Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Rebranding The Stars

Your favorite Icethetics partner artist is back tonight with another concept for his series, Rebranding The NHL. I know you're excited! Matt is taking his shot at the Dallas Stars and it's quite likely one of his best yet. But first, read his explanation in his own words.

After my exhaustive research into the Dallas Stars, many of the Stars fans really like their new uniforms. So taking cue from that, I ended up removing green from the color scheme. Why? Because the time has finally come to put the North Stars days away for good. This is the Dallas Stars. Minnesota has their new team. Time to turn the page in Stars history and embrace their home.

The goal of this new identity is to embrace the new "Lone" Stars. The completely custom wordmark is styled after an old saloon sign. The new secondary logo is a much better attempt to symbolize Texas than the failed "Mooterus" from a few years ago. The striping on the home and away feature barb wire lining the jersey, and the alternate jersey design resembles the horns of a steer...

So here are the logos he created for the Stars.



As usual, it's truly great work and that secondary logo is just downright scary. Like a lot of you, at first I was concerned with the lack of green. But after reading Matt's explanation, I think it's perfect. A true, individual branding for a great team.

Naturally, he's done uniform concepts to go with it.



I'd buy that gold jersey in a heartbeat.

But for all the fans of Matt's work, he's donated a neat little surprise for. A lot of folks have asked about getting a copy of Matt's uniform template. He's now generously offering it for the first time. Enjoy!



So what's next? Matt tells me he's hard at work on a new rebranding of the St. Louis Blues. But he's a little stumped. He says, "The only thing is I have no idea how I can give them a better identity than the Blue Note. So I would like to call out to all Icethetic-ites for aid in coming up with ideas for Blues logos..."

For one thing, he needs help determining a secondary color. And who better to ask than the awesome readers of Icethetics? In the sidebar is a new poll where you can voice your opinion. Choose between navy blue, yellow and red to go with the primary color of blue.

And if you have any brilliant ideas for a new direction for the Blues' logo, you can post them here in the comments or contact Matt directly by emailing him at gfb_designs@yahoo.com. Voice your thoughts and get ready for an exciting new look for the Blues!

68 comments:

Unknown said...

1st! and that's the best stars logo i have seen in a long time.

Unknown said...

this is the most original concept I've ever seen for the Stars.

Although i miss the green, i understand the designer's reason for removing it.

great work.

Anonymous said...

once again, I am dumbfounded with how awesome this is! I LOVE THE SECONDARY LOGO!!!

Silver said...

this is sick, are these available for nhl 08/09

Chris said...

this is sick, are these available for nhl 08/09

They will be.

Woody said...

That's it! There shouldn't be anything bad said about these. The logo's are right on the money as well as the jersey's. Good move taking out the green. He's made them the Dallas Stars finally and not the Minnesota North Stars using the rink in Dallas! Bravo. I just want to know what program he uses to make these sweet logo's I've been seeing?

Erik G. said...

I have to admit as a Stars die-hard (I was born and raised in Dallas), I'm not as impressed as I had hoped to be. Granted, I know how difficult it is to do a Stars re-branding (much like the difficulty no doubt ensuing with the Blues re-branding), but still. Maybe I'm tired of everyone giving Texas teams a 'wild west' imagery, or maybe I miss the green too much, but I don't know.

Obviously the logical color scheme change would involve dropping a color, but after seeing these, I'd rather we completely re-do the color scheme than just drop one color [especially green! :(]. The Mavs changed to Cowboys colors a few years back, so if anything, silver and blue would be the color change to make.

As for the logo, I feel it looks a little too much like something from a lacrosse league or a minor-league team, and isn't as simple and classy as the current logo.

Just my thoughts as a native Texan.

Adam said...

i kind of agree with rugbysevens. that secondary logo, badass and scary as it may be, and the barbed wire are very XFL.

overall i love the idea and i think the tertiary logo would be a better choice for the secondary. it also kind of looks like star trek: the west generation. ok... bad joke.

