Working on a High School Identity

[CAB]

To make a long story short, my high school is nearly done building a new school and a new gym will be completed within the next couple years. The ultimate goal here is to actually create a legitimate identity for my high school. Who knows, maybe I'll even get my logos to be in our new gym. Since I have a lot of time to work with before the gym is completed, I'm going to try to make this as good as it can be. I'm from Ponca, Nebraska (high school of the same name) which was named after the Ponca Indian tribe, found in parts of Nebraska and Oklahoma. As you could guess, our mascot is the Indians. You may or may not have heard of Chief Standing Bear, but he was a famous Ponca chief. I wanted to model the primary logo after him and his one feather look, not with a full headdress like our current unofficial logo (probably being used by thousands of other high schools). I originally had the head just on it's own, but I like it much better set in a circle.

There's a totem pole in Chief Standing Bear Park downtown here in Ponca, so that's probably what I'll use for the secondary logo. Not sure what other marks I'll try to do, but hey, I got time.

BTW, if anyone knows any good fonts that you think I should use, just say so.

C&C would be scrumptrulescent.

[TheClevelandHockey]

Looks nice but the feather looks like a horn since it's the same plane as his gaze.

[Yac12]

I am glad that you are going with a new look for the school. I am tired of high schools using and/or recoloring other teams logos.

[lenardo]

This has good potential. The face is nicely made but the necklace thing looks a little sloppy and the feather is awkwardly placed, making him look like a unicorn man. I love logos that incorporate native designs, maybe you could add some patterns in the circle. It also doesn't look very...sporty. It looks more like a logo for the chief standing bear foundation(like pro players have). Maybe take a look at some other native American sports logos like north dakota's for example. I'm sure you'll get it right eventually. I look forward to seeing the final product.

[DeFrank]

for some reason looks a little like a woman, but idk. i like it, but im not sure the colors work too well. the blue is just really vibrant.

[GeauxColonels]

To make a long story short, my high school is nearly done building a new school and a new gym will be completed within the next couple years. The ultimate goal here is to actually create a legitimate identity for my high school. Who knows, maybe I'll even get my logos to be in our new gym. Since I have a lot of time to work with before the gym is completed, I'm going to try to make this as good as it can be. I'm from Ponca, Nebraska (high school of the same name) which was named after the Ponca Indian tribe, found in parts of Nebraska and Oklahoma. As you could guess, our mascot is the Indians. You may or may not have heard of Chief Standing Bear, but he was a famous Ponca chief. I wanted to model the primary logo after him and his one feather look, not with a full headdress like our current unofficial logo (probably being used by thousands of other high schools). I originally had the head just on it's own, but I like it much better set in a circle.

There's a totem pole in Chief Standing Bear Park downtown here in Ponca, so that's probably what I'll use for the secondary logo. Not sure what other marks I'll try to do, but hey, I got time.

BTW, if anyone knows any good fonts that you think I should use, just say so.

C&C would be scrumptrulescent.

Great start. I think the color-scheme works great. Like most have said, the feather looks out of place. Maybe it's too long. Maybe it needs a slight angle shift. Not sure. Also, give it a little more definition instead of it being so smooth.

I REALLY like your idea with the necklace and the "Indians" text. Nice job.

The head and neck look a little too wide for me. Not sure if it's the way the shadow effect is of if it really is too wide. Maybe look into that.

All-in-all, a great start though.

[Brave-Bird 08]

man, this has some serious potential.

one thing that erks me, and you can disagree, is straight colors. something about pure blue, or pure red, or pure yellow bothers me when it's too bright, i dunno.

so color scheme enhancement is something I want to see first. the rendering is looking really awesome. it has a nice streamlined feel, as well as a classic look...especially with the wordmark incorporation, which I think should stay. maybe the FSU logo makes me feel better about that.

good work so far. draft 1 is passable, extra drafts could turn this into something awesome

[CAB]

Update! Took all suggestions into consideration. Some things that I changed--

-native american design around the circle, definitely like how it came out

-added detail to the feather

-also added detail to the necklace, seemed way too plain before

To those of you that thought the feather looked like a horn...I dunno. I guess I don't really see it. I understand how it could be viewed like that, but I think it looks enough like a feather now to be distinguished. Anywho, here's the update--

...and seeing how it looks on different backgrounds--

More comments please, hopefully I can keep improving this!

[Brave-Bird 08]

for a high school, this is a really really nice logo. It's very detailed, but I feel like that's okay.

[Funkatron101]

Ok, hopefully my critique doesn't sound to harsh. I think you are on the right track, but right now it doesn't feel cohesive.

This logo makes me feel like I should be looking for hidden things that just aren't there.

