Heat Unveil New Logo
Thursday · Jun 25 · 2009 | 11:23 AM PDTWords I love to write: "unveil... new... logo." Always exciting.
Yes, legitimate Icethetics news coming in today! The Abbotsford Heat, the newest addition to the American Hockey League unveiled their new logo this morning. And despite my hype in the previous graf, it is rather unremarkable. I mean, I looked at it, started writing this post, and had to look at it again to remember what it looked like.
See for yourself.
;)
Now then, some of us may need a quick history lesson (I know I did). Who are the Abbotsford Heat and when did they join the AHL? The Heat is just another in a long line of aliases for a team I'm not entirely convinced isn't in witness protection.
This franchise began life in 1987 as the Utica Devils, the natural minor league farm club of the New Jersey Devils. That lasted only six years, until Calgary Flames took over the team in 1993, moved it to Saint John and shared its own moniker. The Saint John Flames lasted a full decade before it all hit the fan.
In 2005, following two years of absence from the league, the club was reestablished in Nebraska and were re-dubbed the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. ("Ak-Sar-Ben" being "Nebraska" with some hyphens in your rear view mirror.) After two seasons, the franchise was relocated to Moline, Illinois and reunited with their parent club's nickname. Known then as the Quad City Flames, they were responsible for the immediate death of the UHL's Quad City Mallards, who had occupied the same arena for the 12 years prior.
Now for the worst part. After just two seasons in Moline and two stints in the American Midwest, the Flames ultimately decided that it really wasn't for them. This fall, the AHL's globe-trotting club returns to Canada once again after a zig-zagged trek across the continent. For the record, it's been 4,888 miles of relocations and counting. (If you're really bored, I've mapped it out for you.)
Now, about the logo from before that by now you've forgotten about. Go look at it again real quick. Responsible for the rather banal basketball-esque logo is a local company called Domain7.
The alleged lead designer Stephen Bau excused the drabness by saying, "We wanted to capture the essence of hockey and position Abbotsford as a destination for world-class hockey in the logo and branding."Before you assume he's about to follow up with an apology for failing, he goes on by saying "and I think we were able to do that." Out of curiosity, do you think he's actually seen it?
Furthermore, I was ready to express my sympathy for the fans of Abbotsford before I read that they voted for the name! Really? The Heat? Miami can get away with it. Your average high for the year is 74 degrees. Unless it's irony. And then it's funny. But I think we all know you aren't that clever, Abbotsford.
Not that you'll necessarily want to see it, but Heat's web site is claiming to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the new brand. Someone actually wrote the following line describing this logo: "the movement of the puck looks somewhat like a flaming comet." Really playing it fast and loose with the phrase "looks somewhat like," aren't we?
Not even joking about that.
Anyway, I apologize if I've been a little harsh this afternoon on this, my first logo unveiling since the return of Icethetics. But I'm just unimpressed. I will say one thing in its favor, however. I'd sooner buy something with a "flaming comet" on it than that horrible Quad City Flames logo.
Anyone else have an opinion?
Thanks to Ian for the tip.
Reader Comments (26)
Thank god they included a hockey puck in their logo ... otherwise I'd have no idea it's a hockey team!
looks like its time for a rebrand!
There is absolutely nothing "heat-ish" about it.
I'm pretty sure Heat is a play on the Flames concept
Yea, I get that, put they could've at the very least put a bit of fire, or an actual comet, or something that gets across the "heat" message. This logo is really not a logo as far as I am concerned.
It is not a logo. It's more like a wordmark. Seeing that Abbottsford starts with an "A". They could have used a revised version of the old Atlanta Flames logo. That would tie in nice with the parent team as well.
Wow is that's the same terrible font from the 'BOLTS' third jersey too. It can't get much worse an a wordmark with a terrible font and a puck in the logo.
Wow that's bad, no not just bad, but shockingly bad. I thought we'd done away with the Fox pucks?
With respect to the parent club as well, why would they want something like a "comet" when the comet type logo was used so well by the most hated of rivals the Oilers on there old 3rd jersey?
They could have got a better design by running a competition in the local high schools.