Ms. Conduct said...

If I weren't from Texas, I'd probably like it, but as rugbysevens said, the wild west theme is rather overplayed in these parts. It's nicely executed but just too themey for me.

Anonymous said...

A very good comeback after the dissapointment of the sabres rebrand. Question why is Matt rebranding the Blues even though they have been voted as having the 4th best jerseys by, well us?

Unknown said...

That is so "Icethetic" ! Great Job !

Richard said...

Great work. The home jersey is a vast improvement over their current threads, and the current dallas jersey's are one of my favourites league wide.

Erik G. said...

It should be noted that I love most, if not all, of Matt's work. I'm just a little sensitive about my favorite team - it's nothing personal by any means.

Mike Phoenix said...

I understand the thoughts of the native texans. But you have to admit. This is a Sick Set. Totaly had the same idea for the Steer head in the star. Glad you did it becasue i was butchering mine. If those there Real NHL Jerseys I would be out there right now trying to get one. I love it.

Brian Walden said...

Overall I think this would be a great look for the Stars. As others have commented you've given Dallas it's own unique identity apart from the North Stars. The one thing that throws me off is the asymmetricality of the outline around the wordmark. You're setting me up for it to be symmetrical by making the last S capitalized like the first S and it's not. My eyes keep getting draw straight to the corners around the S's and how they're different on each side.

The gold stripe at the bottom of the pants is a great touch, it's just enough to break up the the uniform when they're wearing all black. I feel like sometimes teams who wear dark (like black or navy) pants and socks together get a weird look going because you can't see where the pants end and the socks begin.

I'm a little torn over the barbed wire. I like it, in fact the more I look at it the more I like it. But the traditionalist in me is telling me that I shouldn't. I think that with the way you used it tastefully as a stripe rather than, for example, piping makes all the difference.

Lastly, and this is real picky, the logo on the pants seems a bit much for me. Maybe make it smaller or remove it all together.

Sebastian said...

Even though I understand the texan guys saying the wild west theme might be a bit old, I think this can be counted to at least the top 5 concepts posted on Icethetics (of course including all the work that was posted on NHLToL)!! The only thing I don't absolutely adore about this concept is the alternate jersey, why not use the same striping pattern as on the home and away jerseys? The yellow and the logo totally match, I think it's great, but it might look even better with the "standard" striping of this concept, if you know what I mean.. ;)
congrats Matt, great work once again!

Ms. Conduct said...

Okay. Maybe it's growing on me a little. I do like the first logo better than what they have now. Maybe the skull is throwing me off... it is tough looking though.

I dunno. If there was a way to dial down the wild westiness 10-15% it would be perfect. So 85-90% perfect is pretty good, right? :)

Mike Shaw said...

The skull secondary logo is sick fantastic! I love it. I don't know about losing the green - I'm a big fan of it. I like the move towards a more old west feel (something I did with much less success a few months ago). I think the Star so easily would translate into a Sheriff's badge, that it's something I'd like to see Matt do with it.

I'm not in love with the barbed wire motif or the new primary logo, but the uniforms for the most part look great and, let me say it again, I love the skull.

That secondary logo should be the primary, no question.

Tony said...

Looks like an XFL team...

Skulls, barbwire, please this is supposed to be the NHL not some junky football league...

GelatinousMutantCoconut said...

Those are pretty sharp. I like them more then what they have now.

My favourite though, has to be the gold jersey with the secondary logo, I think THAT should be the primary, and have the black jersey with the wordmark be a third jersey.

Anonymous said...

These are very "Texas-like," and the motif works well, but I don't ever see a skull being on an NHL jersey.

GBM said...

@godsave1thequeen ...

Because this is a F'n Rebranding the NHL. It's not "Rebranding the NHL... but not teans that Icethetics commenters think look good."

I seem to recall that the Bruins had the highest score and that was one of his first rebrands, no?

arrowcat11 said...

