Ice Flyers Unveil Logo... Ugh!
Thursday · Jul 23 · 2009 | 9:45 PM PDTAt my hands journalism takes a beating tonight, but I have to editorialize. Rarely do I feel the need to opinionize (new word), yet evil happens when good men sit idly by. And even when they don't, evidently.
The Pensacola Ice Flyers shocked probably no one but me when they unveiled their new logo earlier tonight. They did so before a small gathering of North Florida hockey fans and supporters celebrating the return of the sport to their town.
The Southern Professional Hockey League is expanding this season by adding the Ice Flyers along with the Mississippi Surge. They shouldn't have bothered. The following symbol will represent this team.
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Ice Flyers' new logo
All right, by now you get my outrage, so I'll get back to my journalistic roots now.
Coach Todd Gordon and owner Tim Kerr (photo: Ben Twingley)
The Pensacola News Journal was there with Ben Twingley providing photographic evidence. Team owner and former Philadelphia Flyer Tim Kerr chatted to fans at the event alongside head coach Todd Gordon. Gordon wore the snazzy new shirt but Kerr did not. SPHL commissioner Jim Combs was also in attendance.
Two questions. 1) What did they do? 2) Why are they so happy about it? Damn, I switched back into editorial mode. All right, I know the answers. They sold enough ticket packages to bring hockey back this season and they're hockey fans so they're very excited about that. But honestly, I can't get over the logo.
Two weeks ago, the News Journal posted a poll which I wrote about here on Icethetics. It asked readers which of four logos they preferred. You can see the results here to the left. For reference, "Logo 1" is what's been plastered on the above shirts.
It finished with about 440 out of 3,011 votes. I know the poll was meant "for entertainment purposes only" but Kerr can't take a hint. Two of the logos each grabbed more than a third of the vote and they've been discarded. To see all four logos, click on the graphic.
Once again my strong feelings have emerged. So why do I feel this way? I think it's important that what represents hockey represents it well. This logo does not accomplish that. It was a missed opportunity. I feel bad for Six Zero and the other designers whose superior work was overlooked.
If the gradients, pedestrian typeface, and all-around clip-art feel of the design weren't bad enough, it seems they can't even decide how to properly symbolize the name Ice Flyers. Is it the Blue Angels or an eagle? They clash. Pick one.
I eagerly await the uniform unveiling to see what they're going to do. I literally couldn't begin to guess. It sounds crass, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them print up 20 of these logos on their ink-jets and glue them to jerseys.
Again, a missed opportunity here if you ask me. Anyone agree? Anyone disagree? The floor is yours.
Reader Comments (29)
I agree with you completely. I really like 2, it has a 70s Slapshot vibe to it which I dig. 3 and 4 also look great.
The one they chose looks like it comes from an early 90s Steven Seagal movie poster. Awful awful choice, I'd be pretty mad if I was a supporter of that team.
can't wait to see if they can even make a jersey that works with this "logo".. this is going to be interesting lol
yep...that logo sucks, but im just excited that pensacola will have a hockey team by the time i move down there!!!! hopefully if they really are going with that logo they only use the eagle part on the jersey.
Wow lol, the one that EVERYONE on this blog unanimously discounted as the worst. Good luck putting that on a sweater. I guess things like this happen when you put hockey teams in Florida (no offense Chris and Florida hockey fans, i know there's a lot of true hockey fans down there)
I'm guessing the jerseys will just be the eagle/puck, but I hope they end up like the t-shirts. Tthe eagle, the puck, the planes, the wordmark, and have "WE DID IT!" on them too!
Augh. That is an abomination.
But congrats to folks in that area for getting hockey. YOU DID IT! You just did it ugly.
FAIL.
Ugliest. Logo. Ever.
Way to absolutely NOT listen to anybody. Of the four, do they really think going with the last place choice is a wise idea? Seriously? What, did they get a rights discount from the designer?
Are they marketing the team exclusively to mid-life crisis victims? It looks like a Harley logo knock off. Might as well take the Blue Angels out and change the colors to orange and black.
How disrespectful to the fans and hockey enthusiasts everywhere.
Ugh.
This logo would be just fine...... if they were the US Air Force. The puck is almost invisible, not a good thing.
I'm expecting a ice-mite jersey here, just slap the "logo" on front of it.
Wow, this is, I can say honestly, the worst logo I have ever seen.
The only thing that they "did" was completely ignore the poll results, which might say something about fan reaction, and take the WORST liked logo.
Is that serpentine? At least make an attempt at a custom font.
The 4 designs overall were all pathetic, the best one is 3, but it's pretty bad too, and it's missing a side panel, carelessness like that makes me sad.
I'm guessing this logo was designed in-house, and then when it didn't do completely horribly in the poll (~15%) they decided to go with it.
As for how to put it on a jersey, I say split it in two. Line up the I in ice and F in flyers vertically and just have the blue angles in the empty space to the top right. Make the eagle with the puck the shoulder logo, maybe with an "I" behind it.
put it on FAILblog
Mr. Kerr: I imagine embroidering the intricate feathers is gonna be expensive. Have fun with that. In addition, you failed democracy.
