Sports Logo Spot: MLS

Showing posts with label MLS. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

MLS By New Era

So a conversation between my friend Gus and I about caps went something like this.

"Do you have a cap template?"

"Yeah, but it's not great. I may make a new one"

And sure enough, that's what I did. I took a little break from my Yakball thread since it wasn't getting notes(but should) to make a new cap template. I copied the New Era cap preview on their site and created this. Here's a basic look at it.

The conversation with Gus started because we both thought it would be cool if New Era and Major League Soccer teamed up and made caps using initials, or partial logos of the crest. Over time, they'd become iconic, and recognizable like MLB caps.

So here are 20 MLS 59Fifties

Download the template here

EDIT - Expansion teams count too

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

From the Sox Drawer - Charlotte FC

During the end of my Freshman year of college, I got an email while sitting in my friend's dorm. It was from a guy named Ian about teaming up to help him bring a true pro soccer team to Charlotte. At that time, the city had the 3rd tier Charlotte Eagles, who was owned by a Christian mission company, and didn't really commit to bringing soccer to Charlotte. The idea was to buy them, then put soccer people in charge and build from there. He wanted something simple, with a rampart lion, and some crowns. I came up with this as a first draft.

It was on from there.

Since we had an initial brand, he did all the dirty work, trying to find investors. I focused on making this the best logo I had ever made. We moved from yellow center, to a white center, and an original crown.

It was my first attempt at a real brand. I made tons of t-shirt mock ups

Scarves

Photoshops for billboards

and graphics for a possible video.

I even mocked up a stadium, which you'll see below. After a while, I was told that a richer team came in and was outbidding us. The Charlotte Independence is the result from that. We never got off the ground, and I never saw a single cent from the the whole thing. I did take a lot out of it, and had fun doing it.

Charlotte Memorial Stadium Renovation

Continuing from the post above, during the discussions the site of Charlotte's Memorial Stadium was tossed around as a great starter for the club. The stadium was built in the mid 30s, and isn't in good condition. My partner sent me a pdf an architect proposed to fixing it. I studied it for hours because I love stadium designs. I have messed around in google sketch up, so I had the idea to make the stadium on there. Ian pitched a crown shaped stands, but I figured the best way would be off the side, having several tapered arches, raising each step. Virginia Tech's football stadium is a lot like this. At first, I had the lower bowl, then a larger stands along the sideline. There's limited space, but the initial design is very simple. The open end faces downtown Charlotte, and would be a great venue.

Then I went crazy one day. I wanted it to feel complete. A new mecca of soccer. So from there, I filled in the bowl, added luxury suites between the lower and upper part. I had ramps, stores, and the surrounding area included. I spent weeks fine tuning, and it turned out to be a great building, which you can see below.

Monday, October 27, 2014

I know what Chivas USA will look like in 2017

If you may or may not know, Chivas USA played their last MLS game yesterday. Originally started as a feeder club for Liga MX side CD Guadalajara, Chivas played 9 years and made little ripples in the league’s history. The best they could do is get knocked out of the Western Conference Semifinals 4 years in a row. They’ve been in the shadow of the LA Galaxy, who owned the stadium Chivas played at, and won 3(maybe 4) championships in the 9 seasons Chivas played. They are folding, but a new team will take their place in 2017. Here is what I’ve concluded the team should/will look like when they play in 2017.

No more references to Chivas USA

Have a drastically different identity to the Galaxy

Look at owner Vincent Tan’s other teams identities

Use downtown LA, and the people there to their advantage

Philip Guber would own this team, and the Dodgers.

So those 5 things combined for the logo I made.

Vincent Tan cited “a global brand” for his reason of changing 100 years of blue and white for Cardiff City, to copy Manchester United. I believe he’ll do the same. The name ca be changed from “football” to “futbol” to actually attract a Spanish crowd that Chivas really couldn’t. I studied MLS logos and found most of them were pretty simple, and ended in a bottom point. They all had complete names, and most had an animal as a main identity. No MLS team uses a bear. Finally, Guber owns the Dodgers, and Golden State Warriors. Tan owns Cardiff City. The biggest tie is their royal blue colors. That’s why I went with a blue and white clash for the club.

So if you see this Vincent Tan, hit me up.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Hardware!

My US Soccer 2030 concept series has won the award for best concept series on the CCSLC boards! Here is what one of the judges said about my project.

Best Concept Series // US Soccer 2030 // raysox

Who ever said size doesn’t matter? Well, raysox definitely has a big, bad... concept.

Let’s look over the spec-sheet for raysox’s US Soccer 2030 project: 72 teams, full faux-backstories on each team, uniform concepts, logo designs, AND it’s fully playable in a video game? Yeah, that’s award-worthy.

For me, the real joy of the project was reading the wonderful backstories (future-stories?) presented for every team. With each bio, you can see, smell, and practically taste the vision raysox had while recreating all 72 teams.

On the artistic side of things, raysox does an amazing job in two specific areas: knowing when to show restraint/flex his creative muscles and succeeding in the fine details. For example, if something is working design-wise, raysox leaves it alone (Sounders, TFC, Chicago Fire), he also recognizes when the idea is good but tweaks need to be made (DC United, San Jose Earthquakes), and when a team need needs to head in a completely new direction (Columbus Crew, Boston Revolution). And even when he has nothing to work with, he shows that he has the ability to create great designs all on his own (San Francisco, California, & New Orleans).

The other area raysox where excels at in the little things... Take choosing a sponsor, for example. Not many people would notice that he chose Meijer as the primary sponsor for the Detroit City concept; but someone who lives in Michigan would instantly recognize Meijer as their stores are a staple throughout the state. San Francisco FC is sponsored by Twitter. Buffalo Athletic is sponsored by Rich’s Products. Even the conscious decision to use a wide variety of apparel manufacturers helps sell the realistic nature of the project; and for that, the US Soccer 2030 project is deservedly wins the 2014 award for Best Concept Series.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Rivalry Cups

A few more things for everyone! My good friend Jeremy and I decided to make logos for the derbies/cups/trophies. We worked on a similar, yet very customizable, template. We wanted each logo to have the same look but be unique. So below, I'm gonna give you some information on the cups we did.

401 Derby- Toronto FC vs Montreal Impact