Viking Logo

[Vicious]

Hey guys,

I decided to try my hand at a viking type logo. I just whipped this up in illustrator, and I figured I'd see what the CCSLC had to say. Ive only spent about 30 minutes on it, its nowhere near complete, just a few hints in the right direction would be great. I would like to finish this logo through the guidance of the board the way I did my bears logo a few months ago. I had a blast.

Looking for help with anything, but mainly the eyes and mouth. I think I can smooth out the rest, but those have me stuck right now.

Thanks,

-Vicous-

[GriffinM6]

I like that you're going to finish this with the help of our suggestions. First off add horns, make the helmet yellow, purple eyes, and make him angrier looking.

[Phillyphan63]

Make the eyes more defined at first glance I thought the purple lines were the eyes and he was sleeping.

[UnclearInitial]

You definitely need to add detail to the eyes, now he either looks like he's sleeping or as if his skin was teken from the skull. I'd also get rid of the triangle, it serves no real purpose and just clutters everything up.

I like that you're going to finish this with the help of our suggestions. First off add horns, make the helmet yellow, purple eyes, and make him angrier looking.

But real vikings didn't use horns...

[Somppi]

I agree, I think you should make him angry looking. I'm not sure if horns are necessary, but it may making people think "viking" a lot quicker when they see your logo.

[Fox]

this is very well done, however the eyes need to be updated. it looks like his eyes are closed right now. I would suggest adding pupils or more detail to them

[YessSir32]

Work on the eyes, and as said before make him look meaner.

[DeadFish]

You asked for help with the mouth, but I'm not sure you even need one - I'd leave that as is.

To make him meaner looking I would try to move down the eyebrows and tilt them to make him frown. At the position they are now I read surprised.

Thicken your lines too, so the details don't get lost when it is scaled down

Good start.

[sparkychewbarky]

Deadfish kind of nailed it.

It's a good start. The eyes need work.

And horns or wings on the helmet (Thor) would suggest 'Viking' to me.

Again, nice start.

[9erssteve]

First thing I'd suggest you do is reduce the whole thing down to about an inch in size, maybe even smaller and see what happens to it. I know what your gonna think, "It's a football logo, it wont appear that size", but yes it will! On tv graphics sports cards and remember most fans will view helmets from a LONG way off, so if your logo doesn't hold up well at small sizes you're in trouble!

Right now imo you have to many fine lines and small details for this to hold up at smaller sizes. Dont get me wrong it's a good start, but I reckon a lot of the detail, especially the lines on the face, and the outline of the helmet will disappear.

Simplify all the shapes. In fact the best way to do it might be to take what you have right now and use it as a template. Put it on another layer lock it and just create a purple silhouette create the best purple block viking shape you can then create a new layer above it, switch off the purple and then on this second new layer create the skin coloured blocks and white coloured blocks for the helmet highlights. If you make the white and skin coloured blocks sit within the confines of the purple layer, when you switch it back on it will work as your outline for you, and you can play with thickness of line and even varying the line weights by changing the size and position of the layer with the coloured blocks on it.

The eyes need a lot more work, it's the eyes that give any character logo it's personality so it's often a good idea to get those down first as they are really the make or break element of the logo, but this has the makings of a good start, just push it and remember big bold shapes thin lines are not what you're looking for.

9erssteve

[Vicious]

Thanks for all the help so far guys. I guess i forgot to mention that I didnt really put the eyes in there as actual eyes, but just as a place holder for them as i hadnt gotten there yet. I also planned on putting a horn/antler/wing/feather on the helmet, but again, I hadn't gotten there yet.

Here is my update:

And this is my original sketch for reference. It seems like its a much cooler sketch than it is an illustration so far. lets change that.

[sparkychewbarky]

9ersteve gave you some great advise.

You've improved your logo by a lot already with your thicker, cleaner lines.

It was great that you showed us your sketch.

THAT is where you can improve your drawing.

