Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Orleans United

This team has not lived up to expectations, unfortunately. The team was founded in 2019 by the American Outlaws branch in New Orleans, and owned by the fans of the team. The team has a very good supporters group for a team with rough play on the pitch. The team began play in Tulane's football stadium, that was built in 2014. The team played with the best players Louisiana had to offer in it's first season in the USL. The only bright spot on the season was a striker that lead the league in goals, who jumped up to the NASL to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The Louisiana summer humidity deterred many players to sign there, so they could only grab the players cut from other teams. United did sign stand out players from Caribbean countries who were playing domestically, and got their first .500 season in 2024. The team still struggles without a manager that can guide th team to the playoffs. In 10 seasons, United has had 6 managers and no playoff appearances. But going into 2030, the defending champion Houston Dynamo signed a deal to send youth players to New Orleans United, and with the addition of a fired MLS cup winning manager, United might be a dark horse to contend for promotion. I really liked how this logo turned out. I didn't want to do a circle logo, but used it as a basis. The Fleur de Lis is there, surrounded by 18 dots representing Louisiana being the 18th state. Purple was an easy choice for them though. The kits are pretty modern looking, and I just designed based off what I thought looked good.

AC St. Louis

A team by the same name folded from the NASL in 2011, but when a rich backer caught soccer fever after the 2014 World Cup, the same group was given a second chance. The team started play in 2016 at it's old stadium in Fenton, Missouri, with the occasional game being played at the Edward Jones Dome. The team hired an Italian coach swept up in a match fixing scandal to manage the team, and it was a very good call. AC St. Louis was competitive very quickly. The team was able to pick up several players dropped by MLS clubs. As the team got strong, the fanbase got stronger, and they out grew their 6,000 seat stadium. A new 18,000 seat stadium was built on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river from St. Louis. The team would go on to beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 2023 NASL championship for the club's first trophy. The team is also known as giant killers in the US Open Cup. Wins over Sporting, Atlanta, and Boston brought AC St. Louis to the semi finals before Houston was able to knock them off. This team has the tools to get up to the MLS and stay in the top tier. The logo is one of my favorites. A crest with a design from the city flag and arch, with a fleur on the top. I thought a Barcelona type kit worked due to a similar color scheme.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Providence City

A team with a quick and productive history. Their story is similar to Connecticut, a whole untapped market opened up with the Revolution moving to Boston. City teamed up with the Rhode Island Rebellion, a pro rugby team, to build a multi-use 10,000 seat stadium near downtown. A German manager would take charge for their inaugural season, he had coached in the 2nd tier of Germany so the team had immediate success.The area lost the Revolution, with Foxborro being halfway between Boston and Providence, so the stands were filled to the brim really quick with fans having more convenient soccer. In their first year, they worked out a feeder deal with the Revs to give youth talent first team game time, like many Boston team's connection with Providence. Providence couldn't attract many free agents, but were the best scouting team in the USL. The fierce rivalry between City and Hearts is fueled by the Anchors stealing young talent from Eastern Connecticut. The team would go on to win a championship in 2027, with the cup being rubbed into the face of the Hearts fans. Providence is a sexy pick to move to League One going into 2030. The logo is a diamond, and has 3 distinct parts. An anchor, where the nickname comes from, stripes for the uniform, and the year they would be established. The uniforms are pretty tame, but I really liked how they turned out.

Connecticut Hearts

When the Revolution moved to Boston and rebranded, the rest of New England thought that this was an opportunity to have a team of their own. A Scot from Edinburgh living in Hartford had the vision to bring a team to his new home. Being a fan of Hearts of Midlothian, the team name he chose made sense. With momentum from hosting Gold Cups, a decent fan base would be built. The team would play it's home games in East Hartford at Rentschler Field, starting in the 2024 USL season. Connecticut was chosen as the team name to represent the whole state, hopefully being able to draw fans from new Haven and Bridgeport. The Hearts had an immediate rival in Providence City, who in the first game against each other, had 3 red cards and 6 more yellows. The team used outstanding seniors from local college soccer programs to build the team originally, they could only do so much. Hearts bought up local youth clubs to have an immediate impact with youth. The state champion U-18 team in the system would graduate from the system and almost the entire team made the jump to the USL. Having played together for years, the club made the playoffs in 2026, lost to Providence in the championship the next year, then would go on to beat New Orleans for a USL cup in 2028. The team definitely can compete in League Two, but will need some signings to move up any time soon. Crashcarson15 was the brainchild behind this name. He had a team by the same name in his thread, and it was good enough to recycle. I used claret and blue, because it's a classic color combo, and his team is Aston Villa, and it's my gift to him for the name. The uniforms are pretty simple, Adidas stripes and a collar on a simple design.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Boston Revolution

