Anyone who knows me is well aware of my deep love for the sport of Football. (To everyone outside of America I am referring to American Football. I do love Football, having played for years and coach it currently, but for this post I am talking about the American sport). I watch every game I can during the season, I have alert tones for specific teams programmed to ping my phone when news breaks. I have purchased jerseys, Terrible Towels (yep, Steelers fan) and more. During college I partook of the weekly tradition of tailgating before all of our home games (living right across from the stadium helped with that tradition). But perhaps the most telling example of my love for Football has been my involvement in fantasy football over the years. I have been playing for nearly 15 years in various leagues (one in particular from the beginning), even going so far as to have four teams in one season. But over many of those years my teams were lacking something. So two years ago I decided to add a little something. And thus was born the logo for my team, The Night Shift.
In The Beginning…
This first logo was very rough. It was an early attempt at creating on an older generation iPad and it really did not turn out nearly as well as I saw it in my head. But it was something I whipped up during the weekend getaway this league hosts every year for our draft. I struggled to find imagery that was menacing yet conveyed the idea behind my team name. Ultimately I decided on a blood-red eye that seemed to be a little bit angry. Or maybe tired. I kept this logo for the duration of that season and resolved to do better the following year.
The Revision…
True to my word I spent a fair amount of time in the offseason searching for inspiration for a logo that was both menacing and fun. I eventually settled on the image of a moon that was angry. This one I created on a newer iPad, and the newer device with a better stylus allowed me to come up with what I deemed to be a much better brand for my team. In fact, the result was solid enough that one of the other owners in the league commissioned me to create a logo for his team as well.
Present Day…
This last off season after creating a slew of images for league use (including the logos for each of the other 11 teams) I wanted to take one more shot at The Night Shift. I liked what I had established with an angry moon, but I wanted to make it feel more like a traditional sports team logo. So I went back to the drawing board and sketched out my designs freehand. I then took those ideas and vectorized them, while altering the color scheme and choosing a more logo-friendly wordmark.
In Conclusion…
There you have it. The three-year journey of the logo of The Night Shift. What started out as a little sketch to give my team something that would stand out from the generic Yahoo! football helmet icons grew into something that would increase my enjoyment of fantasy football more than I could have imagined. I have branded my team, 11 other teams in the league, the league itself, our winter meetings, our annual ManCation Draft, and so much more. In fact, I have discovered so much enjoyment in this avenue of the creative process that I started creating logos for other Fantasy Football (and real sports) teams and leagues! If you are curious, surf over to FantasyIdentity.com to see more!
So if you are looking for something that can help you enjoy fantasy sports (or anything else for that matter) even more than you already do, find a way to inject your own natural skills and talents into the sport. I started branding teams and leagues. What can you bring to the table for your passion?
