I rank the VHL team logos

[ROOKIE745 604]

So some time ago this was a bit of a trend, only for like a week or two but it was a thing. As always I'm late to the party but I always wanted to do this, feel like my taste in art is quite different. Also I will purely be looking at the logos from an artistic perspective, not if they have some deeper meaning for the city or anything, it's gonna be purely on what I consider cool, what catches my eye the most, so without further ado, let's begin. And yes some of these logos are massive, had to resize a lot of them.

 

16th

Choosing last wasn't to easy but ultimately I had to go with the Titans logo, frankly I just find it boring. There's nothing really exciting about it, it's just a side shot of a spartan (or some kind of warrior), he doesn't have a game face on like he's about to go into a battle, there's nothing cool or eye catching about the helmet or armor in general. The only piece of it that I like is the blue on the top but otherwise the logo is like the solider, bored. If I were to offer any advice for a new piece I'd say do something with the helmet, a unique design, a reflection on it, stripes, more colors, just something. (Why is this one formatted differently to by the way? is it oldest logo in current use?)

 

15th

The Riga Reign, this logo just feels..... outdated I guess? I don't know just I find the quality of it generally doesn't hold up to the others. That's not to say it's terrible but I don't find it exciting to look at. It's a great foundation, using a lion and the orange color isn't something often used but it just needs an updated look, perhaps making it a bit more stylized is the answer but regardless I would like these bottom two logos to get remade, they just don't hold up compared to the rest for me.

 

14th

 

So to be honest I'm not the biggest fan of using a human or human-ish face for team logos, their just normally not very exciting or interesting to look at in my opinion. You can incorporate other elements to make it something special but otherwise not my favorite option. Now the Menace logo does it's job, it gives off a sense of intimidation and looks commanding. The gold crown draws your eyes to it to let you know this is where you should be looking, this is a king. The gold eyes are also a nice touch. I don't have much else to say really, it's just more of personal taste here.   

 

13th

The next four logos are what I would call the emblem logos, in that they don't have an animal or human tied to it.  These emblem logos can be pretty cool but also can be kinda boring, it's difficult because your trying to find something else for it to be based off of or gotta just come up with something out of thin air. The LA Stars do have a decent logo, definitely could be worse and I do believe they did a fairly good job coming up with something, but in the end it is just the words LA with a star. There's no way around it, it's just straight forward.

 

12th

The New York Americans have a very American logo, no surprise there. there are stars on the top, you got blue and red and some stripes. I rate this one higher simply for being in the shape of a shield, you have the dueling hockey sticks, a puck and the word NY. It's effective and I do like it.

 

11th

Ah the Dynamo, a team I totally don't have rough feelings towards. Regardless though I didn't let that affect my ranking of they're logo, it may still be in the bottom half but that doesn't mean it's bad, honestly I feel the VHL has plenty great logos. I don't know anything about HC Davos but the choice of the circle shape, the shape of a puck, and along with the mountains, hockey sticks, the purple sky, and the words on the outside, it all comes along very well.

 

10th

The London United logo is somewhat similar to the Americans logo, mainly just the shield shape and the blue and red. In my opinion though they've improved on it, the buildings, the bridge, the star, I don't know what they represent but it all looks really good together. The swords behind the shield are the icing on the cake, it makes you think the team has a strong defense and offense.

 

9th

 

These next three logos are interesting, they're both on the borderline of being in what I would consider the top tier but for one reason or another they just fall a little short for me. For the Warsaw Predators they got a great logo, great choice of colors, love the aggressive look and the overall style of it. So what's holding this one back? well it may sound silly but it's the nose or front of the face, something about it just looks a little derpy. I love the gritting teeth a lot but ahead of that it just..... looks off to me. Again I still love it but it just falls a little short.

 

8th

 

So the Seattle bears logo is another one that seems a bit dated to me, just the style of it seems a bit older compared to a lot of the other logos in the VHL. That said though I think it still holds up very well. Look at those white eyes, those claws, a lot of dark shading around the bear, the cuts across the word "Bears" it's all very threatening. That said again some aspects of it feel a little old or just not as awesome as others, I also don't know if the background piece really does much for me and the tan color is alright I guess but I think you could do better. Still love it though.

 

7th

So if this was the old "derpy horse" logo this would be down near the bottom, probably in my "deserves a revision or remake logo" but whoever did the piece did a fantastic job remaking this logo. However this still doesn't crack my top tier for team logos, it's damn close but it just doesn't make it for me. I expect some people to totally disagree with me but I just can't find a horse to be epic or awesome, and just isn't an animal that inspires fear. It makes sense for the name "Wranglers" and I can't fight that. Ignoring that though I really can't find anything wrong or that I don't like about this logo, the white and red is great, the hoof looks fantastic and the shading is great. Maybe it'll grow on me overtime and move up.

 

6th

The Vancouver Wolves, we are now in what I consider the best of the best, or the top tier to put it. So kinda like the last logo this one is kinda just tittering on the edge for me in terms of being in or out of my top tier, but I will put it in the top. The logo feels a bit aged like the Bears and Reign logo but still holds up very well, I know it's pretty simple all things considered but there is beauty in simplicity. It's just a wolf howling and black and grey and white are the main colors. I would love to see this logo get a revision just purely for the potential of how good it could look, but like I said they could hold onto to this one for a few more seasons.