Playing in Foxboro, the New England Revolution had the building blocks to contend. A playoff run in 2013 motivated the team to make 4 playoffs in 6 years. With Robert Kraft's death in 2018, the team was bought by the Fenway Sports Group, who own the Red Sox and Liverpool. FSG found a location for a soccer specific stadium in a place a proposed "New Fenway" was considered. For two years, the team played in Foxboro, then moved downtown and rebranded. The Boston Revolution was the new name, due to the new central location. The team mirrored Liverpool's playing style and continued to build a contending team. The Rivalries between the Revs, and City became very bitter, with the Red Sox/Yankees connection. In 2028, the Revolution finally won their first MLS Cup, beating Chicago 2-0. The team does have some young talent and heritage that makes them one of the tougher teams to play against. I really wanted to rebrand this team. I played around with the crest and I eventually decided on a logo similar to the Scottish team Motherwell. The primary is a crossing sash, like a Revolutionary War soldier. I think Berlin Wall had a similar concept, but I didn't see it until after. The clash is hoops similar to what the USMNT should wear.

New York City FC

NYCFC became a team in 2015. The sports super powers of the Yankees, and Manchester City had one goal, to make sure this team didn't fail. The year before they debuted, the Red Bulls won the MLS cup. This would spur the soccer giants into wanting to compete. In the 3 seasons at Yankee Stadium, the team would only win half of their home games, due to the lack of atmosphere. In 2018, the team built a new 25,000 seat stadium a block away from Yankee Stadium. With the new arena, and increasing quality of play in the MLS, Manchester City would youth and reserve players during the summer to play in New York. When this happened, and the Yankees' started buying the best free agents, the team would dramatically increase the quality of play. The Red Bulls took this as a challenge from their noisy neighbors. Head to head match ups became the most watched games on Friday Night Kickoff, the weekly ESPN prime time game. The arms race between both teams would draw the best players in the country to come play for both sides. City would have trouble winning hardware though. In the 15 year history, the best City would do is a runner up to the MLS Cup in 2022, losing in penalties to Portland. They can compete year after year, but chocking in the playoffs is their downfall. To be honest, I've done this concept before. I didn't change the logo any from this summer because I liked it so much. The uniforms are light blue with pinstripes for both owners. I wanted a classy clash, so white and navy was the call.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

FC Birmingham

The Hammers started playing in 2017. The team Bought up Regions Park, which had hosted NCAA Soccer Cups in it's history, but with the Barons moving to a new ballpark, it had no regular tenant. The owners converted it into a 15,000 seat soccer stadium. The beginning was somewhat rough, not having a great team with not a lot of support. The academy system was set up when FCB bought 3 local clubs and merged them. A former MLS coach took the reigns and rebuilt the team. He started with the midfielders, who he considers to be the most important part of the game. After the 2019 Gold Cup, a Cuban striker and Goalkeeper defected to the US, which were picked up by the Hammers and began playing in the NASL that same summer. The club only has 3 winning seasons, but the team is near .500 each year, and the manager is a crowd favorite because of his charity work. With the knowledge of possible promotion, the owners doubled the payroll budget, which might get them to the show down the line. This logo was done for a guy who was trying to land a Birmingham team. Unfortunately that fell through too, but I really liked the Icon I made, which has the spear from the Vulcan statue, and a hammer for the industry. The front is just a simple gradient design, and the back has diamond plate pattern.

