Thursday: Another Outsider's Perspective - The Return
Hello everyone, welcome back!
Before we get to the bulk of the post, let's stick the voting reminders right here. Why? To bring more attention to them this week, because the HJC OPEN FINAL is taking place right now. The semi finals ended with my run coming to an end as J3 bested me by only two votes, and Brooks, another great artist on this blog, beating Taylor by a bit of a larger margin. So now we have two great artists coming in with two great concepts to compete for the title. At least my spirit lives on as a patch on all jerseys in the final. There's also another one-on-one matchup for the COTW this week, with Lucas and Tyler fighting for this one. Both end tomorrow at noon, so go vote before it's too late.
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If you didn't notice the title, this week will be the return of my series (modeled off of Caz's original version of this), in which my friend, who is not a sports design enthusiast, but a graphic design student, reviews some hockey logos. But we finished the NHL logos, what else to do now? Defunct teams, that's who!
I've ordered the logos to be reviewed over the next few weeks chronologically, and we'll begin with the earliest era. The logos were also much simpler, so she may have a lot less to say about these than she did for the more complex logos of the current NHL. They are also being reviewed a bit more based on current design standards, as opposed to accounting for the time period, to see maybe how they'd stand the test of time if they were never changed.
All logos images from sportslogos.net
Ottawa Senators: 1909-34
Her Review: The lettering for this logo is different from the others, but still uses the same idea. The font used appears to be serif from the vertical stress on the letter O. Also, the lettering has two strokes, white and red, which visually helps “beef up” the already thin and delicate black O in the centre.
Québec Bulldogs: 1910-20
Her Review: By first looking at this logo, I curiously went and drew in a perfect symmetrical circle to see if the Q wasn’t stretched. My result is that there seems to be a vertical stretch on the letter, which can be fixed to become more geometric. The tail of the Q is awkwardly placed in the centre for no reason, which creates an awkward negative space between the circular and linear aspect of the letter. Finally, there is no reason for the blue in the logo to be so vibrant. Usually, such tones are used as highlights, and not the entire main aspect.
Montréal Wanderers: 1917-18
Her Review: A main theme for NHL logos in the early 1900s are the simplicity of letters. Usually, only a sole letter, usually enclosed in some shape or form, is a common theme among these logos. In this case, the W is enclosed in a shield. However, it is unclear why the shield necessarily relates to the ‘Wanderers’ in any form. It can be argued that when the W is flipped, it also shows the letter M, which can be used as an efficient way to incorporate two letters at once without overcrowding the logo.
Toronto Arenas: 1917-19
Her Review: This is literally one slab serif letter… T… in the colour blue. Since I’m critiquing it from this day and era, it would probably be a bold move for a logo. This logo could be critiqued from all different perspectives, finding more deeper meanings, but in reality… it’s just a letter.
Hamilton Tigers: 1920-21
Her Review: Compared to the full body Tigers logo, which was extremely undefined and sloppy, this head crop is very detailed. For the most part, the tiger’s facial structure is correct and even incorporates dimension. Some parts that stand out are the intersecting stripes below the tiger’s ear in the top right quadrant. They clump together and seem very awkward compared to the rest of the patterning on the tiger’s head. Although this is a significant improvement from the logo with the tiger’s full body, some details can still be taken out. For instance, the dimensioning and depth on the teeth, and the small line work around the eye bags.
Hamilton Tigers: 1921-23
Her Review: Compared the the team’s wordmark, this one is far more interesting. The tiger is depicted very poorly, with no thought to anatomy. One part of the tiger that is in dire need of details is the head. The nose area is huge and the eyes and mouth are mistaken for stripes. One way to improve this is to reduce the complicated striping on the animal and refine facial features and anatomical features, especially on the legs.
