Rebranding Roller Derby
By Michael McFarland
READ THIS FIRST!
Some feathers may be ruffled and some feelings hurt by what I’m about to say about the need for rebranding in the world of roller derby, so before we get into all this, let me clarify a few things.
1. I am a fan of roller derby
I’ve been a regular attendee at roller derby bouts for several years. I’m not a fan of roller derby because I have lots of friends who play (I do) or because I’m dating a derby girl (I am), but because I genuinely enjoy the sport. When I still lived in north east Ohio I never missed a bout by the Burning River Roller Girls, and often made it to Rubber City Rollergirls and NEO Roller Derby bouts as well. Since moving to Asheville, NC, the only home bouts I’ve missed were when I was on tour, or out of town for another reason. I made the trip to Atlanta for championships last year. I screamed myself hoarse for Sandrine Rangeon in the bronze medal match, and teared up when she won 2012 MVP jammer.
2. I am a professional branding consultant
When I’m not being a touring singer-songwriter, my mild-mannered alter-ego is a professional graphic designer and branding consultant. I received a 5-year degree in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University. I have paid the bills for the past 7 years running my own company (yes, shocker, playing music is not yet paying the bills. Okay, it’s paying my cell phone bill. Next goal: make enough money from playing music to pay for cell phone AND motorcycle insurance). I do, however, try to keep the two sides of my life separate, I’m not trying to parlay this into additional business, and I prefer this forum over my business’s website for a personal soapbox, so I won’t link to my professional portfolio here.
3. I’m doing this because I care
This is is the friend who, when you’ve been trying for hours to get your motorcycle to run right, says “maybe you should have a mechanic check that out.” This is the teacher who grades your work and points out what you did wrong because he wants you to do better. This is an intervention. I’m not trying to be condescending, snarky, or mean, and if you belong to one of the leagues I mention here, the inclusion means that I’ve paid enough attention to have noticed, and I’ve probably cheered for your team. I would never think of trying to tell you how to skate, but this is something that I know about. I’m here to help.
Okay, let’s get started!
With all that out of the way, it must be said that roller derby as a whole has a lot of problems with branding. Take a look through the WFTDA Member League list and you’ll quickly see some of the issues. One of the biggest is that a good 50% of the logos are entirely illegible at that thumbnail size. The reasons for the branding issues are myriad, but if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s because most of them were designed in-house at the league. In my experience, roller derby leagues tend to contain a lot of talented, creative people, often including some fantastic artists. Unfortunately, there’s a world of difference between a great tattoo design (which a lot of these logos look like) and a successful branding/identity system.
Why does it matter?
In a word, credibility. Roller derby is still an emerging sport, striving for respect and recognition in the athletics world. I’ve heard many friends who play roller derby wishing that the championship bouts were covered in some way on television. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even producers at EPSN 8 (“The Ocho”) would look at most of these logos and say, “There’s no way we can use that on air.” If roller derby as a sport wants to be taken seriously, the member leagues need to look professional – I use the term in the “having your act together” sense, not the “getting paid” sense – and when your first impression is a logo that does not look like it belongs to a serious athletic organization, then the battle’s already lost. With a small business, there’s a time when, if the business wishes to continue growing and reaching a larger market, they have to move past their in-house designed logo to something that looks like they’re ready to play in the big leagues.
For roller derby, that time has come.
Cool, so we need to redesign our logo?
This is the first preconception that needs to be squashed. A logo does not a branding system make. A logo isone piece of a branding system. Just like Froot Loops are part of your complete breakfast, you still need the apple, the glass of orange juice, the bran muffin and the milk. A branding system is a complete kit of parts that can be used in any situation the organization needs to be visually represented.
I’ll use the recent rebranding of the Erie Seawolves (The Double-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Detroit Tigers) as an example.
Before
After
The improvement is immediately obvious – one looks like a page from a bad coloring book, the other looks like a professional sports team. But the one logo wasn’t all the Seawolves got. Check out this picture from when they announced the rebranding:
And I’m sure they also have a graphic that’s just the “Erie Seawolves” text, and a set of brand guidelines on how/where the graphics are to be used, the amount of space to allow around the elements, and a complete color palette for use in promotional pieces. In addition, each of the individual elements are set up to look good on dark or light backgrounds (which is important to note – WFTDA requires that leagues competing in playoff and championship tournaments have both light and dark uniforms). Now head over to their online store, and check out how all those different elements are used:
Erie Seawolves New 2013 Merchandise
Starting to get the picture? You may have to spend some money at the beginning to get a complete branding system, though it’s entirely possible that you could find a consultant or firm willing to do the work in trade for tickets or sponsorship. It’s money that’s well worth spending to look professional and have graphics ready to go for any application.
Got it. So what’s wrong with the current league logos?
The same things that were wrong with the first 30 or so logos I designed in my Corporate Identity class – a class I wasn’t allowed to take until halfway through my third year in the design program at Kent State. Even with all that background in design, I still made most every mistake in this list. Well, except for putting a roller girl in all my logos.
Legibility
No matter how great a piece of artwork may be, if you can’t understand what it’s trying to communicate when it’s shrunk down to the size of a quarter, it’s not a good logo. You want people’s eyes to be able to rest on your flyers, posters, or t-shirts for no more than a second, and be able to understand what’s being represented. There are a lot of things that go into legibility; line weight, type size, and clarity of form are some of the big ones.