Edmonton Drillers

In 2016, FC Edmonton was in trouble. They were not playing good ball and the team was put up for sale. Speculation was they would move to Las Vegas. An Edmonton business man who believed in Canadian soccer bought the team after the 2016 NASL season. His first action was pick up Canadian national team players that were unattached, and rebrand as the Drillers, the former NASL team name. In 2017, the "Canadian Four" took the team to their first winning record in team history. With confidence from that positive season, the Dwayne DeRosario managed National Team finished 3rd in the Gold Cup and 4th in the Hex, qualifying for the World Cup with an aggregate win against Iran. The Drillers had a down year playing without their biggest stars in 2018. The next year, the team made the playoffs for the first time, with 7 Canadians in the starting XI. For the next 5 years, the team focused on their academy system, and Canadian talent. They would sell the National Team players they had to bigger clubs, only to pick up younger talent with the same money. In 2024, the team's support was busting out of Clarke Stadium. The owner bought up the ground where the old Oilers arena was. The 15,000 seat "Legends Stadium" helped the team grow to their current level, a mid level NASL team with their eyes on a bigger league.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

New York Comos

New York’s second team started playing in 2014. They played in the NASL at Hofstra University, and really wanted to make the jump to the MLS. The team continued to look for new venues after New York City FC joined the league and took Manhattan and the Bronx as their territory. With the Red Bulls on the Jersey side, the team decided Brooklyn and Queens should be their territory. The team built their stadium near Citi Field in 2018, a 25,000 seat palace. The MLS still had a hard cap at 24 when NASL rivals San Antonio and Atlanta making the jump a few years prior. The best thing they could do was buy championships in the NASL. Like their forefathers, the Cosmos used money to bring home 3 cups in 5 years. During this time, the home whites became iconic again, and the clash moved around from yellow, to navy, to green. In 2026, the Cosmos signed an aging Brazilian goal scorer. This brought back the glory days of Pele, and bringing back the green clashes full time. A championship in 2029 set the team up for a run to the Championship in 2030. Really nothing to write home about. They have a classy look with collars.

Dayton Dutch Lions

The team from Dayton has a nice little history. The USL side currently plays in a high school, and have a link with the Dutch club Twente, who sends youth players there to play. In 2015, the team signed a former Dutch National player to manage the team. While many competitors made the jump to the NASL, the team really couldn’t. In 2018, a striker from Twente came over and led the USL with an unreal 42 goals. He was called to the big team and started playing immediately. Teams in the Eredivisie took note when th striker said that he learnt so much playing in Ohio. The club signed a deal with a few Dutch teams as a feeder club, the influx of great players led the Dutch Lions to 3 straight USL championships starting in 2020. The team built a 12,000 seat venue downtown. They were the ones to put into motion a yearly preseason “Ohio Derby” between Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati (spoilers!). Another championship was added in 2026, cementing Dayton as a soccer town. The Lions have a very good shot to jump to League One, thanks to basically being a Dutch U-21 team. I love hooped uniforms, and I played around with them here. The lion was from the Charlotte project, and I brought it in because it fit better. I put Dutch colors on the back collar as a design, as if the name and orange kits weren’t enough. The alternates follow what the traditional alternate kits look like for the national team.


Colorado Rapids

A team that has been around forever, in terms of US soccer. The team has never been great, they have one championship, but finished 5th in the west. This continued. The team never really had a great team. With new teams coming in and hiring big players to put butts in the seats. The Rapids struggled to keep up. In 2019, the team set the MLS record for most losses in a row, fewest wins, and goals against. The owners recognized the need of defense. After the manager was fired, the team hired a former English Championship side manager. He brought his former coworkers in and an influx of English talent. Immediately the team showed improvement, beating the 2019 MLS cup champions Houston Dynamo in Houston in the season opener. The club took 3 years to go from worst to first in the west. The playoffs were a different story. The Los Angeles Galaxy knocked off Colorado in the first round on a 5-2 aggregate. Eventually everyone figured out the Rapids and the new coach couldn’t keep up and was fired in 2026. The team shows signs of improvement every year but remains in the bottom half of the MLS. I really just made what I thought looked cool. I love their current logo, and didn’t like the Colorado state flag uniforms they had this year. So I just played around with white and maroon. The collars were one of the first things I brought in, then put some arm stripes and light blue designs on the chest. Not too much to write home about. I wanted to include black but decided against it.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