Hamilton Tigers: 1923-25
Her Review: Very simply, the team logo uses a slab serif with the team’s name written in the letter H’s crossbar. The most confusing aspect of this is the slanted crossbar, which doesn’t seem to be done for a purpose. My only hypothesis for the slanting is that they are mimicking the stripes on a tiger, which follows the same direction. On the letter S of Tigers, the curves, especially near the left side, are not consistent throughout. Consistency becomes and issue too when comparing the thickness of the letters, like in T and I.
Toronto St. Pats: 1926-27
Her Review: From the 1900s, this has to be the most experimental logo out of the set. For the most part, the lettering is consistent, but the curve that the word ‘Toronto’ lies on isn’t. What I’ll give this logo is the way the period in “St.” is placed under the T, which is executed in an efficient way to save space. Finally, while this logo isn’t necessarily surrounded by some sort of shape or symbolism, it is enclosed by 2 green stripes on both the top and bottom of the logo. To improve this feature, I would make sure that the amount of space that the words “Toronto” and “St. Pats” slightly overlap these bars are equal on the top and bottom.
And that's the end of this segment for this week. Onto the concepts!
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DT Concepts - Fort Wayne Komets
+ On first impression this concept appears to be a very simple striping pattern but applied to the jersey in a more modern fashion. I like it.
+Changing the home jersey to orange gives them a nice splash of color.
+Those yoke stripes are a neat touch, and not traditional yoke stripes either.
+For an ECHL team, I think that collar is a pretty cool idea. I'd like to see how it really looks on the ice. I also don't think it'd work as well if it didn't have the overlap like it does, so good choice there.
+Good logo choice.
-As mentioned yesterday, the TV numbers look too big. Also, are you just using the same typeface for all of these numbers? If you are, that's a bit of a lazy move, make them unique for each team!
-I think the stripes would look better if they wrapped all the way back around the arm, instead of cutting off. At least you have them showing on the outside though, where they won't be hidden anyways.
-Presentation wise, I like the idea of having the jersey stripes in the background. However, I would make them much less prominent, lower their opacity on the white background.
Overall: 8/10
Fernando M. - Seattle Metropolitans
+For one, I really like the template you use.
+The home and road jerseys have a good looking simple, vintage look to them.
+That logo is a nice choice, as I'm not sure how else you'd really show "Metropolitans" in a logo.
+That typeface looks great too.
+The heritage design is a nice fauxback to the Metropolitans' original jersey, executed well.
-Hopefully the outcome wouldn't be like this one though.
-The jerseys look a bit too "Christmasy" though. I'd suggest vintage white, this is the only time I think it works better than regular white.
-The S in the throwback logo looks placed a bit awkwardly in the circle.
Overall: 8/10
Lucas D. - Dallas Stars
+The upper arm color design is one that I like usually. It looks like the Pens started a trend, both in the NHL and for concept designers. The white on green looks really nice too.
+The stars as patches in the arm color actually look really cool. I'm also not sure why I've seen a lot of bad criticism for shoulder numbers, I don't mind them.
+Fitting typeface, and it looks good with an outline.
-I'm not so sure that a callback to Dallas' terrible original edge jerseys is a good direction to do in. it just looks very collegiate, which isn't good for an NHL team (I personally don't like it for college teams either, but that's just me)
Overall: 7.5/10
Lucas D. - San Jose Sharks vs Dallas Stars
+I like your ideas for Original 6 and Second 6 nights. Definitely would be a cool way to honor the old franchises or the ones that still exist for the NHL's Centennial, and these teams' 50th anniversaries.
+The Sharks using the Seals logo is a good idea. The logo isn't a good logo in my opinion, but it works for this purpose.
+The teal for the sharks works really well here, since the Seals were also teal...despite being a very gaudy teal.
+The Dallas logo is a nice way of editing the North Stars logo for Dallas.
-I think you have the top of the D, to the right of the star, way to close to the star. I'd give it the same amount of breathing room as the bottom of the star has.
+Both jerseys are a nice way of honoring the previous teams, and also incorporating the team's current identities a bit.
Overall: 8.5/10 and my COTW Nomination
Lucas D. - Oakland Seals
+I always like the use of the color green because of its uniqueness. Double green is even better.
