The Northwest Division is full of letters. Three, possibly four of the division's teams use a city or team name initial letter as the basis for their logo. And, the fifth team would do well to follow the trend.
On with the rankings:
5th place: Minnesota Wild
Quite an easy start in the rankings, this week, as the Wild have an awful logo. This sylvan scene, forming the head of a ferocious something would make a pleasant wall mural inside the Xcel Energy Center, but it doesn't make a good logo.
Let's see some contrast, some character, and, above all, less ambiguity! The Wild are burdened by an expansion team name, but it's not insurmountable. They need to choose a "Wild" symbol, and go for it, rather than attempting to waffle between two possible metaphors. And they shouldn't choose the wilderness, because no one knows how to, well...root for some trees.
Advice: Drop everything from the current idea, start with bold, black W, possibly add some fangs, and call it a logo.
4th place: Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks gave up a logo that cleverly integrated hockey and their C for a logo that celebrates their parent company, Orca Bay. Boo. The whale's breaking through a sheet of, presumably, hockey ice, which works all right, but depicting the lower part of the ice as a thin curve simply to indicate a C is clumsy and forced.
Like the Canadiens, the Canucks would have a hard time creating a mascot for their team identity. Who else but Canadians would use a derogatory term for their countrymen as a team name? Technically, they could go with a horse, since it seems that's originally what a "Canuck" was, but wouldn't it be fun to see a ridiculously stereotyped Canadian caricature, dressed in much-too-large hockey gear? Ok, maybe not.
Advice: Go back to your
old logo, it was classic for a reason.
3rd place: Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche are saddled with another obvious expansion name, but they've managed to do all right with it. The A forming the mountaintop with the cascading subtle C of snow flowing down does a decent job of illustrating their team name, while getting a letter or two in. It's a clever idea, but the actual rendering leaves much to be desired.
Too much of the A is covered. At the very least, more of the crossbar needs to be shown, and preferably at least some part of the right leg, to clearly get the A across. And what is with the blue oval behind the A? It only helps confuse the boundaries of the avalanche, having the same color and line width as the snow edges in front of it. Additionally, the snow wave itself has been excessively messed with, given, for some reason, a black ashlike end and fingeresque tips. It feels like a good designer drew up a logo and then passed the paper on to the other party guests to add their own touches.
Advice: Clean it up. Remove the oval, recolor that black end, and let more of the A show through.
2nd place: Edmonton Oilers
To be honest, the Oilers typography has always seemed a little bizarre. Extending the letters down to the edge of the circle matches with some oil ideas of underground reservoirs and holes drilled through the ground, but it also messes with readability. The R, for instance, is nearly indistinguishable from a B, and the E could nearly be an F. If OILFBS was a word, it would have cost them their second place finish. They get the benefit of doubt with the strange non-circular drooping of the letters, in that it somewhat mirrors the drop of oil falling from above.
Even with all of that, it's a good logo. One advantage of having a team name starting with O, though: Full justification in placing your logo within a circle. And the dropping bead of oil, bending down the border is an excellent way to fill what would otherwise be an awkward empty space. They might want to drop into the mechanic, though, as that oil's looking a bit dirty.
Advice: Clear up the letter identity without losing the metaphor. If nothing else, a little wider and more consistent kerning of the letters would increase the legibility quite a bit.
1st place: Calgary Flames
The Flames logo is so good, it just seems too obvious. It's hard to realize that there were much stupider ways to implement the idea. It would have been quite easy to have overextended the flames, distorting the C. A lesser designer might have attempted more realistic vertical flames, creating a goofy spiky-haired C. And almost certainly one of their first drafts involved the entire word Calgary, silhouetted in front of a towering fire.
But they avoided all of those faults. Not only that, they got all the details right. The thin black line surrounding the mark ensures proper contrast against the white background. Edging the red in a just-different-enough orange looks great, and makes all the difference in identifying the left edge as flames, and not just shredded fabric. And the forward leaning, sans-serif C adds just the right modern touch.
Advice: Don't touch your logo, but stay far away from that
third logo.
Congratulations, Calgary, and good luck in the later rounds.
What are your rankings for the Northwest Division?