 

5th

So you could say there's bias here since my player plays for them, and you know what? You may be right but that doesn't change the fact that the Toronto Legion have a fantastic logo! The font for the word "Legion, the shade of blue, the shape of the bird, the simplicity of it all is wonderful. I really don't have much more to say here because there isn't a lot going on with this logo, it's just great!

 

4th

The Chicago Phoenix, in some ways I can't help but feel they were slightly inspired by the legion logo, it's just because they've both gone for a full bird shot from head to tail feathers, the main difference here being that this bird is looking straight forward and not to the side. That said this one has a lot more detail in it, looking at the wings, face and chest, the tail feathers, there's a lot more going on with this logo and I love it. Look at those red eyes with a steel color beak, this bird is ready to murder you. Also the very clean "Phoenix" text is super clean and nice to look at alongside the Orange and red of everything else. 

 

3rd

Phantoms probably have what I would call the scariest team logo, black, grey, purple all contribute to that. Of course you have some blue in there as well, it's honestly a nice contrast of colors, the blue and purple stands out so nicely from the black and grey. The purple eyes to in the black is something I love to death. Whatever this human-ish type creature is, it's awesome and inspires a lot of intimidation and fear. The spikes around the neck, (or whatever they're supposed to be) the wings and even the even the team name in front. Truly an excellent logo and I hope they use it for a long time.

 

2nd

NIGHTHAWKS!! Damn I love this logo, just so vicious looking, so fear inducing, so aggressive, this logo is legendary! This logo could of easily been number one but I'm a little biased toward the creature used in it. Still everything from the different shades of green, the expression, the font of the team name, just even the overall shape. I hope they hold onto this one for a long time.

 

1st

The DRAGONS!! Simply put it's a god damn dragon, and it's hard to beat a dragon. The colors are fantastic, the expression is great, the tail in front of the text, just the style of whole piece is a masterpiece. I am personally more of a fan of western style dragons but even so it's great. Totally not biased about this at all.

 

Anyway hope ya'll enjoyed, this is my opinion again, I wasn't trying to be objective about this, it was purely based on my own tastes for art and what I consider awesome.

 

(word count 1765)

Edited September 26, 2021 by ROOKIE745

[ROOKIE745 604]

claiming for first time April 25th

[ROOKIE745 604]

claiming for second time May 2nd

[Mistxh J 186]

Sick article, love the review style and the ideas you have for some of the logos

[mediocrepony 1,216]

LA is just the fucking dodgers logo

VS 

[Dom 1,445]

Nighthawks logo is so damn hot!

[v.2 1,406]

those bottom 3 really are hurting' lol

[NerdyCowz 55]

review: like the style of article and format. i liked your opinion on why you ranked what logo where so we have a understanding what why and what your thoughts were. easy to follow along and i liked how you actually got all logos in instead of saying team names so that was cool too see. very well done. 8/10 

[NerdyCowz 55]

review: like the style of article and format. i liked your opinion on why you ranked what logo where so we have a understanding what why and what your thoughts were. easy to follow along and i liked how you actually got all logos in instead of saying team names so that was cool too see. very well done. 8/10 

[bigAL 2,176]

Solid ranking, you’ve got a great eye for detail and design. I’m already excited for your VHLM analysis!

 

The one place I disagree with you is the Toronto logo as S-tier. You docked other ones marks for “I dunno wtf is going on” and that’s my thoughts on Toronto. Maybe I’m ignorant but I dunno the connection between the bird and the Legion. Maybe it’s an Air Force vet thing and we’re all going down to the Legion for a Blue Light or seven? Friday night at the local legion is always It looks extra bad when it’s side by side with the much superior Phoenix Chicagos logo because yeah, they’re very similar. The colour and texture in the Chicago one makes it so much stronger than the Toronto one. Go Toronto, solid team, B-tier logo. 

[ROOKIE745 604]

11 hours ago, bigAL said:

Solid ranking, you’ve got a great eye for detail and design. I’m already excited for your VHLM analysis!

 

The one place I disagree with you is the Toronto logo as S-tier. You docked other ones marks for “I dunno wtf is going on” and that’s my thoughts on Toronto. Maybe I’m ignorant but I dunno the connection between the bird and the Legion. Maybe it’s an Air Force vet thing and we’re all going down to the Legion for a Blue Light or seven? Friday night at the local legion is always It looks extra bad when it’s side by side with the much superior Phoenix Chicagos logo because yeah, they’re very similar. The colour and texture in the Chicago one makes it so much stronger than the Toronto one. Go Toronto, solid team, B-tier logo. 

Hey thank you!! How did you guess that I was planning to do that? XD

 

Anyway though that's totally fair, for me the strongest elements of it are the shade of blue which for me is very eye catching and just the simplistic nature of it. If it was just solid blue I would have knocked down a few spots but the white lines around the wings just add enough that it doesn't feel lazy or boring. It's kind of the king of simple but effective for me. Hope that makes some sense, there's also the fact that I play for the team and I see the logo the most out of any team, I'm probably a little biased towards it XD

 

Tbh looking over this again if I was to put them in tiers I'd probably put 4 and higher as S tier and probably 7th through 5th as A tier, so Toronto would be A tier for me.

[Josh 1,670]

Any logo with the team name written on it immediately gets dropped to bottom of the list for me.

[ROOKIE745 604]

claiming for third and final time May 9th