Every VHLM Team's Branding is Wrong!

[KaleebtheMighty 1,539]

 

Alright, hopefully the title drew you in. Every VHLM team is fine, there's no relocation or name changes happening. In fact, the branding for each of these teams is pretty strong. I wouldn't want to switch any of these names out. But an idea for a media spot began to brew earlier this week as I tried to come up with some sort of post or graphic for this season's theme week.

 

I originally set out to create a graphic for the Philadelphia Reapers in some form. It started out as a classic/retro logo, then a new logo, and then some sort of image I could not wrap my head around. As I pieced together the new logo for them, I got to the point where I had a skull surrounded by a cloak. Detailing the pieces, I began to wonder about the color scheme. Red, grey, and black would really pop here, I remember thinking. Alas, they were not the colors of the Reapers.

 

But what if they were? Miami had a similar color scheme to that, could a switch be made? Well then, what would Miami be? Surely you couldn't just switch out the color schemes throughout...the VHLM...

 

Oh yes I could. I scraped the new Reapers logo I couldn't really place together. Slowly I pieced together a list of teams I could swap, and before long I had a project for every team to switch their color schemes with another team in the VHLM. Are they all good? I'd say so. Are some terrible? I'd say so. But I'll let you all be the judge of each of my renditions and see which ones you like the most. Or hate. I'm not your parent, like or hate whatever you want. This isn't me at all trying to add any additional words in to hit 1500 words at the end of the article. Each and every word used in this post strategically emphasizes the topic I wish to discuss below regarding the VHLM for this season's theme week. I promise. Pinky promise.

 

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen of the VHL community, I present to you...

 

THE VHLM. RECOLORED. REDONE. REBORN.

 

Taking the colors of the Philadelphia Reapers, the Halifax 21st maintain nearly the same blue scheme but with some added shades of grey, some yellow, and red. While the colors may differ, the added yellow and red give some small connection to the Canada Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the historic immigration seaport where nearly 1 million immigrants came to Canada from 1928 to 1971 (there you go, everyone, in case you could never figure out the reason for the name).

Is it better than the original: Indifferent. The old logo is still sharp with its blue, grey, and white scheme. Both of these seem fine to me, and I don't have any opinions on either one.

 

 

 

Stealing from Saskatoon, the Houston Bulls go for the blue and tan look and step away from the red hot fire. Given the team's location, the blue makes some sense given that the city flag of Houston is primarily blue in nature.

Is it better than the original: Not really. The old logo encapsulates the fierce tenacity of Houston with the fire emerging from around the logo. With this new color scheme, the fire turns into a tan outline, which isn't nearly as foreboding.

 

 

 

Houston donates their color scheme to the Las Vegas Aces. Turning away from the green, the Aces step forward with a new red, black, and darker appearance. The desert screams through this logo, it's harsh colors brought forth. Having lived in Vegas, I can immediately see the colors of the Red Rock Canyon here.

Is it better than the original: Yes. This pushes a Las Vegas theme. There's a greater hint of a classic casino, maybe a hint of a Roulette table. Sure there's green on the tables too, but that's just the area outside the playing table. A deck of cards is either red or black. And the orange/tan desert color connects to their home city.

 

 

 

At first glance, the Mexico City Kings escape nearly unchanged. All that differs is the added gold/orange shades and the red flips to blue. But the changes brings a whole new level to the Mexico City Kings.

Is it better than the original: Yes. Maybe I'll be in the minority here. But this version of the Kings points to a combination of the Aztecs and current Mexico City. The red and white of the old logo look intimidating, yes. But this matches the color scheme of Mexico City while still emulating some of the Aztec appearance, turning this team from a daunting opponent into the pride of Mexico.

 

 

 

Las Vegas hands their green and black to the Miami Marauders. Still emulating the fierceness of the see, the Marauders new green look doesn't change much about the old logo. And that's a good thing.

Is it better than the original: Indifferent. The old and the new logos are nearly identical. While the green may connect with the sea and maybe the terrifying deep of Davy Jones and the Kraken, the red pulls from the carnage of marauding and Miami's colors. Either one of these looks great, but that's more of a testament to the fantastic logo the Miami Marauders have.

 

 

 

Now enters the Mississauga Hounds, stepping forth with the colors from Ottawa. Gone is the grey dog in front of the blue sphere, replaced by the tan dog in front of a darker and more sinister sphere.

Is it better than the original: Yes. I don't know what it is about the old logo, and again maybe I'm in the minority, but it just doesn't stand as strong. This one pulls a lot of theming from the Newfoundland Growlers, and it's quite effective. The logo looks more natural and menacing to me. Pair it with a dark colored home jersey and you'd have a winner here.

 

 

 

The Ottawa Lynx gave their colors to Mississauga, now they take from Mexico City. A darker Lynx comes forth, brandishing the more intimidating colors from the Kings.

Is it better than the original: No. This seems to stray too close to a tiger for me with the black, red, and gold. The old Lynx logo is very strong. This doesn't really come close to that and looks too odd in my eyes.

 

 

 

The original idea that started this whole project, the Philadelphia Reapers take on the colors from Miami. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a strong personal opinion here given that I used to GM Philadelphia, so I really wanted to put this through every possible way to see what could happen here.