3 Rivers United

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds were unhappy playing in the USL. When the MLS got to 24 teams, and the NASL was struggling, they quickly made the jump. The owners decided that the team needed a fresh start. Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Steel City FC, and 3 Rivers United were in a fan vote for the new team name. 3 Rivers won and they continued on their business. The name represents Pittsburgh where 3 rivers meet and unite. The black and gold was the new team color chosen for the civic pride in Pittsburgh following championships for the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates. The team expanded Highmark Stadium to 18,000 seats in 2020, when the support grew after the Pirates had a firesale of their championship roster. United had a few playoff years, but couldn’t get a star above the logo. The thing that most fans hold onto is an undefeated record against Philadelphia Union in the US Open Cup and preseason games. The logo is a crest with 4 parts. The P with a keystone for the city, a soccer ball, checkers from the Pittsburgh flag, and the Roberto Clemente Bridge. The jerseys are modeled after the crest, with the top split into 4 quarters.

Oklahoma City FC

The OKC Spirit started in the USL in 2014 using green and blue. In 2015 Oklahoma City FC started in the NASL using red and black. The two teams could not split such a small market, and something had to be done to save both teams. In 2017, the teams merged into Oklahoma City FC playing in the NASL. The team has two supporters groups, divided by the original split in the teams. In 2020, OKC favorite Kevin Durant retired from the NBA. Durant had become a fan of the team spending his summers in the city, and in 2021 he and a group of investors including OKC native Wes Welker, and former USMNT national Alexi Lalas bought the team. Durant's first action was to rebrand the club, using the colors the Thunder used during his playing career. Lalas became the manager. The team never really found footing, since Lalas only could connect to the defenders. They renovated Taft Stadium in 2026 after a NASL playoff run in 2025 that sparked the interest of the city. The fans have accepted OKCFC as their summer team, and the support is growing. I've used this logo before, but I really like it. It's a dream catcher, which is for the Native American heritage in the state. Warrior is the brand so I wanted to do something kind of wild like the Liverpool kits.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Portland Timbers

The Timbers are one of the teams that everyone wants to be. They made the MLS Cup in 2014, won the west in 2015, then won back to back cups in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the club's uniforms looked like the ones below. The team won back to back cups wearing the same shirts, which obviously meant they were good luck. The jerseys have alternating halves and sleeves. Starting in 2013, the team made 10 straight playoffs. The team won 4 cups in this time, and expanded Jeld-Wen Field to 40,000 seats. In 2024, the Sounders needed a header in the 89th minute in the last game of the season to end the playoff streak. The Timbers Army still continue to make opposing teams tremble and have the support and prestige to compete every year. I really liked how the uniforms looked this year, including the red Rose City kits. The Alaska Air logo is super simple because that's the trend for corporate design.



Seattle Sounders

The Seattle Sounders are one of the premier MLS teams. The first MLS cup was brought to the city in 2015, and the support continued to grow, making the owners untarp the upper deck in 2016. The move to navy from royal blue was in line with the Mariners rebranding, making navy and neon green the official colors of the city. That was until the team overspent to bring Wayne Rooney to the Pacific North West. That 4 year contract strapped the team, and plagued by leg injuries, they couldn't use their superstar. by 2020, the team was only selling 20k tickets a game. The Timbers were competing for titles year after year. In 2023, the team brought up a striker from their academy who led the MLS in goals. The attendance improved, and the team became able to compete against their rivals. The Sounders still haven't won a MLS cup since 2015, but the glory days are back in time for more competition. This was the first team I did. I use a lot of gradients like this because it seemed like something that would be worn. I also thought Navy looked way better than royal blue.