Don't get me wrong, this is no knock on the Dallas Stars but as long as they have Stars(especially those of us who were around to know them as the Northstars founded 1967 as part of the NHL expansion)in there name, they'll always be associated with the Northstars. Norm GREED's Northstars were in the '91 Finals(lost to my beloved Pens, loyal since 1981, wow I was 8yrs old in 1981...lol!), then took the team outta Minnesota a few years later..CRAP! Had the city of Minnesota done it right, they woulda kept the team name/logo/color scheme, thus forcing Norm GREED to come up with a new name/logo/color scheme. Hartford did it when they moved to Carolina, the city of Hartford owns the Whalers name/logo and color scheme(which is why you don't see the Whalers logo/color scheme in any hockey video games. Sorry Carolina BUT when the team 1st moved and you have a Q&A with Kevin Dineen and one of the questions goes: How come the puck glows on TV but not when I'm at a live game?...WTH!!) Yea I know you won a Cup a few years back but.......

Anonymous said...

looking at this a bit more...i some times a shade of green in the star...

Anonymous said...

As a day one Stars fan, I could live with it. Could. The skull logo kicks ass. Thats a winner. I'd rather have green, but I could live with dropping it. The reasons he stated are a good sell and I'd buy it. It's a rebrand after all. My complaints are that the primary logo looks like Washingtons silly capital logo from the blue and gold era. I myself prefer traditional block number fonts. There is NO PLACE in sports for metallic jerseys of ANY KIND....especially on my team.

I'd like to see a state outline worked in somewhere. We Texans like our state.The old west font doesnt bother me. I kinda like it. Outsiders think Dallas was the old west, but it wasnt. It's more like Atlanta, but hey....thats what TV and movies tell the rest of the nation. Over all minus the gold sweater, I give it a thumbs up. Just make that skull the primary and you get 2 thumbs up. Someone else touched on this....how about blue? Make all the teams in town blue?

But like I said thumbs up. Grade A.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking the dropping of green should merrit the addition of a new color.

Unknown said...

Coming from a born and bred Blues fan, you can't top the bluenote. It just works too well. As far as suggestions though, remember St. Louis is known for baseball. A variation of the STL logo for the cards is way i've always been curious about. We've also done the trumpet from the 90's, and i've dabbled in a design featuring a "blues brothers" hat/tie/sunglasses. And of course, you can always use the arch as a fallback.

-Cody P.

P.S. the blue note has been tweaked before, i'm sure it'll be a fantastic rebranding. Good Luck.

Grinch said...

I like the primary logo but im not a fan of hte secondary logo at all. It doesnt look like it belongs on the jersey at all. the tertiary S logo would be a much better fit if you ask me. overall good work

asnowballschance said...

that is one sick logo set and a bad ass secondary logo. nice work GFB!

Unknown said...

I like the primary logo. I can understand that the Texans being tired of the Wild West thing, but what do you expect when the city's football team is called the Cowboys and the backetball team is called the Mavericks? In any case, can anyone suggest something better? A name like "Stars" needs some kind of theme to avoid looking generic.

On the other hand, I can't abide by the secondary logo. It looks like the logo of a band that plays a fusion of death metal and country. Make the skull a little more realistic and lose the star on the skull's forehead (and maybe the star in the background as well), and you'd be onto something.

As for the tertiary logo, I'm a bit confused: why an "S" in the star instead of a "D".


As for the Blues, my suggestion is musical instruments. A guitar would be best (be sure to use a Gibson shape instead of a Stratocaster shape...Strats look more pop/rock than blues). Trumpets and saxophones would also work. Or, if you're feeling ambitious, head to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Partitura.jpg which is the first page of sheet music for the song "The St. Louis Blues" -- see if you can somehow work any of that into a logo. Probably not, but it would be neat if you could, and would be a neat direction to go from the single note.

Tony said...

Whatever happened to my new blues logo I create a while ago??

Anywho, after looking at the logos again, here is my constructive criticism:

The gold stroke on all the logos is about twice as big as it needs to be. Take it down a few notches...

