Tuesday
Sep182007
Poll: Oilers vs Blues
Tuesday · Sep 18 · 2007 | 1:37 AM PDT |  | |
OILERS | BLUES |
Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment as to how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!
| Poll opening date Sep 18 @ 4:37 AM | Poll closing date Sep 25 @ 11:59 PM |
07CHTRN | #W4 | EDMvSTL
Reader Comments (37)
The Blues' logo is the only logo left in the tournament that does not contain one single letter/character in the design of the logo. The logo is instantly recognizable, has great symbolism and meaning to the city of St. Louis and to the sport of hockey and is able to say so much in its simplicity without even really having to "spell" anything out at all. Truly one of the best logos in all of sports.
The Blue Note is one of the best logos in all of sports, and clearly it is a better logo than the Oilers logo here.
Anyone else remember that Ozzy Osbourne mugshot where he's wearing a Blues jersey? The logo officially became classic on that day.
I have to vote for the Blues logo again, it's simplistic but more distinctive then the Oilers logo.
they are both very good logos. but the blues one is better
Oilers logo is classic, but the Blues logo is instantly identifiable. My vote is for the Blues.
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Robert said...
Great name, great jerseys, great colors, great logo. The style is in the simplicity of it all. The St. Louis Blues just have it all working for them. Now it only they could get back to the playoffs.
Sports teams should NOT be wearing teal
That bluenote is pretty hot. Compared to the oilers logo, Blues are way ahead. One on the bests logo for me, it belongs here.
Trying to keep my homerism to a minumum. I still honestly believe the Bluenote is the best logo in all of sports. It defines the city and the teams though the music and the wing which to me reflect St. Louis as a music city with a high flying hockey team. Although I must admit that I love all for of the remaining logos. I truely believe the Blues are the best. Although if it progresses to the Finals I think that if they go against the Canadians they will probably lose...but my vote remains with the Note. Go Blues and there logo!!!
Blues got my vote. Very nice, sleek, simple representation of what a great city St. Louis is.
The Oilers logo is just that....a logo. However, the Blue Note is a dynamic symbol that is hard not to enjoy.
The Blues logo is a classic one. The Oilers are good, too, but the Blues are simple and very recognizable. It hasn't changed a lot since 1967, and it shouldn't.
It also represents blues music, which has a long history with the city of St. Louis.
That BlueNote is something to be proud of, and it's an honor to wear it.
anyone suggesting that the Oilers logo is 'just' a logo is entirely ignorant to the Edmonton Oilers logo and the history the logo has had in the city.
They are on par in terms of their symbolism, considering the cities, circumstances and the imagery they evoke.
The Oilers logo, with its oil drop and unique "reflection," is probably the best of all of the "circle logos" (Isles, Bruins, Sabres, Jets, etc.),
But the Blues logo is something truly special and gets my vote: Timeless, no circle needed, no letters needed (which is why the era of putting "St. Louis" in the top of the wing was as big a mistake as putting B L U E S arched above it). Simply a great, tastefully balanced use of its symbols and color.
If one of these logos win, then this tournament is garbage. Why do logos that actually look good constantly get beat out by old lame logos from 1920 just because of tradition when good logos (devils, avalanche, stars) can even break the second round? How can anyone say that the oilers logo is better than the avs or the canadiens logo is better than the devs?
Jeremy? Re: devils... how many devils are in New Jersey? What does that logo have to do with the city of Newark? What does that logo have to do with the sport of hockey? I'm not saying it isn't creative... it has the abbreviation for New Jersey and the J is actually a little horny devil tail... that is pretty creative... but doesn't make a great logo to me. Everyone has their own criteria for what makes a good logo. Like you said... I think tradition is a dumb reason for picking a logo. That being said though... what is your criteria for a good logo? I would like to know everyone's criteria for a good logo. My criteria may not be the same as yours... but here is how I chose the #1 logo:
Here was my criteria (other than team favortism) that I used to narrow down to the Blues being the #1 logo in the league.
#1 (no letters, characters, words, etc...) If you have to spell something out for somebody then the logo itself isn't doing the job. The logo should be descriptive and meaningful without having to use words to explain what the logo is about.