-But the greens don't contrast enough here in my opinion. One shade needs to change a lot for that to work. I can barely tell that the white jersey has two different greens. Unless that was intentional to make it look like one broad stripe from afar. I like that then.
-Using the (almost) exact same design for two concepts seems almost like a cop out, but it works here so I suppose I'll let it slide.
+It is a nice callback to the original Seals' jerseys though, and it looks even better here.
-I'm not a big fan of that typeface on this design. I especially don't like the 6, and how close the top comes to coming in contact with the top of the loop (or in more technical typography terms, where the terminal almost comes in contact with the bowl). This is especially a problem on the white jersey, where you can barely tell the outline apart from the number.
-For the Oakland Seals, I think you should probably use the logo with the O behind the Seal, not the C...
Overall: 7.5/10
(By the way, I'd like to know the typeface you used in your presentation banner thing, if you wouldn't mind telling me.)
Ryan C. - Binghamton Senators
+I originally didn't think the B logo here worked too well, but as I see it more I begin to like it more.
-I'd swap the black and white on the logo for black backgrounds though.
+Great color balance.
+I really like the look of the single color numbers, but if you haven't, I'd also like to see what it looks like with the same outlines as the logo.
-The numbers are a bit close to the name.
+That typeface looks really nice for the numbers too.
Overall: 8.5/10
Ryan C. - Guelph Storm
-I'm not really sure why, but I've never been a huge fan of the maroon/silver combo for primary and secondary colors. That's probably just me, though.
+Ignoring that, this design is nice and simple, and utilizes these colors well.
+Another strong typeface choice.
-I'd drop the wordmark from the logo on the front of the jersey, and maybe make JUST the wordmark the helmet logo.
-I'm also not sure why you end the color on the end of the sock striping before the bottom, seems almost pointless to me to end it like that.
Overall: 8/10
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And that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all again next week.
Before we get to the bulk of the post, let's stick the voting reminders right here. Why? To bring more attention to them this week, because the HJC OPEN FINAL is taking place right now. The semi finals ended with my run coming to an end as J3 bested me by only two votes, and Brooks, another great artist on this blog, beating Taylor by a bit of a larger margin. So now we have two great artists coming in with two great concepts to compete for the title. At least my spirit lives on as a patch on all jerseys in the final. There's also another one-on-one matchup for the COTW this week, with Lucas and Tyler fighting for this one. Both end tomorrow at noon, so go vote before it's too late.
HJC Open Final vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)
COTW July 15-21 vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)
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If you didn't notice the title, this week will be the return of my series (modeled off of Caz's original version of this), in which my friend, who is not a sports design enthusiast, but a graphic design student, reviews some hockey logos. But we finished the NHL logos, what else to do now? Defunct teams, that's who!
I've ordered the logos to be reviewed over the next few weeks chronologically, and we'll begin with the earliest era. The logos were also much simpler, so she may have a lot less to say about these than she did for the more complex logos of the current NHL. They are also being reviewed a bit more based on current design standards, as opposed to accounting for the time period, to see maybe how they'd stand the test of time if they were never changed.
All logos images from sportslogos.net
Her Review: The lettering for this logo is different from the others, but still uses the same idea. The font used appears to be serif from the vertical stress on the letter O. Also, the lettering has two strokes, white and red, which visually helps “beef up” the already thin and delicate black O in the centre.
Her Review: By first looking at this logo, I curiously went and drew in a perfect symmetrical circle to see if the Q wasn’t stretched. My result is that there seems to be a vertical stretch on the letter, which can be fixed to become more geometric. The tail of the Q is awkwardly placed in the centre for no reason, which creates an awkward negative space between the circular and linear aspect of the letter. Finally, there is no reason for the blue in the logo to be so vibrant. Usually, such tones are used as highlights, and not the entire main aspect.