Okay, I;m likely the only one who thinks so, but this is a really cool logo. About the only change I would make would be to replace the silver (except for the siver in the puck) with orange.
So is what we see here on icethetics what is going to be on the front of their jersey's, or are they going to create an actual logo to go with this wordmark?
I find it difficult to believe people with any graphic design background designed this thing. I hate nicknames that don't end with "s" it's too MLS-esque. Hopefully their sweaters will come out okay, but judging by QC Flames, i don't expect much.
here are their sweaters. Reebokified trash http://twitpic.com/8ds3s
Great wordmark, bad on jersey.
Yuck. Just screams "generic 90s-ish computer-designed logo".
And comets aren't hot, folks, they come from the Oort Cloud at the edge of the solar system, where it's close to absolute zero!
B-squared S-squared.
That is all.
I think they where trying to play with the fact they are a majour stop in the AIR SHOW world. The puck to me look like a after burning Jet.
With all that said! This logo sucks but its still better then what i had to look at for the Toronto Marlies Season. That dam DOG logo.
Looks like something that the Miami Heat's NBDL team should use.
Didn't think you could do worse than the plain wordmarks, a la Anaheim Ducks. Lo and behold, they've managed to find a way. This is a complete WTF to the highest level.
I'll be honest, the comet-puck looks more like a red icicle to me.
This organization continues to do everything possible to drain any and all excitement and public good will that was anticipating an AHL team for years. First, their "name the team contest" was a complete sham as admitted to by ownership. True, they did have a website that took suggestions from fans but then put forth a series of names ownership admitted to being predetermined for fans to "vote" on. None of the ownership team name options ranked in the Top 5 of those suggested by fans. Further, the "Heat" name did not actually win the vote! Ownership then admitted they were just running a Guess the Team Name contest to win tickets - that, again, proved they had the Heat name already selected. And now, with this so called logo...wow...stunning in its dullness! By the way, they actually shut down their first team website that was fan-forum based due to the extensive backlash received by fans for this sham of an effort. What a shame but a good example of How Not To.....
For not choosing to use the old Atlanta Flames logo this is pretty good...but then again, anything is better (not to mention way more creative) than the Flaming C getting humped by a Flaming Q.
On average, a fairly decent AHL logo. It's good that they tried to separate themselves from the Flames by using silver instead of yellow, but otherwise, the jerseys are the same. Nice touch using the BC Flag, though I still think putting flags on your team's jersey is pretty useless unless it's done by an international team.
Nice logo or not, it's still high treason to be cheering for Flames prospects when your that close to Canucks Central.
I totally agree with Curtis!
A Flames farm team in Vancouver's backyard is a tough pill to swallow. Since they were going to have to make a new jersey, they could've done something similar to the old Atlanta Flames version (that would've been cool). The jersey they've come up with is good for the AHL.
However, I think putting the flags on the jerseys is lame.
Anyway, I may have to drop by for a Moose game or two next season.
The sketch in the "development" article would have been better. It's totally generic, but it's not horrible. Why would they hire an Abbotsford firm to design it. Big mistake, IMO.
About the voting. I'm from Abbotsford. There were not a lot of choices. Most were "clever" ways to change Flames without breaking the promise of not going with the parent team's name. Aviators had a lot of support and there were several write in votes but the owners seemed insistent that the team show that it was related to the Flames.
Not sure if anyone said this yet but instead of Heat,why didn't they pull for something like Spitfire(s)? I know Windsor has the name in the OHL but it's still a pretty great nickname. Every time I see this logo I think of the NBA's Miami Heat for some odd reason and basketball's my least favorite sport. Anyways,that's my opinion. Just glad to see that they won't be looking exactly like Calgary out on the ice anymore.
This is by far the worst "branding" of a hockey team in long time. PERIOD. Nothing, I mean nothing, is captured of this farming, religious, airport town by the use of the word "Heat".
dumbDUMBDUMB!!!
We never even got the chance to vote! They release a voting contest, but already had the logo and name picked out; it was all a farce. The logo is so bad that I downright refuse to buy any merchandise from the team. Oh well... maybe a rebrand after the team leaves for lack of funds.