The secondary color on the word marks gives them a shiny effect that does not replicate well for a sports logo. Stick one main inside color...

The skull logo to me has no place in hockey. I agree with the earlier comments about looking like a metal/country band. Way too cartoony to be a sports logo... What does a skull have to do with "Stars" anyway?!?!

The word mark logo is severely asymmetrical and that makes it really awkward. Clean up the black part below the text so that is makes a symmetrical shape. Much more pleasing to the eye.

Overall, this is a design we would never see in the NHL. It is more fitting for the NFL or any football league. Football logos tend to be way more cartoonish than hockey logos do.

Chaz A. said...

Not a fan at all of the word marking, just looks over used at this point, the barbwire stripe thing is just plain horrible, hockey sweaters should have clean stripes. The secondary logo is a good start, if it was toned down to be less evil/more texas longhorns it might work

Brent said...

No offense, but if you plan on changing the Bluenote, I can tell you now that I don't like it.... sight unseen.

Jim Neilly said...

looks an awful lot like GFB's rebrand of the capitals... but still awesome though

awildermode said...

the "star" (*)gets lost underneath the word mark and the skull....looks more like an arrowhead (^) pointing up with word/skull.

i like the direction of the jerseys...but not a big fan of barbed wire. yellow one is awesome

S-Raghu said...

theres just no way to get rid of the "Wild West" scheme out of dallas. livin here for a while now, people outside of texas generally (but not everybody) think that we're just wrangling cows and etc. ya im kinda sick of the wild west theme but its true with sports teams as rangers, mavs, and cowboys, u cant get rid of it. so this new stars logo seems fitting. Great logos and jerseys GFB!

Chris said...

Whatever happened to my new blues logo I create a while ago??

Patience. They're actually scheduled for this week. If not today than Friday.

Der Giza said...

Again some outstanding work! LOVE the secondary logo and the "Saloon-Western" idea.
The only minus piont is that the primary logo is not symmetric. Symmetric it would look more like an Oldshool-Saloon-Sign. But the rest is PERFECT! 9,99 Points of 10.

Andre said...

I totally agree with Arrowcat11. No disrespect to Dallas Stars fans, but the Stars' name belongs in Minnesota. The North Stars had a respectable history in the Gopher State. Any team can call themselves the Stars, but North Stars was unique and it was and always will be Minnesota hockey. I think the Stars should do the right thing and go with a name like the Bullseyes. No one else in pro sports has that name. Meanwhile, Minnesota can have claim to the North Stars' name, classic green and gold N-star crest, and history. The North Stars' name has a historic big-league feel to it and beats the heck out of a bush-league name like Wild anyday.

Darrell Sharpe said...

A great turnaround from what was a disappointing rebrand of the Sabres. I absolutely love these and I think it would be a winning look for the Stars. The 3rd jersey is absolutely sick, i would love to see that on the ice.

Dany L. Boucher said...

"Had the city of Minnesota done it right, they woulda kept the team name/logo/color scheme, thus forcing Norm GREED to come up with a new name/logo/color scheme."

Minnesota is not a city.

Anonymous said...

I hate the secondary skull logo, but other than that its ok.

Anonymous said...

I think the alternate jersey's shoulder logo should be just the black star thats the background of the primary mark. Having that logo on the shoulders doesn't make much sense to me with Dallas Stars written on it. I think just a plain black star on the third jersey shoulders would look better than that, less crowded.

Other than that, these jerseys are amazing. I'm a die hard Blues fan, but there's no doubt in my mind I'd HAVE to buy one of these. Great, original look.

Speaking of the Blues fan in me, good luck bro. I really want to see a redesign because I can't think of anything better than the Blue Note. In my opinion, its harder to think of a new logo for the Blues than it is for the Red Wings.

Whatever you choose, I'll show my support here...I hope others do too rather than being rude and bashing it, I'll appreciate the effort. And who knows? Maybe you'll make something even better!

Mike said...

