Toronto Lakers Australian Football Fantasy Logo - Advice tweaking

[Frenchie]

I have been part of the CCSLC-sanctioned WAFA since its inception and am pretty pleased with the logo I created for it. (Nothing overly flashy, but it does the job).

But I thought I would give it a tweak this season and was looking for your opinions.

Basically on two fronts:

1- Colour of the CN Tower

2- Font for Wordmark

1- I Originally went for grey as it depicts a closer likeliness to that ugly concrete phallic symbol. But just tried it in "Double-Blue" and am pretty pleased with the result.

2- I DO NOT HAVE a wordmark. What you see below was literally thrown together in 3 minutes in PowerPoint. So I am looking for suggestions on Font and layout for the wordmark. Generally speaking, and more specifically the team I support (Carlton Blues) AFL clubs tend to use traditional fonts, so I don't want to deviate too much from that tradition, nor do I want the wordmark to "overpower" the logo. Although I don't really have the intention to use them together.

So here you go, suggestions welcome:

Thank you!

Stéphane

[fumbler]

I like the second one with the double blue, there is a lot of empty space in the background and suggest maybe the light grey colour in there?

The Wordmark is ideal for the logo i think.

[Whittier S]

There are a number of issues with this logo. The line weight is all over the place--really thin and really thick lines. I don't know what the lines to the left of the tower are supposed to be or what they're doing, plus they're awfully thin relative to the rest of the logo. The proportions need help, too--I know that the tower is big, but the wave, which indicates the team name, is so small I almost don't notice it. Whilst on the subject of the wave, the idea of a wave opens up the opportunity to create a logo with a lot of motion, but this logo is very static. Finally, there is a lot of dead space, making the whole logo look vacant.

All that said, the logo has potential. Get rid of those extraneous lines. I'd drop the oval entirely. I know that it's an attempt to address the issue of the tall, skinny tower creating negative space that's hard to work with, but it's ended up creating a lot more negative space. Make the wave a lot bigger; the team is the Lakers, not the Towers. You can also play with the perspective of the CN Tower. Have you ever been there? To be anywhere near the tower creates all sorts of crazy perspectives that offer more shapes for you to play with.

Finally, the two-tone blue works a lot better because there's more contrast.

[fumbler]

There are a number of issues with this logo. The line weight is all over the place--really thin and really thick lines. I don't know what the lines to the left of the tower are supposed to be or what they're doing, plus they're awfully thin relative to the rest of the logo. The proportions need help, too--I know that the tower is big, but the wave, which indicates the team name, is so small I almost don't notice it. Whilst on the subject of the wave, the idea of a wave opens up the opportunity to create a logo with a lot of motion, but this logo is very static. Finally, there is a lot of dead space, making the whole logo look vacant.

All that said, the logo has potential. Get rid of those extraneous lines. I'd drop the oval entirely. I know that it's an attempt to address the issue of the tall, skinny tower creating negative space that's hard to work with, but it's ended up creating a lot more negative space. Make the wave a lot bigger; the team is the Lakers, not the Towers. You can also play with the perspective of the CN Tower. Have you ever been there? To be anywhere near the tower creates all sorts of crazy perspectives that offer more shapes for you to play with.

Finally, the two-tone blue works a lot better because there's more contrast.

The Outside lines and lines on the side represent an AFL Ball (Aussie Rules)

^^^This on the side

[Whittier S]

Touché. It still looks awkward as it is. Perhaps because of the way the tower is breaking the plane. Maybe the angle of the ball can be changed.

[sparkychewbarky]

First of all, I think that B looks much better.

It could use a little tweaking, though IMO.

You could make the wave a little bigger, like Whittier suggested.

The lace lines could be a tad thicker.

How would it look with the rendering of a dark blue skyline about 1/3 of the way up?

it would make the wave pop.

All the elements are there, and they're nicely done.

The CN Tower is real clean.

[Frenchie]

Thank you so much to all, especially "Whittier" for the constructive feedback.

I will certainly take it under advisement.

Just a little more background on the logo and my creative process.

-The oval proportions are to mimic (copy) the AFL logo, the laces are actually the Goal Posts which are very unique to Footy.

-Originally, I wasn't even considering putting waves, I was trying to keep the focus on Toronto. So when I added them, I was hoping to keep it "to scale" with the tower.

-The ball could be rotated 90º but then it would be too much of a rip-off of the AFL logo, and I was looking at a vertical logo to have it fit on the top left part of the guernsey.

-The Tower's perspective and highlights came from an image I was using to draw it.

-I will play with a coloured background (Should I dare trying a Double-Blue Gradient???).

-How about adding the whole Downtown T.O. skyline to get rid of some negative space?

-I'll keep this simple wordmark as is: Calibri Italics...

THANKS again!

[geoffrey]

I like the idea and the team name. Here are a few suggestions if you don't mind.

I would tilt the logo 45 degrees (so that it appears diagonally) to the right and have a much larger wave almost superimposed on the ball shape. The two match almost identically.

In the empty whitespace you could simply include the outline of the Toronto skyline as seen from the distance. In that way you contain all the elements whithin the logo, without having to deal with the challenges of the size of the CN Tower.

On a side note, I love the fact that you used double blue. It is the only colour scheme Toronto teams should use and I am always so frustrated when TO teams try to market themselves as "Canadian" (I'm looking at you Raptors, TFC and Rock). We know we're Canadian, but we are definitely not the national team.

[Frenchie]

I like the idea and the team name. Here are a few suggestions if you don't mind.

I would tilt the logo 45 degrees (so that it appears diagonally) to the right and have a much larger wave almost superimposed on the ball shape. The two match almost identically.

In the empty whitespace you could simply include the outline of the Toronto skyline as seen from the distance. In that way you contain all the elements whithin the logo, without having to deal with the challenges of the size of the CN Tower.

On a side note, I love the fact that you used double blue. It is the only colour scheme Toronto teams should use and I am always so frustrated when TO teams try to market themselves as "Canadian" (I'm looking at you Raptors, TFC and Rock). We know we're Canadian, but we are definitely not the national team.

45 degrees? Didn't think about that either... worth the try.

p.s.: Don't go thinking that because I love "Double-Blue" colour scheme I am an Argos fan... Au contraire mon ami, I loathe them, I am a Alouettes fan

[geoffrey]

45 degrees? Didn't think about that either... worth the try.

p.s.: Don't go thinking that because I love "Double-Blue" colour scheme I am an Argos fan... Au contraire mon ami, I loathe them, I am a Alouettes fan

Tout à fait d'accord avec toi mon ami!

[Frenchie]

Here are a few more options... What do you guys think of them?

[Whittier S]

Yes! Much improved. I like the bottom one best. My only quibble is the tension point at the tip of the tower.

[waldowest]

I like the bottom one best as well. The only thing that's a little off to me is the way the oval around the logo is so noticeable on its own, almost like there should be an "O" somewhere prominent in the name. But I really like the addition of the buildings and the tilt of the whole thing.

[AlexWilson]

I like the bottom one too, but I'd place the wave behind the tower, as it looks way too cluttered as of now. Keep it up Frenchie!

[werbear]

I'm just learning how to do logos so take what I say with a large grain of salt. I like the bottom logo the best, but it seems to me that there could be almost too much white space. Perhaps, if you would like to try it, you could shrink the O so that the tower pokes out creating a more layered and textured design?