Charlotte FC

A local Charlotte soccer fan didn't like how the Charlotte Eagles of the USL were run. The team was run by a Christian mission group whose first priority wasn't the on the pitch, hell they don't even have a supporters group. With the help of other soccer fans and commercial backing, the team was bought, rebranded to Charlotte FC, and soccer culture in the Queen City took off. The city government gave them the old Memorial Stadium, which they rebuilt into a new stadium. With the help of the Queen City Company supporters, the team had immediate success, challenging the top clubs of the NASL. The team finished in the top half of the league every year, as the QCC continued to grow. The team is a sure lock to move to the Championship in 2030. The logos are actually from a project I worked on trying to bring a team to the MLS. It unfortunately fell through, but I really liked what I came up with. The logo is a circle with a modified flag in it. The homes have a checker pattern for the racing history, and the roads have a plaid pattern for the heritage of the city

Louisville Premier

In 2019, a business man from Louisville, inspired by the US's World Cup victory, figures "I can do that!" He buys the old Cardinal Stadium, and begins build a new great 10,000 seat stadium with room to expand. Louisville Premier joins the USL in 2021, but can't compete due to most of the budget going to the stadium. He offers contracts to graduating soccer players from the Louisville Cardinals, who have a rich history in the game. The team starts slow because many players retire to follow their major. In 2025, he turns an abandoned lot a block from the stadium into a state of the art youth and training facility. The team is set for the future, but still remains in the mid to low USL. The colors are Red/Black/Yellow since that color seems to match the city. I didn't want to just do "FC" or "United" and I really liked the two words together. The Fleur de Lis is on the crest because it's a French city. The kits are simple, I played around with a few things and thought that Adidas would do something like this.


California Athletic FC

One of the teams that Michael Taylor brought into the NASL was from Sacramento. Sacramento Republic began play in the USL in 2014. They jumped to the NASL in 2018, and rebranded to something that represented the state even more. The team has had a few special teams, but remains in the middle of the NASL table until 2028. The team signed two players as free agents from the MLS from Northern California, with the goal of bringing up their home town team to the big time. They are a favorite to be promoted to the Soccer Championship. The logo was done for a Chivas USA rebrand, but I felt like this would be a good use for it. The jerseys are pretty similar too.

Miami FC Flamingos

This is Becks' team. The team built a stadium downtown, and the fans came for superstar Ronaldo, and see David Beckham coach. The team had some early success, but could never win the championship due to weak defense. The team's bright pink uniforms(which were originally chosen by Posh Spice) weren't enough to draw fans after Ronaldo's retirement. One of Beckham's first order of business was to set up a youth system in the rich Hispanic hotbed of South Florida. The team's new star would be Beckham's son, Romeo. The Flamingos tradition of great free kickers continues, with the Flamingos looking to break their curse and lift the league trophy. The logo is an update of an old logo from almost 4 years ago. I wanted a pink team and I thought this would be perfect. The idea was a classy set of kits for the team, similar to Beck's Manchester United 2013 kits. I put Telemundo as the sponsor because it made the most sense.

Atlanta Silverbacks

This was the 23rd team to jump to MLS in 2016. The team was bought by Arthur Blank to make the jump. The team would move into the Falcons' new stadium when that was built in 2017, with the top deck tarped off. The tradition of the Silverbacks name continued, just because the colors matched. The logo was switched to a logo that was passed up on in the poorly run logo competition during the NASL, when it was deemed the best one(I made it if you haven't figured it out).The team is known for it's strong defense, but the lack of scoring hurt the team early on. The team would progressively build a youth system and once the talents at striker moved up to the top tier, the team began to be a yearly playoff regular. The red and black hoops remained, with the alternate being a red and black sash.

US Soccer 2030

Let me give you some background

Going into the 2015 MLS Season, the league was growing rapidly. At 21 teams, the best soccer league in the US was on pace to become the next great soccer league. The league wasn't done growing. David Beckham purchased a team in Miami, Florida to be the 22nd team starting in 2016. The Ft. Lauderdale Strikers immediately found it hard to draw against the Brit's shiny new team, especially with Portuguese superstar Christiano Ronaldo captaining the team. The league wanted a universally accepted number, and snatched Atlanta and San Antonio from the NASL to make the league have 24 teams. The commissioner said that would be it until there was a good enough reason to break the 24 limit. The MLS began to contend with the NBA and NHL with the start of Friday Night Kickoff, a weekly Friday night game in prime time on ESPN.

