Spotlight: Nick Matarese

The IceHL took the day off yesterday but it's back this weekend to kick off the Artist Spotlight series. This series will fill the gap on days when we don't have new polls, profiling the talented artists whose work is the subject of this project. The order of this series has been chosen at random.

We begin with Nick Matarese, whose lone submission came to me on November 13 for the North Carolina Nighthawks of the Southeast Division. The following logos were rated by readers into the Top 3 of a class of 13 logos.

I asked Nick to talk about his artistic background and his inspiration for the Nighthawks logo. Here's what he had to say.

I am a graphic designer for Adidas. I graduated from the University of Delaware with a BFA in advertising/graphic design from the Visual Communications Department. While there I was also a four-year collegiate athlete with their ice hockey team (goalie) to which I am now an assistant coach.

I have designed other sports logos, including the Tatnall School's new hornet logo. I'm working on the Philadelphia Thunder (Junior A hockey team) and I redesigned the uniforms for the University of Delaware's ice hockey team — which the Long Island Gulls are also using as their third jersey this year.

Disappointingly, I got hooked onto Icethetics when the project was halfway over so I only had time to do logos for one team. When choosing the Nighthawks I wanted to design a logo in which the viewer was engulfed by the wings. I drew many designs and had research images of anything from birds to 3D models to X-Men characters to get the flow of the wings they way I wanted.

The tail and head were made as one with the body to give it an almost mythical feel, non-specific to any actual species (hence no feet). I liked having nothing but black and shades of grey to go with that dark mythical feel but it was missing something — that's where I added the lime green to make everything pop. For the secondary logo I wanted to make a profile of the beak and eye, yet still make an N.

mataresedesigns.com

If you have a question or comment for Nick, feel free to add it below. Approved comments will appear within 48 hours of submission.

The top three logos for the North Carolina Nighthawks go up for a vote this Tuesday. Tomorrow, the Spotlight will be on Ogre39666. New polls resume Monday with the Winnipeg Winterhawks.

Comments

[jesse]

i really like that secondary logo it is really well made.

[SodaPop]

This is 159% the Nighthawks logo that I will be voting for.

[Nick Matarese]

Thanks everyone for the votes! I'll see you at the uniform designs

-Nick