IHA Atlantic Finalists Unveiled!
69 CommentsOver the past couple of weeks I've been inundated with logo submissions for the IHA project. Some of them are top-notch, professional grade logos, others... not so much. But after going through all of the logos sent in, I've narrowed down three finalists for each team in the Atlantic Division. You'll begin voting on them this week but for right now, have a look at the competition.
ATLANTA FIRE
NEW YORK AMERICANS
PHILADELPHIA TITANS
PITTSBURGH MINERS
WASHINGTON STARS
I've left off credits here for a couple of reasons which I won't get into. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and let me know and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.
Polls will start going up on Monday to decide which logo should be used for each team. I was going to let this be a surprise but I'll go ahead and tell you anyway. Along with each poll, I'll show some of the logos that were submitted but didn't make the final cut for one reason or another. So if you sent in a logo but it's not among those above, it may still be posted on Icethetics this week.
By the way, I've tried to weed out any logos with elements stolen from actual professional sports team logos, but if I've missed anything be sure to let me know. I've got backups to put in for most teams as far as the polls go.
Now I'd like to hear what you guys think of these logos. Post your comments and critiques below!
UPDATE (5:21 PM): It seems as if the IHA project is nothing if not controversial. A number of readers are concerned that the second Atlanta Fire logo above is too similar to the old Atlanta Flames logo. My opinion is that it's different enough to be considered original but yours is the only opinion that really counts as far as I'm concerned so I'm doing a quick reader poll here to gauge the general feeling on this. It'll be open until tomorrow at noon.
Reader Comments (69)
ohh lol okayy..by the way are you going to show us the next divison teams tommorow??
ohh lol okayy..by the way are you going to show us the next divison teams tommorow??
You bet! And I'll let it slip... it's probably going to be the Northeast Division.
THE TITANS LIBERTY BELL ONE IS SICK!!!
I also noticed something in most of these logos-
Since when do you use the letter of the nickname? Sports teams normally use the letter of the city. The Atlanta Braves have their A, Yankees have NY, Milwaukee has their M, the Detroit Tigers have a D.
Calgary has their C, The Flyers have a P, New Jersey has NJ... The Islanders have NY...
The only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are the Canadiens and the Oakland athletics.
Not trying to prod or anything, just an observation.
well this is a different league then NHL, NFL, and MLB. So people, i guess are trying to make it differnt than the professionals.
If the bird in the 3rd miners logo were a canary, it might be my favorite.
That doesn't change the fact that the initial of the city represents the team better than the initial of the club's name. Every league out there uses the city , this really shouldn't be any different.
In the NHL I count 5 unambiguous examples of using the city as the letters in the logo (Calgary, Columbus, New Jersey, NY Islanders, Philadelphia)...and 3 that use the team name as the letters in their logo (Avalanche, Canadiens, Canucks). That's not that big of a difference and I don't think the IHA is that out of sync with the NHL.
Lose the bevelling. Looks bad.
Well the Blue Jackets don't use the letter anymore; they used to use both the 'C' and 'BJ' in their previous logo, but now have moved to the Ohio state flag.
The Ducks and Bruins can be added to that list; the Ducks do use the wordmark, but the 'D' is a stylized letter. If only they could put that as the primary alone.. oh well, I can only dream :(
But the NHL isn't like Major League Baseball, where it seems every single team's logo is some variation of their initial letter (be it the city or the nickname). In fact, the only MLB teams I can think of that are omitted from that discussion are the Indians, Orioles, and Astros. The Diamondbacks are unusual because of their three logos, two incorporate letters in a creative way other than the standard protocol: the 'D' in the shape of a snake, and my favorite, the 'db' in the shape of a snake's head with its tongue sticking out.
As for the reason, in baseball it's a very traditional thing. Baseball is a sport that doesn't have fancy designs. Their jerseys don't even have their logo with the exception of the Angels, Yankees, and Cubs (omissions?) I mean look at teams like the Detroit Tigers and their extremely fancy 'D'. Teams like the Yankees, White Sox, Twins, Cardinals, Mets, Giants, Dodgers, Padres all have interlocking letters as their logo/cap emblem. Granted, all but the Mets and Padres were from the early 1900s, a time which the identification of the teams were based on colors, such as the White Sox, Red Sox, Reds, and Browns (now Cardinals). That's just a tradition baseball has because they didn't have intricate designs when most of the teams were founded in the 1880s-1920s. The letter of their city was common practice and the only way they identified teams.
NFL also uses letters rather frequently; the Giants, 49ers, Packers, Bears, Falcons just to name the few that come to mind. The NBA actually does a really good job at avoiding that, but in the early 1900s-1950s when these sports were becoming big in America, there weren't people or machines to make extravagant designs so they relied on the simplest, most efficient image they could, which was a simple letter or two. Now we have the technology to make some great designs (as we've seen have been submitted in this IHA tournament thus far), but professional American sports teams and the common sports fan have a very hard time letting go of traditions that have lasted for the better part of a century.
When we get a new team in this technological age, we expect to see some great designs like some we've seen from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Houston Texans, and Charlotte Bobcats in other sports, not to mention the Thrashers, Wild, and Predators in hockey. But as we've seen in baseball, for many people it's very hard to shy away from a century worth of tradition.
I'm not 100% sure the third stars logo doesn't look like a com-badge from Star Trek.
The thing about the 2nd jersey being "too similar" to the Atlanta Flames, long story short, they don't exist anymore. Which, really, means that if a new hockey league were to start, really, there's not much the NHL could do to stop the team from being called the Fire, and the logo could be similar (Someone could look up the rights, I assume Calgary has them), and for all intents and purposes, could design an updated version that was *just different enough*. I think that second jersey fits in fine with that ideal.
And considering the third logo in Atlanta's scheme looks like the F from KFC's spicy chicken line or something, I don't necessarily mind.
*Off-Topic, but reading about equipment in jerseys makes me wanna plug my team*People forget/don't notice, btw, that the Caps current logo really integrates three aspects of equipment, btw. Most people see the stick and puck, but I think a lot of people miss the net that "pita" forms. Just going out and mentioning that one.
I really meant to submit something for one of these but i totally forgot haha. Some of them are pretty decent, so not so much. Can we maybe get a deadline for the next division?
All-in-all, I have to say I'm disappointed. I think all three of the Pittsburgh finalists are terrific but am really unimpressed with the Titans and Fire finalists and only vaguely interested in either the Stars or Americans finalists. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the designs that were left out to see if maybe there were better or more interesting concepts that just didn't make Chris' finalists cut.
MY STARS LOGO IS WAY BETTER CHECK IT OUT ON MY PROFILE .IT BLOWS ALL 3 LOGOS OUT OF THE WATER
the 'W' in the first washington logo is a blatent steal from the Capitals alternative. They merely changed the eagle into a proper letter but the basis of the design (capitol building being used to create the middle of the 'w') is a rip-off. I wouldn't that, the atlanta flames logo and the pittsburgh logo with the inexplicable penguin.
Vince: just looked at your logo for the stars man and well, i think i'd have to go with chris on that one.
My thoughts: I'm not a big fan of any of the NY Americans logos... Love that the Liberty Bell's getting used for Philly... Not sure that a Penguins image should be used as a finalist for Pitts, but like the other options... And while I'm not sure about the second Washington logo as a finalist option, the other two are pretty nice (I'm putting my money on #3 taking it though)
I made the 3rd Miners logo If you all search a ( NOISY MINER BIRD ) you will see what i was getting at.
Vince
i looked at your logo too, and clearly all 3 finalists are better than yours