Tim's team, Tim's choice. That's really all I can say. I won't elaborate, but I sort of saw the writing on the wall with this one.
Thanks for your support, Chris, and glad to see the IceHL back on track.
Epic FAIL.
@Six Zero i liked yours the best lol. i'll deff be voting for it in IceHL. better here in this league anywho
I dont run a hockey team, but maybe I should so that this team can be saved from this logo. What was the team thinking picking the one that the fans least wanted and that will never work on a jersey barring some sort of epic miracle.
PS Lovin the failblog idea, but I think we should wait a while to see this thing on a jersey.
I think most of you are overrating the terrible-ness of this logo with half of you saying worst logo ever. I can definately think of worse things they could have come up with ie. Mighty Duck jumping through ice logo. The Islanders gordon fisherman logo wasnt bad, the colours of the jersey was, same with the flying V and same with the kings inagural yellow based monstrosity. It is by far NOT the worst logo i have ever seen. It is also by far NOT the best logo I've ever seen, but its not that bad either. I actually preferred if over the other 3 logos, and I like the colours. It will be interesting to see on a jersey and I believe some of you will be surprised. Its not a bad logo, not a great logo, its a good logo.
^ No, this logo is far worse than any of the ones you mentioned, at least the ducks full body logo had the right colors and went with the Disney theme. This logo is far too detailed, has too many conflicting colors, and doesn't do the name Ice Flyers much justice. And the gradient on top of it? This makes the Ducks disney logos and the Canucks flying V package look classic.
I really liked the number one logo all though It dose not really match the name of the team the way I envisioned it. Some of the other logos seemed to close the the NHL Flyers and we need our own logo that sets us apart. I thought logo three was kind of old fashioned maybe if they put a modern blue angle air plane on there. so that leaves you with logo four..... I think Honestly there is a better logo out there than any of the four but out of those four Logo four fits the best And why the Ice flyers why not the Ice commanders or a different name all together. something military of course.. All though I am disappointed with many of these things I don't care I am glad to have a Hockey team to watch and support as well I can play ice again myself... I am going to support my team in my town and be proud no matter what. Because even though I am not a NHL flyers fan (more of a Red Wings fan although they sucked againts the pens this year) At least someone (Tim Kerr) is trying to give us something that we other wise can't give ourselves so either we can complain or we can support. I choose to support! Who knows maybe we will be surprised! I am willing to give it a chance because I would rather have hockey than no hockey.
@ Cherishclr247:
Publicly complaining about or disapproving of the logo choice won't make the team pack up and move... I'm all for supporting small minor league teams, but that doesn't mean you have to accept whatever the organization throws at you. I agree with you about logo choice #3 (Six Zero's) in that the older type of plane didn't fit in with the city being the home of the Blue Angles, but none of the options were too "close" to or resembled the Philadelphia Flyers logo at all.
As far as the poll goes, they may have noticed that many of the votes came from out of the local area (you did publicize the jersey vote and urged people to vote) and tossed out any that originated from out-of-state. It is Pensecola's team, afterall.
As a standalone team logo, I personally think it's stronger than two of the other options (a weak pulp-art plane and a fastfood logo that looks vaguely obscene). As a jersey logo, it's far too busy with the lettering and jets. We'll have to see what they do when the jersey is released and how it works within whatever design they use. The eagle w/puck by itself would make a very good crest, in my opinion (worse than the flying V or burger king jerseys? Man, you've got strange taste. :-)
@ogre39666
I Understand that publicly complaining will not make the team pack up and leave. I understand you don't have to take what they throw at us... so what are we doing to make change?... besides TALk?
@exwhaler
I like how you put it. we do need something that stands out set us apart and is flashy but not cheesy.
You are also right about the Eagle making a good crest. it is a symbol of strength.
Ughhhhh... I remember in the original blog post Johnny Griswald and I compared that logo to the Harley Davidson symbols. I still can't believe they went with that design!
I work for the company who designed this logo, i personally thinks its the ugliest thing i have ever seen to be put on a shirt let along a hockey jersey. Now the designer who made this was told at 5pm to make this logo before 530 and this is what was produced it is not the designers fault but its terrible. Now as to y it was chosen or what i believe y it was chosen, Alan who now magically works for the flyers, was at one point working for the company i now work for, for the past 3 years. I made 4 deferent logo which r way better than that thing but none made it past alan. Alan didnt like the other logos people submitted, i have emails where he sent emails saying these other logos r good but i want this and thats what he got that crappy thing. He sent other logos, other than the 4 finalist that r in my opinion better and i thought should b considered. Alan has no artistic ability hence he liked it i wish there was some justice to this, because so many other designs should have had a chance to have been picked but to my knowledge this is y i believe this logo was chosen, ALAN.
As both a die-hard hockey fan and also a retired military officer (USMC and Army), I get what they are doing with the logo. It is reminiscent of the Naval aviator wings and is not just a reference to Tim Kerr's past with the Philadelphia Flyers, but a tip of the hat to the Navy flight school. I rate it both "hooah" and "oohrah."
why did they have to use the LAST PLACE logo??