jananas16 Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Hello CCSLC! Long time lurker, first time poster here. I'm not usually one to be drawing concepts, but after reading this thread about one of my favorite teams, the Oakland A's, and their seemingly never-ending saga over a new stadium in San Jose last March, I felt inspired to doodle/Photoshop some hypothetical A's logos. Born from that wave of spontaneous inspiration was a concept anniversary logo I created to commemorate the team's 50 years in Oakland, to be celebrated in 2018, provided that the team is still in town by then. But with recent news of the team's negotiations with Oakland Coliseum authorities on a 5-year lease extension that will keep the A's in Oakland until at least 2018, such an anniversary celebration in the near-future is now very much possible. With that, I felt compelled to finally post this logo, which has been collecting proverbial dust on my laptop, up on here for the enjoyment and scrutiny of CCSLC:I'm a sucker for logos that incorporate some aspect of local flair and ties to the community. I loved how the A's included a silhouette of the Oakland skyline in their 40th anniversary patch back in 2008; as a native Oaklander who is often reminded of the shadow that San Francisco casts on us from across the Bay, it was nice to see the hometown team (especially the A's, who have had quite a complicated and strained relationship with Oakland in recent years) show some love back to the community, as subtle as it may be.With this concept, I decided to run with that idea and make it the central theme of the logo. The logo is a stylized depiction of one of Oakland's most recognizable landmarks & symbols, the Tribune Tower. Its marquee reads, "SEASONS" as opposed to "YEARS"; I'm aware that technically, 2018 would mark the A's 51st season in Oakland, but I thought that "SEASONS" looked aesthetically more appealing than "YEARS". The four shooting stars in the background represent the four World Series titles the A's have won during their time in Oakland (though I personally hope to add a few more stars between now and then ).So, what do you all think? Comments and constructive criticism are welcome! I'm certainly no artist, and if anyone who has the talent and skills to do a better job than I did and wants to run with this concept, feel free to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WNDUP FX Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Good news is you've got another 5 years to work on it. The bad news, there's a bit too much going on. The part below SEASONS looks like icicles, which given my limited knowledge (never been to California, but even I know it's warm there), I'm guessing isn't what it's actually supposed to be.In Ottawa we have a building downtown that has a ball that sits on the top of it. That's what this looks like.Maybe someone from Oakland can explain the significance of this building to the A's organization. It looks an awful lot like the Peace Tower here in Canada. My suggestion would be to play around with silhouettes of bridges and other local area landmarks within a circle or the shape of a base. Try to stick to 2 or 3 colours and 1 or 2 different fonts.The more sketches and semi comps you do, the more you have to work with. Practice makes perfects, as they say. Behance | @scotmccormack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goforbroke Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 The ideas are here, but they look like 4 seperate elements just put nearby eachother. The logo needs to be confined within a shape.Here are a few suggestions, take them however you want and make the logo your own:If you want to use that tower as the overall shape, thats perfect!Use the Tower as the background/overall shape. Put a big 50 above "Seasons" or make it smaller and put it on the same line, or put both in a ribbon or something that goes across the building.OR, another option would be the put the word OAKLAND across the building instead of seasons. That might be a more significant word to make the focal point of the logo anyway. THEN in place of the A's logo on the bat, maybe make it a little bigger and just put the number 50 inside that roundel with OAKLAND ATHLETICS around it. Create a new logo. Maybe that becomes there's logo all season instead of the A's inside there.. who knows? and with the dates right there maybe you don't need the word seasons?You can use that crossed bats/A's logo element at the bottom of the logo to kind of act as a place the building can rise from. and then stars.. good idea but instead of the shooting stars I would make them more subtle: put 2 on each bat. 2 to the right of 1968, and 2 on the left of 2018. This kind of shows that the four titles were within those years. (a little extra symbolism lol!)I would also try and play with the colors. Use more gold as its one of Oakland's colors anyway and symbolic of the 50th season. (Maybe do a take on what the Angels did and change all of the A's athletic gold to more metalic gold!)Also, synchronize the shades of green. Use the shade the A's have in their logo throughout. And you probably do need an orange-ish color in there for the building and the bats, but make them the same color. No need for all those extra shades.1 last thing, that grey circle on the building is a clock. 1) get rid of the grey. Its an extra color that you don't need. Make it black and and extend the white ledge to make a white frame around it. Thats how the real building looks anyway right? http://en.wikipedia....ower_detail.jpg 2) put clock hands on it so it looks like what it is. and maybe get creative with the time you put (maybe 1 oclock as its a common game time, or put one hand at the 6 and one hand at the 8 to symbolize 1968?) If you don't want to make it a clock, put the A's logo on there instead. Or baseball stiches. But it needs something. The tiny logo on banner at the top will get lost in any real-life redering. I would lose it.Again, great ideas in my opinion but it all needs to ocme together better.. so there are just some suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jananas16 Posted January 17, 2013 Author Share Posted January 17, 2013 If you want to use that tower as the overall shape, thats perfect!Use the Tower as the background/overall shape. Put a big 50 above "Seasons" or make it smaller and put it on the same line, or put both in a ribbon or something that goes across the building....You can use that crossed bats/A's logo element at the bottom of the logo to kind of act as a place the building can rise from. and then stars.. haha I actually had made an alternate version as well that looks a bit like what you've described here:Obviously, looking at back with these comments and suggestions in mind, I realize that its still a bit too busy and could use some more work.Anyways, thanks for the great comments and advice! Perhaps someday when I'm feeling up for it and have the time, I'll come back to this; I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to designing logos and using Photoshop, etc. so even a simple project like this is painstakingly time-consuming for me. Good thing I've still got five more years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WNDUP FX Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 This is a huge improvement. I think if you silhouette the building, as goforbroke said, you can place your elements within it and cut down on colours. Add a similar line thickness around everything and I think you've got a winner. Behance | @scotmccormack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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