That knocked 15 teams out of the running right there.
#2 (mascots for logos that have no ties to the city). Penguins for example. Great tie into hockey... but how does it tie into Pittsburgh? Are there tons of penguins in Pittsburgh?
#3 (logos that have no ties into hockey). Hurricanes for example. Sure it relates to the city and area... but how does it tie into hockey?
#4 (simplicity). Logos should be easy to draw from memory. The blues & the redwings... easy to draw in the sand with your finger. The predators & Senators... not so easy to draw from memory.
#5 (use of colors). If it takes more than 3 or 4 colors to get your point across... your logo is probably WAY to busy.
So that was my criteria... for picking my #1 logo. With that criteria in mind... it really came down to the Blues, Redwings & Avalanche. The Avalanche lost points due to having a character in their logo (the big "A")... so that left Redwings & Blues. Based on my criteria above the Redwings "should" have one... but if it is between the redwings and the blues you have to dock the redwings points because THEY ARE THE REDWINGS! =)
So I tried my best to keep favortism out of it and use deductive reasoning to arrive at why I thought a particular logo should be #1. If the Blues & Redwings would have crossed and I was honest in my reasoning... I would have had to vote for the Redwings. But based on MY criteria for a great logo... the Blues is the only logo left standing in this tourney.
Brock, I am a Blues fan and while I agree with most of what you said, I have to disagree with a couple of things. 1) #3 of your criteria "logos that have no ties into hockey" i.e. the Hurricanes. What team's logo directly ties into hockey? Logos are meant to represent it's city/team and the Hurricanes are a good representation to Carolina in the same way that the Blues have a meaning to the city of St. Louis. 2) You asked how the Devils are a representation of New Jersey. Here you go... "The team was renamed the New Jersey Devils on June 30, 1982. Over 10,000 people voted in a contest held by local newspapers to select the name, which is influenced by the legend of the Jersey Devil, an ominous cryptozoological creature supposed to inhabit the Pine Barrens of New Jersey"
I do agree with you on two things, the Blues do have the best logo and the Red Wings should lose because they are the Red Wings :)
Looters:
Thanks for bringing that to my attention... I never realized that about the jersey devils. I've heard of "jersey devils" before but never really put 2 and 2 together. That would have given it another point in my book... but the having to have letters and characters in the logo still dropped it in points for me.
I think Colorado should have made it a lot farther than they did... it meets basically every criterion that I formulated minus the big "A" in the logo... but I guess that is also used as a symbolic mountain that the avalanche is falling down. It has the ties to the area. It has the ties to hockey (the puck in the avalanche). It is simple enough to draw from memory. From what I can tell it doesn't have more than 3 or 4 colors in the logo. I just wanted to come up with a way to systematically decide on a winning logo without just going "oh they are my home team so I'll vote for them" or "they have a really old logo so I'll vote for them".
the penguins are the best team name in hockey.
I love the Blues logo. The Blues (as in music) have been a part of St. Louis for a long time, and for a long time this hockey team has well-represented St. Louis. Sure, the post-lockout years have been tough, but we're on the way up again. There must be some reason retired players (even those who left St. Louis or were traded awat) still seem to enjoy this city so much.
Both logos are of a very strong design as well aesthetically appealing. The Blues logo however, is truly superior. Many of the reasons that I agree with have already been said so I will not waste further space. But another aspect that has not been considered is a quality that all well designed & successful logos(whether it be sports, commercial, or corporate). That is the logo's ability to be effectively read/portrayed in many different sizes. From the largest of the large to the smallest. The distinctive asymetrical, text-free shape of the bluenote lends itself to many uses. It could just as easily be read/recognized on a jersey as it could on an inkpen graphic or cufflink. However the Oilers' logo would be more limited or harder read when condensed to a smaller size due to the simple reason of it's inclusion of text as graphic quality. I know this is very cut & dry, but it is an aspect that all marketing and graphic artists consider day in & day out.
The Bluenote gets my vote.
I'm just glad we didn't lose to that stupid Indian Head. The Blues note is a-o-k, but I'll still vote for Oil.
