Last week's competition was tough, due to a selection of well-honed, clean, simple logos. This week's competion is tough because nearly every team has an awful logo. Maybe logo design is like running away from a ravenous bear. You only have to be slightly better than those immediately around you to survive.
So who got mauled? Let's see:
5th place: Anaheim Mighty Ducks
Anaheim suffers primarily from their team name. This isn't a mascot contest, and generally a mildly good or mildly bad mascot won't affect that team's standing. But this isn't mild. The Mighty Ducks is the worst team name ever in any of the big 4 North American sports leagues. Imagine the excitement of getting into the NHL, followed by the realization friends and family would see you in their
ad campaigns.
The team name is so awful that there was little hope that their logo, no matter how clever, sharp, or creative, could earn anything but last place. The expansion-team green cemented the finish. Worse yet, their official site seems to be consistently using a green to white gradient in their background triangle. Hopefully this is due to an over-excited web designer, and not an official move.
Advice: At the very least, drop the "Mighty" and move away from any movie and Disney associated logo aspects. And forget all gradient ideas.
4th place: San Jose Sharks
The Sharks logo is crisp and clear, with an interesting line style. The faults lie more in the components than in the composition. The logo is a conglomeration of recent sports logo mistakes. First, there's the teal. I know it's been said before, but who started this idea that new teams needed new colors? Next up, we've got the NHL Triangle. Don't know what your logo should look like? Throw it in a triangle! And finally, there's the added hockey stick. Now, as has been mentioned, a subtle hockey reference can raise an average logo over its competitors. Throwing a breaking hockey stick into the shark's mouth, however, is just dumb, and is what cost them 3rd place.
Advice: Drop the triangle, drop the hockey stick, change the color scheme. You can keep the shark.
3rd place: Los Angeles Kings
The Kings logo is more disappointing than bad. They've now had almost 40 years to come up with a clean, simple symbol to represent their strong, clear, easily representable team name, and not once have they gotten close. "Kings" is an ideal name for an old-fashioned sweater, with a one or two color symbol large and center. Maybe I'm missing the point of the excessive jewel and header design (aside from the marginally acceptable crossed hockey sticks), but, overall, it's not working.
Advice: Try for a universal symbol crown silhouette. 1 color (orangeish-yellow) with a black outline.
2nd place: Phoenix Coyotes
Phoenix wins the division for "Most Improved Logo," though only because their previous attempts were terrible. The new design is much more subtle in its Southwestern style, and we benefit from a much less flat and more active logo. Ultimately, the Coyotes' second place finish came down to a lack of contrast in the darker colors. The darkness of the red visually bleeds too much into the black edging, which, from any distance, ends up blurring the definition in the upper head.
Advice: Simplify the shading a bit more, and lighten the dark red some.
1st place: Dallas Stars
Dallas wins, mostly for not ruining an easy concept. They took a standard name, adapted and simplified from the previous North Stars team name and went with a standard symbol, and a reasonably inventive approach to integrating it with their name.
Advice: Don't add anything else. Consider going to a bright yellow from the gold.
Congratulations, Dallas, and good luck in the later rounds.
What are your rankings for the Pacific Division?