There's a lot that still needs to be worked out at the sketch level before you take it to the computer.

The face, mouth, and moustache look pretty good.

The hair needs to be figured out a little more and I think the wings are too small IMO.

It has progressed nicely though.

[WideRight]

Don't give it horns or wings, real viking helmets had neither. I like the new snarling viking face much better, but I agree with you, there is room for even greater emphasis on the wildness aspect.

[Vicious]

Update. Fixed the hair a bit. I really want the "blowing in the wind" type of look.

Cleaned it up a whole bunch.

Added the triangle again. I like how it is the shape of a V vor Viking. I dunno about it though. Maybe if i continued his body into the V so that it looks like he's coming out of it?

Played with the eyes. I like this shape the best, but I suck with the actual eyeball itself. any suggestions are great.

I think this is progressing a lot faster than my bear. Keep em coming guys.

-Vicious-

[9erssteve]

Update. Fixed the hair a bit. I really want the "blowing in the wind" type of look.

Cleaned it up a whole bunch.

Added the triangle again. I like how it is the shape of a V vor Viking. I dunno about it though. Maybe if i continued his body into the V so that it looks like he's coming out of it?

Played with the eyes. I like this shape the best, but I suck with the actual eyeball itself. any suggestions are great.

I think this is progressing a lot faster than my bear. Keep em coming guys.

-Vicious-

Better but could still be bolder. The detail in the tip of the pigtails is way to fine, the detailed roughing in the eyebrows still to small and you seriously need to look at the outline round the nose guard! It's almost invisible as it is, remember the reduction trick, it really works.

Your light and shade contradicts itself as well, you have the thickest outlines on the right of the logo (which is a good thing, slight line weight variation adds to the movement), but the thickest outlines would ordinarily visually denote the darkest side of the logo yet you have the helmet highlight on the same side. You've added an extra grey/black for the tounge, which is unnecessary, and also flies in the face of physics as the tounge if you want to include it would almost certainly be a highlight inside the mouth rather than the darkest part.

Good progress though, but keep pushing this there's still room for improvement and if you make the effort this could be a really impressive piece!

9erssteve

[Vicious]

First attempt at an eyeball, Thickened the brows, fixed the hilight, got rid of the pig tails, pushed the nose up a bit to make it look like he's screaming because he's pissed, not scared.

thoughts? the mouth is the thing that bothers me most. it looks too cartoony compared to the rest imo. any ideas?

-vicious-

[north dakota]

The updated eyes are a major improvement.

[9erssteve]

First attempt at an eyeball, Thickened the brows, fixed the hilight, got rid of the pig tails, pushed the nose up a bit to make it look like he's screaming because he's pissed, not scared.

thoughts? the mouth is the thing that bothers me most. it looks too cartoony compared to the rest imo. any ideas?

-vicious-

I think you have two issues with the mouth, firstly it looks flat, the teeth are totally horizontal and that's not how they should look, try and find photo's of people screaming and you'll see that the teeth curve back into the head, Put your finger on your cheek where you furthest back tooth is then look at yourself side on in the mirror and you'll see your teeth go lamost half way back into your face. They curve back into the skull far further than people think. If the brim of the helmet curves round the head, then the teeth have to curve into it as well or they'll look strange. The second issue is the lack of a lower lip. I think you need to outline the bottom teeth as you have the top then below that indicate the shadow that appears as a result of the lower lip rolling out from inside the mouth.

Looking better with each update, keep it up!

9erssteve

[Vicious]

Alright, fixed the mouth a bit.

Here's a close up:

as you can see, i added some shading on the face. not sure if i should try to continue in into the hair/etc?

Here's some color variations as I feel its getting closer and closer to being a finished product. not quite there yet.

MORE SUGGESTIONS!

-vicious-

[leggman01]

curve the top teeth similar to the bottom and lose the red tongue...it adds an unnecessary color and we all know it's there, even if we don't see it - nice updates!