Go Oilers =)
It is funny how people think that St. Louis doesn't have many fans. The Oilers board thinks the only reason the Blues are winning is because all the other teams in the league are voting for the Blues instead of the Oilers. The Blues have TONS of fans!!! For several years leading up to the strike the Blues were consistently #2 or #3 in the league in attendance. People need to also look no further than St. Louis' location to understand why the Blues have tons of fans. Other than Chicago (and up until Nashville arrived)... every single state that surrounded Missouri did not / does not have a hockey team so lots of those states adopt the Blues as their "home" team because they are the closest team. So if for nothing else other than location... you have Missouri, parts of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. So 9 different states (or parts of those 9 different states) consider the Blues their favorite team or home team. That isn't so easy for the upper-east states where there are a ton of hockey teams. Devils for instance... surrounded by Flyers, Penguins, Rangers, Islanders, Bruins, Sabres, Blue Jackets, etc... so those surrounding states have more teams to choose from and the fans would be more spread out. So people just need to face the fact that the Blues have a very large fan base... just because all the fans aren't concentrated around the city of St. Louis doesn't mean a thing... several states across the midwest make up the majority of Blues fans not to mention the tons of fans elsewhere. I'm out here on the West Coast and see several Blues jerseys, hats, stickers, etc... from time to time.
Since 1967, when the nicknames and logos of the first six NHL expansion teams became public, I have considered the name and logo of the St. Louis Blues to be a stroke of genius and the best name/logo combination not only in the NHL but quite likely in all of North American major sports leagues.
Why? First of all, the name provides a link to St. Louis’ music history, including most obviously the massively popular (for its time) song “St. Louis Blues,” composed by W.C. Handy and published in 1914. The name also mirrors numerous other sports teams named for the dominant color of their uniforms. On the major league level, that includes both of St. Louis’ major league baseball teams, the Cardinals and Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles), named each in their early days for the trim on their uniforms. (The Cardinals’ use of the bird as a logo came long after they were named for their red-trimmed uniforms.) Other teams named long ago for their colors include the Cardinals football team, named for its uniforms when it played in Chicago and which spent about thirty years as the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals before moving to the desert; the long-defunct Montreal Maroons of the NHL; and the Cincinnati Reds of the National League. (The Cleveland Browns don’t quite count, as they were named for their founder, Paul Brown, and thus wore brown jerseys.) There are many more examples, some in the early major professional leagues, others in minor leagues. In other words, there is a long tradition – ignored for the most part in the era of expansion in all sports – of naming a team for its dominant uniform color.
Second, the logo: It’s simple yet unique. It can be used – as has been pointed out here by others – in any size from billboard to lapel pin and be immediately identifiable. The fact that no words are needed to make it work underline its effectiveness.
These points – simplicity, uniqueness, usefulness and reliance on artwork alone – can also be used to support two of the other three finalists in this logo tournament: the logos of the Flyers and the Canadiens. (The Oilers’ logo fails on the tests of simplicity and reliance on artwork alone, as I see it.) As an amateur graphic artist and someone who used to make his living working with typography and design, I think the Flyers’ and Blues’ logos are a little more streamlined than the Canadiens’ logo. But keep in mind that the Habs’ logo evolved over the years and the other two were designed by public relations firms and graphic artists to represent the teams from the start.
In the end, choosing the best logo comes down to personal preference, of course. My personal preference is informed by the tradition of Montreal’s logo and its place in hockey history and also informed by the brilliance of St. Louis’ nickname and its wonderful connections to the history of the city and the history of sport. The Flyers’ logo doesn’t have either of those advantages, as I see it.
And as it’s difficult to separate the logo from the context in which we see it used, I have to go back to my statement at the top of this comment that the name/logo combination of the St. Louis Blues is the best such in the NHL. And that leads me to my vote for the best logo. It may not quite have the lineage of the Canadiens’ logo, but the Blue Note has been a classic for forty years.
I have to vote for the oilers here. It represents so much to the city and its fans. Edmonton is one of the richest cities in the WORLD because its basically a lake of oil. No other city really has there name/logo after there city. It is simple yet creative. It has a history almost as deep as montreals and nobody can deny that. To Edmontonians it represents a lifestyle and to the team its there game. They bleed the copper and blue