Meanwhile, Michael Taylor graduated from Florida State with a degree in Sport Management. Working from the bottom of the NASL, he became commissioner of the struggling league when the commissioner stepped down when 3 of the flagship teams left in a small period. Taylor had a vision, to try all he can to fix the broken league, and shorten the gap between the bottom of the MLS to the top of the NASL. Hiring a world class scout, the league began running combines and drafting players from college that weren't drafted. A league wide initiative to help the sport grow, the league would pay a quarter of the tab for new stadiums. The league started to turn around thanks to strong sides such as the Tampa Bay Rowdies, New York Cosmos, and Minnesota United beating MLS sides in the US Open Cup. Bigger market teams in smaller leagues were snatched by the NASL, strengthening the league

The US Men's national team won back to back World Cups in 2018 and 2022, with Canada making both tournaments. America, and Canada were soccer crazy. Every city wanted a team. More teams started popping up in the USL, which worked with the NASL in training players and building up US Soccer.

Then in 2024, Taylor released a statement about how he was in talks with the MLS and USL commissioners to finally have a promotion/relegation system in place between the three leagues. His reasoning was due to the increased number of NASL teams beating the MLS sides, the number of NASL teams still trying to jump to the top, and the new light speed rail making traveling easier for smaller clubs. The MLS teams did not like the idea, and agreed to push the date of the tier system until 2030. The idea was so ground breaking, but tests and simulations proved that by then the gap between the bottom of the MLS/top of the NASL, and the bottom of the NASL/top of USL would be hardly anything.

The new 3 leagues would merge in the winter of 2029. The leagues rebranded together to make one. The Soccer Championship, Soccer League One, and Soccer League Two were the league names, each league would have one table and 24 teams. The best 8 teams made the playoffs. Adidas couldn't control if non Adidas teams were in the MLS, so any maker could grab a team to create uniforms for. Nike snatched up the a big chunk of the teams, with Puma, Under Armor, and Warrior joining in. A new rule would be put in place where every team was entitled to scout youth talent within 25 miles of the stadium without fear of other teams stealing prospect. This will make home grown talent the future of the 72 teams.

Here are the logos for the league, and the team logos will be released two a day

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Chicago Stars

Here is the NASH set done by my friend Dylan at dbrodesigns
I wanted to play off of the Chicago flag since I like the color scheme and I ended up using the flag as the main inspiration for the identity.I also thought I was being unique until I was about 90% done with the jerseys and someone brought to my attention the "Chicago Red Stars" women's soccer team. The stripes on the home and away go up at an angle up the arm, similar to the new Stadium Series jerseys in the NHL.

Raleigh Saints

This was one of the first teams in the league. Pretty simple, I made a crest with an S and some shamrocks. The owner's focus wanted to be just on a shamrock, but I thought this way filled out the crest more. The Uniforms were "Boston Bruins, but with my colors", which really ended up looking nice because the Boston Bruins uniforms are one of my favorites. As an homage to his home town team, the alternate is a recolored Peoria Rivermen uniform from the turn of the century.


Friday, December 20, 2013

Ontario Beavers

A familiar face! This is my team. I wasn't going to have a team. I wanted to just comment on everything and remain unbiased. I decided to throw my hat into the ring and take a team. I wanted to be a team in Canada, then I remembered that I asked our friend Sparky Chewbarky if he wanted to be in the league with one of his rad identities. He declined, but said that I could use any identity I wanted. I decided on his Beavers set because if i could get this logo some airtime, it would deserve it. His Ontario Beaver's set was green and yellow, but I decided to change it up. I used brown and yellow to be unique. The home and road are the ones he originally made. The Alternate is a custom yellow one done by me.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Pittsburgh Ramparts