What I mean is that the highlights and shadows look a bit unnatural, so it makes it seem like you are trying to work with negative space to create other objects. I look and look, and see none.

Use broader strokes to define the jaw line. Right now it's hard to see where the jaw stops and the neck starts. It makes him look obese.

I'm sure you have been referencing images, but I think this is a good image to get inspiration from

http://www.nps.gov/mnrr/historyculture/images/stdbear.jpg

Simplify. I think the added circle and necklace details are too much and are distracting.

Maybe consider doing a dreamcatcher as the container for this logo?

[DeFrank]

Dreamcatcher sounds awesome!!

One thing about the feather is that it really needs a couple BIG breaks in the line that disrupt the outside outline. That will make it look much more realistic. I sitll think that there is too much detail where it doesn't need to be, and not enough where it needs detail (shoulders, neck, body) I still just hate that shade of blue... But, its coming together.

[Funkatron101]

Looks like their official logo has been updated from what you posted.

http://www.poncaschool.org/

[CAB]

Looks like their official logo has been updated from what you posted.

http://www.poncaschool.org/

I know it's that one, I just didn't feel like copying and pasting it. It's just been the same basic version (only updated a few times, definitely not by anyone involved with our school) for as long as I can remember. Like I said, think how many other high schools are using that.

Anyway, thanks for the C&C guys, I'll be working on an update!

[CAB]

After a long break from this, I decided to start working on it again yesterday. I just sketched it out and simplified it a lot. Now that I look back, my first attempts were far too complicated. I worked on the feather, which is now facing the opposite direction so it doesn't look so much like a horn. I got rid of the necklace and other details on the hair and face that were cluttering the logo. I also added a wordmark to the bottom rather than the circle. Tell me what you think!

If anybody's wondering the wordmark is the Timberwolves font.

[HarperK]

After a long break from this, I decided to start working on it again yesterday. I just sketched it out and simplified it a lot. Now that I look back, my first attempts were far too complicated. I worked on the feather, which is now facing the opposite direction so it doesn't look so much like a horn. I got rid of the necklace and other details on the hair and face that were cluttering the logo. I also added a wordmark to the bottom rather than the circle. Tell me what you think!

If anybody's wondering the wordmark is the Timberwolves font.

Not a fan of the font, but I would look at how davidson draws faces (or the whole thread dedicated to drawing faces). I can say that overall it has improved some though...

[SP00]

Update! Took all suggestions into consideration. Some things that I changed--

-native american design around the circle, definitely like how it came out

-added detail to the feather

-also added detail to the necklace, seemed way too plain before

To those of you that thought the feather looked like a horn...I dunno. I guess I don't really see it. I understand how it could be viewed like that, but I think it looks enough like a feather now to be distinguished. Anywho, here's the update--

...and seeing how it looks on different backgrounds--

More comments please, hopefully I can keep improving this!

I liked these much more, they are awesome.

[Kryptik]

I like the second batch much better than the first, mostly due to the issues you seemed to address: too complex, trying to be too detailed, and working on the feather. I think using the dreamcatcher field from the first logo might help, and work on the detail on the left side of the face. It still feel like his face and neck on the left side extend further out than they should.

[9erssteve]

After a long break from this, I decided to start working on it again yesterday. I just sketched it out and simplified it a lot. Now that I look back, my first attempts were far too complicated. I worked on the feather, which is now facing the opposite direction so it doesn't look so much like a horn. I got rid of the necklace and other details on the hair and face that were cluttering the logo. I also added a wordmark to the bottom rather than the circle. Tell me what you think!

If anybody's wondering the wordmark is the Timberwolves font.

I think it works slightly better than the first version but that it still needs a TON of work. The face just doesn't work, it looks like the poor guy has had a stroke, the features on one side of it hang lower than the other, even the basic shape of it is off. The lower jaw is wrong and the neck just becomes a lump of flesh.

The highlights dont sit where they should and as a result throw off the reading of the face, and the smooth outlines clash terribly with the finky jaggy detail in the face.

If rendered well this could be a pretty successful logo, it's not gonna break any new ground but it could be clean, effective and bespoke to the particular school and that's really all you'd need to make a success of this, and it can be done.

But I'd seriously recommend going off and really studying good quality black and white photography so you can understand how the light and shade on a face falls and how to simplify that even further to make a strong logo. Right now you have to much going on in the face to really make it work.

9erssteve

[Funkatron101]

I agree with 9erssteve 100%.

[CAB]

9erssteve-- thanks a bunch for the input, you always give good criticism. I'm probably gonna take some time off of this to work on more face logos, just to get down how they should look. I used Davidson's tutorial to make this today--

Oh and I might as well post this alternate logo I whipped up.