COLLABORATION
Deciding on what logos to refine, and which to drop
The self-assessments for the logo designs continued over a four-week period. During the first week, 30 rough sketches were made, and were drawn as a thought process. Sketching is a visualization tactic, people consume many images every day, so the first few ideas most likely are linked to already created media. By brainstorming through quick sketching, more ideas are created, some are redundant, but ideas continue to flow (O'Grady, 2017). Designs were eliminated for multiple reasons; Sketch #27 was too expected because it was similar to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, some were just generic wordmarks, and some were iterations of the same idea that were executed differently. Sketch #3 was eliminated because as an acronym might not be as recognizable for the brand because it is new to the audience, and the word “Enforcers” needs to be clear, so taking it away, creates a disconnect between the visual identity and the brand itself.
Sketch #27
Sketch #3
During the second step, the 6 selected designs were redrawn in Procreate. This simplified lines, allowed each design to be copied faster, and gave room to decide if the designs could withstand text accompanying them. The second critique was based on exploration and questioning: Where would the team’s colors fit? Is it complex enough as a single-color design? Is it simple enough to not be overwhelming to the viewer? Does it obviously reference another known media? Does it remind viewers of something they know? Because of these questions, two designs were once again eliminated, Rendering #2 and Rendering #5. The main reason of elimination on #2 was because as value was added into the design, it had a resemblance to a vampire, and by continuing with the design could result in it being interpreted as a werewolf-vampire hybrid. Rendering #5 was eliminated because it was over simplified, the gestalt approach left it to be too much on the viewer’s interpretation and did not allow for variations.
Rendering #2
Rendering #5
In the third rendering, the four remaining designs were vectorized, and colors were added to determine if it truly stood as a full-color design. In this step, Logos #2 and #3 were eliminated, and both shared similar issues, they needed more detail for depth but were too detailed as logos. Both logos used a player as its main symbol, one being a human player, and the other as a personified mountain lion.
Neither logo #1 nor #4 could solely represent the brand, but combined, they served as an icon-wordmark pairing. They had enough beef to be a single-color logo but weren’t too complex when color was added. A mountain lion is much like a hockey enforcer because it does what it needs. By showing its teeth, it emphasizes the aggression of the animal. It defines the brand being a brute force that protects its pack. Overtime, with regular use of the icon with the wordmark, the icon would be able to easily stand alone and still be recognized as the Enforcer’s brand. An example of this, is the logo of the Philadelphia Eagles Football Team. In the 1996 rebranding, a new logo was introduced which included a wordmark and a new eagle icon. Within a few years, the icon itself was completely recognizable for the Eagles brand (Logo Design, n.d.).
By self-critiquing throughout the process, the number designs were reduced, based on what potential, and worth. Each stage had criteria that the designs would have to meet in order to be viable logos for the brand identity of the Las Vegas Enforcers.
Modifying the Wordmark
While designing the media assets for the Las Vegas Enforcers, one of the instructors provided feedback on a billboard design. In the feedback, it was mentioned that the color of background the logo was on blended with the logo too much, the logo didn’t pop off the billboard like it should. While there’s several possible solutions, like changing the background, the root chosen was to adjust the colors of the wordmark. The billboard design was not the first encounter with the wordmark and/or icon struggling to be placed on a background, while defining appropriate backgrounds for the logos in the style guide, many colors were not allowed because the icon or wordmark were not readable. At the same time, there was attention brought to the wordmark design itself, it was still a typeset, off the shelf typeface, and it could be so much more.
To confront both problems, adjustments were made starting with making the logo a modified typeface. The base was still the Le Havre Black typeface, but it was brought together by connecting strokes of the letters. The bottom arm of the E is connected to the stem of the n, and the cross stroke of the f moves behind the hump of the n and in front of the o. Each letter of Enforcer is connected to the next. This was inspired by Coca-Cola’s script wordmark, without using a script typeface. In the Coca-Cola wordmark, a key element is that the elongated tail of the second capital C moves through the loop of the lower-case L, and ultimately adds depth to what could be a flat logo (Wheeler, 2018).
After modifying the wordmark, the process for creating the alternative full-color set of the logo begun. The problem area in the original logo on the layout was that it didn’t pop enough, so there was a focus on adding more power (Simmons, 2006). Given that the team main color it the palette is red, it was selected to be the focus. It grasps at the attention of the viewer, and viewers will always be drawn into the desires of the red. The feedback was an opportunity to enhance the logos, instead of just changing the backgrounds. The brand identity was modified to be more universal on more backgrounds.