Her Review: A main theme for NHL logos in the early 1900s are the simplicity of letters. Usually, only a sole letter, usually enclosed in some shape or form, is a common theme among these logos. In this case, the W is enclosed in a shield. However, it is unclear why the shield necessarily relates to the ‘Wanderers’ in any form. It can be argued that when the W is flipped, it also shows the letter M, which can be used as an efficient way to incorporate two letters at once without overcrowding the logo.
Her Review: This is literally one slab serif letter… T… in the colour blue. Since I’m critiquing it from this day and era, it would probably be a bold move for a logo. This logo could be critiqued from all different perspectives, finding more deeper meanings, but in reality… it’s just a letter.
Her Review: Compared to the full body Tigers logo, which was extremely undefined and sloppy, this head crop is very detailed. For the most part, the tiger’s facial structure is correct and even incorporates dimension. Some parts that stand out are the intersecting stripes below the tiger’s ear in the top right quadrant. They clump together and seem very awkward compared to the rest of the patterning on the tiger’s head. Although this is a significant improvement from the logo with the tiger’s full body, some details can still be taken out. For instance, the dimensioning and depth on the teeth, and the small line work around the eye bags.
Her Review: Compared the the team’s wordmark, this one is far more interesting. The tiger is depicted very poorly, with no thought to anatomy. One part of the tiger that is in dire need of details is the head. The nose area is huge and the eyes and mouth are mistaken for stripes. One way to improve this is to reduce the complicated striping on the animal and refine facial features and anatomical features, especially on the legs.
Her Review: Very simply, the team logo uses a slab serif with the team’s name written in the letter H’s crossbar. The most confusing aspect of this is the slanted crossbar, which doesn’t seem to be done for a purpose. My only hypothesis for the slanting is that they are mimicking the stripes on a tiger, which follows the same direction. On the letter S of Tigers, the curves, especially near the left side, are not consistent throughout. Consistency becomes and issue too when comparing the thickness of the letters, like in T and I.
Her Review: From the 1900s, this has to be the most experimental logo out of the set. For the most part, the lettering is consistent, but the curve that the word ‘Toronto’ lies on isn’t. What I’ll give this logo is the way the period in “St.” is placed under the T, which is executed in an efficient way to save space. Finally, while this logo isn’t necessarily surrounded by some sort of shape or symbolism, it is enclosed by 2 green stripes on both the top and bottom of the logo. To improve this feature, I would make sure that the amount of space that the words “Toronto” and “St. Pats” slightly overlap these bars are equal on the top and bottom.
And that's the end of this segment for this week. Onto the concepts!
----------------------------------------------------
DT Concepts - Fort Wayne Komets
+Changing the home jersey to orange gives them a nice splash of color.
+Those yoke stripes are a neat touch, and not traditional yoke stripes either.
+For an ECHL team, I think that collar is a pretty cool idea. I'd like to see how it really looks on the ice. I also don't think it'd work as well if it didn't have the overlap like it does, so good choice there.
+Good logo choice.
-As mentioned yesterday, the TV numbers look too big. Also, are you just using the same typeface for all of these numbers? If you are, that's a bit of a lazy move, make them unique for each team!
-I think the stripes would look better if they wrapped all the way back around the arm, instead of cutting off. At least you have them showing on the outside though, where they won't be hidden anyways.
-Presentation wise, I like the idea of having the jersey stripes in the background. However, I would make them much less prominent, lower their opacity on the white background.
Overall: 8/10
Fernando M. - Seattle Metropolitans
+For one, I really like the template you use.
+The home and road jerseys have a good looking simple, vintage look to them.
+That logo is a nice choice, as I'm not sure how else you'd really show "Metropolitans" in a logo.
+That typeface looks great too.
+The heritage design is a nice fauxback to the Metropolitans' original jersey, executed well.
-Hopefully the outcome wouldn't be like this one though.
-The jerseys look a bit too "Christmasy" though. I'd suggest vintage white, this is the only time I think it works better than regular white.
-The S in the throwback logo looks placed a bit awkwardly in the circle.
