardsharks

Denver Miners

Pacific

Honolulu Hammerheads

Los Angeles Admirals

San Diego Scorpions

Oakland Rebels

Southwest

Albuquerque Dukes

Arizona Thunderbirds

Houston Riders

Dallas Outlaws

Midwest

Minnesota Mustangs

St. Louis Archers

Chicago Gladiators

Kansas City Cannons

The first concept I've completed thus far is the Miami Vultures:

I would love some C&C, considering I am still getting used to this whole thing. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how this came out, but I'm unsure about how the wings look on the Vulture logo. I've done about 5 team logos so far, but this is the only one I've completed as of today. I'll try to get some of the other ones completed very soon.

[ESTONES6]

That looks like a ton of teams to be doing... Looks good so far. I like the colors... they are something a bit away from the norm, so its cool to see. My only concern is the wordmarks. The rounded script with the first and last letters larger than the rest seem to be out of place... doesn't seem to work.

[Phitin]

That looks like a ton of teams to be doing... Looks good so far. I like the colors... they are something a bit away from the norm, so its cool to see. My only concern is the wordmarks. The rounded script with the first and last letters larger than the rest seem to be out of place... doesn't seem to work.

Yeah it's a lot of teams, and who knows how many I'll get to, but I'll do my best to get to the teams that I'm most interested in designing. I think the one thing I need to improve on the most is my wordmarks, for sure. If people agree that the arched wordmark looks a bit odd, I can change that.

[skier14]

That looks like a ton of teams to be doing... Looks good so far. I like the colors... they are something a bit away from the norm, so its cool to see. My only concern is the wordmarks. The rounded script with the first and last letters larger than the rest seem to be out of place... doesn't seem to work.

Yeah it's a lot of teams, and who knows how many I'll get to, but I'll do my best to get to the teams that I'm most interested in designing. I think the one thing I need to improve on the most is my wordmarks, for sure. If people agree that the arched wordmark looks a bit odd, I can change that.

It's not the arched wordmark that's odd; its the arched wordmark with the larger first and last letters. Do one or the other

[Phitin]

That looks like a ton of teams to be doing... Looks good so far. I like the colors... they are something a bit away from the norm, so its cool to see. My only concern is the wordmarks. The rounded script with the first and last letters larger than the rest seem to be out of place... doesn't seem to work.

Yeah it's a lot of teams, and who knows how many I'll get to, but I'll do my best to get to the teams that I'm most interested in designing. I think the one thing I need to improve on the most is my wordmarks, for sure. If people agree that the arched wordmark looks a bit odd, I can change that.

It's not the arched wordmark that's odd; its the arched wordmark with the larger first and last letters. Do one or the other

Well yeah, that's what I meant.

[loogodude90]

I like these a lot! Nice job!!!

[AnythingChicago]

I think all of your italized names are fine except maybe Indiana and Washington. A couple suggestions are Indiana Huskers and Washington Monuments.

[kbaker19]

Love the logo and the color combo. The font is a bit too generic for my liking, but I think it works.

Also, I think the name Kansas City Cannons is pretty sweet.

[Phitin]

I think all of your italized names are fine except maybe Indiana and Washington. A couple suggestions are Indiana Huskers and Washington Monuments.

My original name for Indiana was the Indianapolis Cheetahs, because Indiana is known for racing and "speed", and the cheetah is a very fast animal. I changed it because the name "Cheetahs" just doesn't sound right to me. Also for Washington, my original plan was to have the Washington Bandits and the Baltimore Colonials, but I changed it at the last minute. Not a huge fan of the "Washington Monuments"

[theweatherman]

I'm liking this so far...Some suggestions for the names...

Washington: Patriots, Colonels, Commandos, Senators

Indiana... Go with your gut and use Cheetahs.

Kansas City... sounds fine to me

San Diego: Sharks, Conquerers, Wave

[TornadoGTS]

Im sorry, but that logo really bothers me, the wings are so disproportionately small compared to the head, looks so odd.

[DPV713]

I for one LOVE the Vultures concept. The color scheme is unique and the jerseys are clean. I can't wait to see the coming teams in your series.

[chickenfish13]

I have to agree with TornadoGTS, that Vulture just looks really really disproportional. It isn't really sloppy or anything, it just looks awkward. I like the jerseys though.

[Phitin]

I have to agree with TornadoGTS, that Vulture just looks really really disproportional. It isn't really sloppy or anything, it just looks awkward. I like the jerseys though.

This is what I was afraid of. At first, I did not want to make the wings too big, because it might take away from the head which I wanted to be the focus. I guess I went a little too far there....going to fix the wings and update it before I post Boston.

EDIT: Check the first post for an updated Vultures logo. I think the wings look way better this time, and probably won;t change them anymore for fear that the logo will become too big.

[Phitin]

Team #2: Boston Renegades

So what I wanted to so with this concept was keep things pretty traditional. The wordmark and jerseys may seem a bit plain, but this team is supposed to be a little more old school, rather than sleek and completely modern. I went with the traditional dark red and blue colors here, while adding gray. Other teams will have some more unique color schemes, but I felt that these colors worked very well here.

Also, just in case anyone is interested...here's the the original drawing I did before vectorizing it

[Chapeeko]

I think it looks great, I would buy that home jersey in a second. But one thing tho, you forgot to change the shorts side detail on the away.

[chickenfish13]

I like that your sticking with this stuff, and its creative. I really like the idea behind the Renegades logo.The colors are really unique as well.

- I'd say that you dont need the Stars on the wordmark, they kind of interfere with it.

- Work on the guys face, mostly the nose/eyes area, because his nose looks kind of hooked/crooked right now.

- The basketball looks fine in the secondary, but it looks more like an oval in the primary. I'd just make it a circle in the primary as well.

- Last, maybe thicken up some strokes, mainly on the stars in the primary.

Good work, I like where this is headed, and again good work on the jerseys.

Also, maybe shrink the head of the Vulture in the primary, it still looks a bit off.

[Panchito]

the stripes on the Boston jerseys make the jerseys look great

[kbaker19]

Lose the stars on the wordmark and make the basketball more of a circle than an oval. The secondary logo is awesome.

Great job on the Vultures update.

[Phitin]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I got rid of the stars on the wordmark, made the basketball a perfect circle, and fixed the jerseys to accomodate for the new wordmark. Check my original Boston post for updated pics.