Is it better than the original: Yes. I love the Reapers color scheme and the logo. They are among my favorites in the entire VHL community. But this? This is terrifying. It's sinister. The Reapers step away from the softer colors of blue and yellow and take on a black, blue/green, and white while still keeping the red scythe. This looks way more Reaper-like, and I am all for it.

 

 

 

The San Diego Marlins shed their colors of old and wear the blue, grey, and black from Mississauga. Dare I say it? Does the fish logo actually look...strong?

Is it better than the original: Yes. A thousand yeses. This kicks ass. Bye bye blue and orange fish. Go look up a black marlin, that's what this fish is now. You pair this with a strong blue home jersey, chef's kiss. Infinitely a more intimidating logo than the old one, and I'm super sad this may be the one spot this ends up, never to see the light again.

 

 

 

The last team for the VHLM, the Saskatoon Wild switch their colors and take on the colors from Halifax. One of the logos that didn't really change at all, the tan switches to a grey, and the blue gets darker.

Is it better than the original: Indifferent. The two logos are super similar. One is just grey and darker, the other is tanner and bluer. You could put either one out and everyone would nod and say "Yep, that's fine!"

 

 

 

So there you have it. My version of the VHLM if every team put their color schemes into a big pile and had a white elephant exchange in some capacity. Some of them I wasn't a fan of, some I merely shrugged at. But there were a few where I loved the new look and would pick it over the current logo. Either way, thanks for checking this out! Hopefully by reading this you also get to appreciate the 3 weeks worth of TPE I will earn from this article, because in total there are 1501 words posted. Thank goodness, it's nice to have a few weeks of TPE I can keep claiming from one post.

 

Weeks of 6/23, 6/30, and 7/7 will be claimed

 

 

Edited June 30 by KaleebtheMighty

[Pifferfish 597]

Some of these are super valid.... 

[Ricer13 2,824]

Green is actually my favourite color so I approve. 

[Triller 1,688]

The Reapers, Lynx, Hounds, 21st and Mexico City all get my vote!  Very cool idea!

[tcookie 927]

After reviewing the evidence provided, I have concluded that most of the VHLM teams' branding is in fact wrong.

 

In all seriousness, these are awesome! I like Miami being a hot pink/red because Miami but that logo looks SO good in green, too. Actually besides Houston and maybe Ottawa (which I actually think still looks good, just like you said, kind of starts to look too tiger-y instead of being a lynx) I think you could make the case they're all upgrades.

Edited June 22 by tcookie

[Frank 5,259]

1 hour ago, Triller said:

The Reapers, Lynx, Hounds, 21st and Mexico City all get my vote!  Very cool idea!

[McLovin 470]

13 hours ago, KaleebtheMighty said:

Houston donates their color scheme to the Las Vegas Aces. Turning away from the green, the Aces step forward with a new red, black, and darker appearance. The desert screams through this logo, it's harsh colors brought forth. Having lived in Vegas, I can immediately see the colors of the Red Rock Canyon here.

Is it better than the original: Yes. This pushes a Las Vegas theme. There's a greater hint of a classic casino, maybe a hint of a Roulette table. Sure there's green on the tables too, but that's just the area outside the playing table. A deck of cards is either red or black. And the orange/tan desert color connects to their home city.

 

 

 

This is the canon Aces logo and color scheme until further notice. I LOVE this

[Grape 739]

Reapers and Marlins logos are absolute gems

[diacope 1,696]

No, no, no, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes and no 

 

I'd rather see.. SDM for HFX, the turquoise works well and the gold isn't as bright. You could give the swapped colour to Mexico instead, it's already are working with some new colours anyway.. will give a little red back too

 

SSK might even be better, for some reason I can see the 21st jersey being a little beige wonder what SSK would like with PHI colours, blue flame idea for Houston returning with HFX taken from SSK

 

PHI

 

LV, MIA, MIS are too identifiable under the old schemes, they don't really look bad, but I can't see them any other way than the originals were protrayed 

 

SSK

 

Just giving my thoughts! These are all amazing in their own way and bring up plenty of conversations, for that, thank you buddy!

 

[der meister 3,247]

These are dope AF. SDM, Vegas, and Mississauga are all way better.

[Pifferfish 597]

11 hours ago, McLovin said:

 

This is the canon Aces logo and color scheme until further notice. I LOVE this

I'd argue a more crimson shade of red would fit it better than this orangish hue but yeah, I can see Red/Black making so much sense

[KaleebtheMighty 1,539]

Week 2: 6/30 claim

[LucyXpher 1,578]

The hounds absolutely need to switch to this version, it’s soo much better!  

[mattyIceman 1,229]

Reapers colors look dope

[ROOKIE745 607]

Review: First off this was a great idea, I really appreciate the work you put into this MS post, it's easy to follow and there's good use of bold and italics in here and the idea itself is just fun. What's more is a lot of these color swaps actually work really well, the Marlins and Reapers being my favorites. There's enough content here to chew on and it never becomes  just a wall of text. I'd be down to see something like this for VHLE or VHL teams. 10/10.

[sadie 941]

Mexico City and San Diego look AWESOME here! Awesome read, I love reading about branding ideas for teams 

[KaleebtheMighty 1,539]

Week 3: 7/7 claim