Overall: 8/10
Lucas D. - Dallas Stars
+The upper arm color design is one that I like usually. It looks like the Pens started a trend, both in the NHL and for concept designers. The white on green looks really nice too.
+The stars as patches in the arm color actually look really cool. I'm also not sure why I've seen a lot of bad criticism for shoulder numbers, I don't mind them.
+Fitting typeface, and it looks good with an outline.
-I'm not so sure that a callback to Dallas' terrible original edge jerseys is a good direction to do in. it just looks very collegiate, which isn't good for an NHL team (I personally don't like it for college teams either, but that's just me)
Overall: 7.5/10
Lucas D. - San Jose Sharks vs Dallas Stars
+I like your ideas for Original 6 and Second 6 nights. Definitely would be a cool way to honor the old franchises or the ones that still exist for the NHL's Centennial, and these teams' 50th anniversaries.
+The Sharks using the Seals logo is a good idea. The logo isn't a good logo in my opinion, but it works for this purpose.
+The teal for the sharks works really well here, since the Seals were also teal...despite being a very gaudy teal.
+The Dallas logo is a nice way of editing the North Stars logo for Dallas.
-I think you have the top of the D, to the right of the star, way to close to the star. I'd give it the same amount of breathing room as the bottom of the star has.
+Both jerseys are a nice way of honoring the previous teams, and also incorporating the team's current identities a bit.
Overall: 8.5/10 and my COTW Nomination
Lucas D. - Oakland Seals
+I always like the use of the color green because of its uniqueness. Double green is even better.
-But the greens don't contrast enough here in my opinion. One shade needs to change a lot for that to work. I can barely tell that the white jersey has two different greens. Unless that was intentional to make it look like one broad stripe from afar. I like that then.
-Using the (almost) exact same design for two concepts seems almost like a cop out, but it works here so I suppose I'll let it slide.
+It is a nice callback to the original Seals' jerseys though, and it looks even better here.
-I'm not a big fan of that typeface on this design. I especially don't like the 6, and how close the top comes to coming in contact with the top of the loop (or in more technical typography terms, where the terminal almost comes in contact with the bowl). This is especially a problem on the white jersey, where you can barely tell the outline apart from the number.
-For the Oakland Seals, I think you should probably use the logo with the O behind the Seal, not the C...
Overall: 7.5/10
(By the way, I'd like to know the typeface you used in your presentation banner thing, if you wouldn't mind telling me.)
Ryan C. - Binghamton Senators
+I originally didn't think the B logo here worked too well, but as I see it more I begin to like it more.
-I'd swap the black and white on the logo for black backgrounds though.
+Great color balance.
+I really like the look of the single color numbers, but if you haven't, I'd also like to see what it looks like with the same outlines as the logo.
-The numbers are a bit close to the name.
+That typeface looks really nice for the numbers too.
Overall: 8.5/10
Ryan C. - Guelph Storm
+Ignoring that, this design is nice and simple, and utilizes these colors well.
+Another strong typeface choice.
-I'd drop the wordmark from the logo on the front of the jersey, and maybe make JUST the wordmark the helmet logo.
-I'm also not sure why you end the color on the end of the sock striping before the bottom, seems almost pointless to me to end it like that.
Overall: 8/10
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And that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all again next week.
Thursday: Another Outsider's Perspective - The Return
Reviewed by Bpoe
on
July 28, 2016
Rating:
Reviewed by Bpoe
on
July 28, 2016
Rating:
2 comments:
Thanks for the reviews, Brendan! Just a few key points that I should've added to the concept images...
-For the Stars Stadium Series concept, the jersey is meant to mimick a football jersey since it would be worn in a football stadium.
-For the Second Six Night concept, I edited the logo, adding a fun so it would look like a shark.
-For the Seals concept, after saving the file, I realized the O/C problem, and created a new one with the corrected locator. Apparently I sent in the wrong one.
What I think would've sent that Sens concept over the top is the Sens Alternate "O" logo on the shoulders instead of the primary.
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