As a local Star's fan, I STRONGLY DISLIKE THESE DESIGNS.

I am fine with removing the green (but it was nice having that rare color)
But this does not fit with the Dallas area. This looks more like a minor league team or an indoor football logo.

Also, hockey is a classic, respectable sport. If we start incorporating logos like the secondary logo, other teams will and the league will start to get cheapend. And every time a dirty player (like Avery) does a dirty play, there would be the cow skull there making outsiders view the sport of hockey to be even worse.

Nice effort, but too stereo-typical of Texas (not Dallas) and would take this franchise out of the local "classy" team consideration.

roccot said...

Solid work as always.

The skull just doesn't work for me at all. Comments of a country metal band are spot on.

I am a pretty big fan of a city having the same colour for its teams where able (Pittsburgh for example). They should have made the switch to a new identity when they moved from Minnesota. Why would they want to keep an identity from a team that obviously failed, hence the move.

Anonymous said...

Look, Texas fans who don't like it.

You guys make yourselves stereotypes. Almost every team in your state has that Texan style...the Spurs, the TEXANS, the Cowboys, the Rangers, the Mavericks (an unbranded calf, cow, or steer, esp. an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.)

And the STARS themselves brought the whole "we're texans and we love ourselves" to the table themselves with that Bull or whatever it was with the stars connecting its face.

Just face it, all of your teams are already stereotypical of your state, the Stars would just be continuing to follow suit.

=)

Jason said...

As a Blues fan, I agree with what's been said above. The Blue Note is goign to be hard to replace.

Here's a few historical things to look into for minor logos or inspiration aside from musical notes or instruments: The Gateway Arch, Mississippi River, Fleur-de-Lis, St. Louis' flag, "Gateway to the West", Beer, Baseball, Lewis and Clark, "River City", paddle boats, Boeing (McDonald Douglas, or aviation in general), The Spirit of St. Louis

Hope that helps...

Leafers LP said...

I kind of like the logos, but not the jerseys. The barbed wires seem so messy. And I'm not liking the "modern" third jersey design. The third jersey should always be the same style (unless it's vintage), but different colours as the regulars. But way better than the Sabres Rebrand. Yet again, great logos, not so much for the jerseys.

As for St. Louis, I have a suggestion Matt:

Primary - Modernized Blue Note
Secondary - Silhouette of the blue note with either "St. Louis" over it or the arch overtop of it.
Tertiary - State Outline(silhouette) with either the Primary or "St. Louis" in front of it
Wordmark - Use the Missouri Sign font (type Missouri sign into Google Images and see) for "St. Louis" and for "Blues", put it underneath in a more modern font.

And do not incorporate any hockey equipment or reference. Please.

Nathan said...

I don't really like this design. It is not bad, but not great.
If you swap the primary and secondary logos, the log set would be quite good actually. Then if you utilize the current jersey template while switching the colors and replacing the logos with these it would be much better in my opinion.
I really dislike the barbed wire. Without that the jerseys would be decent

Sean Haubert said...

Any chance Matt can make a post of what his process is for creating these logos? Like how he comes up with the ideas? Or what program he uses - Illustrator? As an aspiring designer, I would find this to be VERY helpful!

Thanks.
-Sean

bostonirish220@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I hate the Stars, but I thought these were very nice...great logos, and an interesting premise in going away from green.

Now, for the love of jeebus, fix my Oilers.

Billy test said...

Fresh, new and superb! Great work! I was to doubt of your skills since the Sabres new identity (jokes!) but this is simply great work!

Even if you don't like it, check the originality, the freshness and the technicals aspect of this identity and you just can't say this isn't great!

Check5ive said...

EXCELLENT!!!!!...............except for the mustard third jersey....I WONDER WHY

Kevin Y said...

@ rugbysevens

Maybe I'm tired of everyone giving Texas teams a 'wild west' imagery

It's not just the Dallas Stars. There's the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Cowboys. That just seems to be the kind of route that these teams go.