I made these logos for a friend, here is his quote for what he wanted 

I wanted to break away from the norm. Every Pittsburgh team is black and gold, and while I like the continuity of that and the color scheme itself, I wanted something different (I wasn't even gonna choose Pittsburgh at first). After mulling over many names, I realized all my best Pittsburgh-based names I have used before (Natives, Ironmen, 58'), and Michael wanted us to use original names, so my ideas of honoring past Pittsburgh pro teams (Shamrocks, Hornets) were shot down. So I got inspiration from the Quebec Ramparts. As some of you may know, Pittsburgh started as a series of French and British forts at the forks of the Ohio river (the largest and last being Duqesne and Pitt). So I decided to do what seemingly no Pittsburgh sports team has done is pay homage to this early era of our history. So the Pittsburgh Ramparts (a rampart being a fortification) were born. The third jersey is a throwback to one of the many jerseys worn by the Pittsburgh Hornets. For the logo I wanted something simple and geometric. Something that would stand the test of time and look like it might have already done so (like the Hawks, or Rangers, or Leafs). I wanted a triangle or fort shape, but Michael came up with the idea of a keystone - a classic Pennsylvanian symbol. So the simple logo of a P within a keystone was born.

Los Angeles Rogues

This is fellow board member ChuckDownfield's team. His take on the team would be a shark logo with a rogue shark as the logo. I was skeptical at first, but started looking at shark logos and ran with it. Purple and black were the colors he choose, then we added a hint of red. The uniforms are pretty basic, just matching patterns on the sleeves and yoke. My favorite is the alternate. That was a lot of fun to make, and it'll look good in game.

Calgary Wranglers

The first logos in the league were for NewEra on the boards. He's from Calgary, so he did a home town team with an homage to the Calgary Stampede. Originally he wanted to be the Cowboys(which i turned down because we'd have the Cowboys, Chiefs, and Saints). I was going to do a cowboy character but it wasn't working out, so I decided to make a horse, I used some logos for reference and made this. Basically, a mean horse. The secondary logo has a rope pattern around a C. The jerseys in my head were a mix of team Canada, and the Leafs' original RBK edge uniform. The alternate is similar, but has barbed wire barbs in between the stripes.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Detroit Chiefs

For Detroit's team, my friend wanted an art deco style look. he sent me a lot of pictures of buildings in Detroit. One he showed me had an Indian head with a headdress. He settled on the team name Chiefs and I ran with it. I made a symmetrical headdress with my go to feather logo. He wanted the colors of Detroit City FC, so I hooked him up as well. The jerseys are simple, a classic striping pattern, with a yoke, and some chevrons n the ends of the sleeves. The alternate is similar to the Habs set, but have multiple stripes and a roundel. I think that's it!

North American Sim Hockey


Remember that big project I mentioned? Well I started up a sim hockey league. The premise is simple, even teams playing head to head trying to win the championship. All 8 teams will have a base 85 rating with players having 85 in each statistical category. In addition, every team will have one overall 99, two 95s, and three 90s.

The goal is to record the games, and upload them to YouTube with commentary. This site will be the home for news, reviews, and other things. So please bear with us as we continue to construct the league. Our goal is to be playing by New Years!

I will be releasing logos on here over the next few days. You can follow the league page here, and the twitter of the network that the league and the Sim Cup Series will be on.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Big Ten Rebrands

Two Big Ten concepts, originally for a big project, but fell through.
Ohio State
Fun fact: Ohio State's logo is kind of a mess too. Too cluttered, not bold enough. I wanted to make the set bold and run with it. I made an O logo with a buck eye the primary. My goal was to make it not look like a pot leaf(it doesn't right?) I used black instead of a dark grey, like i originally wanted. Yeah, not too much else about this one!


Penn State
Have you seen their logo? It's not that great. Everyone wanted a rebrand after the whole Sandusky incident to start over. I saw a proposal to use an old logo with an S in a keystone. I thought it could be a pretty good alternate. The use of a keystone for Penn State made tons of sense. I used the logos they had early last decade, but modified it. I wanted a sleeker, meaner lion. A Nittany Lion is just a mountain lion from Nittany Mountain, which i learnt doing this concept. Anyway here it is.