Now, I have to say that this is the best work I've ever seen Matt do here. A brand-new identity for a team that's been around for so long. Nice to see a design not revolving around green and yellow. One change I'd make (and somebody else touched on this point) is I'd swap the secondary and primary logos. I understand that most Stars fans quite like the new jersey with "DALLAS" on it, which I imagine led to the decision for that to be the primary. However, in this case the secondary is far too well executed to not get face-time (not a play on words because a steer's head is on the logo) on the primary jersey. But all-in-all, superb work. The best I've seen Matt do.

Kevin Y said...

Well, actually I'm not sure that the Houston Astros is Western-based. But "Astros" is "Stars" in Spanish.. or loosely; that's what it's based off of, but the exact translation is "estrellas."

Darrell Sharpe said...

-sh,

i would say it's very likely he uses illustrator or freehand, but i would lean heavily towards illustrator. A cheaper alternative, but not one i recommend is coreldraw. If you look up the process for any logo creation, it should give you an idea on how the process goes.

Jason said...

I'm kinda in the middle on these, but I'm glad to see more of an actual "rebranding" with new themes instead of minor tweaks to what's already there. I'd like to see a team get totally new colours as well as logos one of these times. THAT is a rebrand in my mind.
Good work and keep up the imaginative stuff!

roccot said...

Is a star not a part of the Texas flag? Why can't they be called the stars?

I use Coreldraw. I think for beginners it would have an easier learning curve than illustrator. Most design professionals never gave Corel a chance when they started and now find it inferior. Having used both for the past 15 years there are still many cool features from Corel you can't find in Illustrator.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I think they look good, but I think they should have green. I don't understand why you are forcibly removing the history of the franchise. Like it or not, the North Stars are the Stars. We carried over their retired numbers. Their history is ours. I say respect the 'chise and put the green back in. Black and gold? Who are we? The Ducks?

Kevin Y said...

I don't anticipate the Stars removing the green from their franchise in its entirety any time soon. But one of the things I like about "rebranding" is giving a team a brand new identity, something that doesn't exactly resemble what we've come to know as the Dallas Stars, or at least not in the same way.

I am curious as to how a total rebranding for a team would look like, changing the colors included. But I have to admit that when I asked myself what color comes to mind when I think of Stars.. of Texas, the Old West, gold was the only color that came to mind. It's just something that fits and can't be replaced.

Anonymous said...

I live in Canada and I have never been south of Coeur d'Alene, so I did see Dallas as a cowboy place. Since it isn't, these designs would be much better suited for Calgary, which is a cowboy place, at least moderately.

TJettman said...

I have to agree with some of my native Texans, I would rather these be used for our new AHL team next season. I'm tired of the old west look. We don't all live on a ranch or hang out in saloons down here. Dallas doesn't even feel like "country" anymore because there are so many people here that aren't from here. I like the black jerseys but would rather they be thirds. I miss the green.

FlyingSioux said...

I love the new rebrand, but I miss the green. If the yellow were green it would have been perfection. I'd also swap the secondary and primary logos.

Anonymous said...

I must say I applaud(sp?) the new look for the Dallas Stars. Someone should send this into the Dallas Stars these would be great changes. I say it's time to move on from the green.

Anonymous said...

I agree to put away the North Stars. Eliminating the green is a way to go. However, Black and gold is so common, I'd like to see a Dark Brown and Gold scheme. Texas is so spread out, so focusing on the lone star aspect is right on line. I love the logos and the look, I'd just wonder what a Dark Brown, Gold and white might do. Matt...if you want to try, ,maybe a Uinversity of Wyoming Brown, maybe a little darker and with a Cal Gold. Again it looks great as is, I'm just now curious of the Dark Brown and Gold look.

Dan said...

What a fantastic rebranding! One of the NHL teams needs to hire this guy.

I never thought I'd see a gold jersey that looked truly awesome, but Matt did it here.

Anonymous said...

I remember these rebrandings... was always excited to see his Blues rebrand which never came.

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