Kitchen Sink
Trying to cram too many things into a logo is one of the biggest mistakes in branding and identity design. The Charm City logo has a horseshoe (presumably referencing the Preakness), a girl, a ribbon, a spade with the Maryland flag on it, and the name of the league, all presented in a traditional tattoo style. The Rose City logo has knuckle tattoos, a skate wheel as an “o,” a clipart rose and some script fonts. By trying to say too many things at once, they end up saying nothing.
Where’s The Rollergirl?
Going back through the WFTDA member league list, 101 out of 172 logos feature a rollergirl in one way or another. That means that if your league’s logo has a rollergirl in it, that’s a feature you share with about 60% of all the other leagues. If you’re going for an instantly recognizable design, doing the same thing that everyone else is doing isn’t the best way to achieve that.
Historically, there is a reason for this trend; when modern roller derby was just beginning to emerge as a legitimate sport, most people didn’t know much about it. The rollergirl-in-the-logo thing served to instantly explain that this is a sport involving tough women – thus all the black eyes, tattoos, and sneers – and roller skates. At this point, however, the sport’s grown beyond the need for that explanation. Even if they haven’t been to a bout and haven’t a clue about the rules, most people have at least heard of modern roller derby. They might not realize it’s happening in their town, but they don’t need a badass pin-up-style illustration of a derby girl on every logo to know what the sport’s about.
Hierarchy
This is one that makes me shake my head every time I see it. “Rollers,” “Rollergirls,” “Derby Dames,” “Derby Dolls,” and all the other variations are not your league name. They are simply an indicator of what sport your league plays. They should not be larger than the name of your league.
Can you imagine what logos would look like in other sports if they all treated their hierarchy this way? As a Cleveland fan, I’d feel a little silly sporting this on a shirt:
Uniqueness
Though prime examples of the hierarchy issue I just mentioned, as far as visual execution these two logos are some of the better ones among the WFTDA member leagues. They’re clean, easy to read, scale down well, and would reproduce well in many different situations. Unfortunately, neither of them actually says anything about the team or where they’re from. Remove “Atlanta” or “Des Moines”, and would you have any clue where they were based? If your league name is your city, then your logo should pay homage to what’s unique about that city.
Rebranding Case Studies
Just for funsies, I decided to redesign some logos. I did all these in an afternoon (though one I’d had most of lying around for a while), and didn’t spend more than an hour on each. My goal was simple: take 8 existing logos that had deficiencies, and redesign each to meet the criteria of Legibility, Hierarchy, and Uniqueness. The Kitchen Sink and Where’s The Roller Girl issues would necessarily be resolved by the necessity for Legibility and Uniqueness, so I didn’t feel the need to specifically require those.
I didn’t take the time to separate out the additional branding components, but using the SeaWolves example above, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine how that could work with any of these.
Minnesota RollerGirls
Before
After
In spite of being graphically well-executed, the Minnesota RollerGirls logo falls short in the categories of uniqueness and hierarchy. There’s nothing about it that says “we’re from Minnesota.” You’ve got your standard black-eyed rollergirl, and the text emphasizes RollerGirls over Minnesota.
My solution? Mooses make everything better!
I’ve got lots of family in Minnesota, and apart from the bitterly cold winters, the two things that come to mind when I think of the state are lakes and moose. And moose are more fun to illustrate.
Is it goofy? Sure! But it’s also memorable. And if you think serious athletes can’t play for a team whose logo makes you grin a little bit, you need to check out some of these Minor League Baseball logos.
Charm City Roller Girls
Before
After
I already spoke a little bit about this logo’s shortcomings – in addition the kitchen-sinkiness, it also has a generic roller girl, some hierarchy issues, and some pretty terrible gradients.
When I started thinking about what I mentally associate with Charm City, the solution to this logo became instantly clear. If you’ve ever seen them skate, you know that it’s impossible to forget their helmets – they’re one of the most unique uniform elements in all of roller derby.
And if you doubt that a clean graphical execution of a helmet can be considered a logo, try heading over to www.clevelandbrowns.com.
Boom.
Rose City Rollers
Before
After
You can probably pick the issues out here – legibility on “Rose City” goes away very quickly, there are too many disparate elements, “ROLLERS” jumps way out in the hierarchy, none of the elements work together stylistically. This one’s kind of a mess.
It was also one of the more challenging ones to find a solution for, and of all of these, it’s probably the one I’m least thrilled with the final result. Coming up with anything that didn’t look like a florist’s logo was difficult, and I’m not sure I succeeded in shaking that fully. I thought focusing on the rose element was the only thing that made sense, however, and a great American poet once told me that every rose has its thorn. Thorns make you bleed, blood’s red like a rose, and the blood drop from the thorn just happened to line up with the bowl in the “O.”
Burning River Roller Girls
Before
After
In the grand scheme of roller derby logos, the Burning River logo actually has a lot going for it. It’s unique – the two-color white/red execution is eyecatching, it relates to the history of the city (for those who don’t know, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire a few times back in the day, kickstarting a little thing called the environmental movement), and it’s instantly recognizable. Unfortunately, it falls into a special category of derby logos I call the “parody logos” – and in this case is a bit too literal in its aping of the hazmat “Flammable Liquids” placards.
This one was an easy fix – the “flammable” symbol is one that’s universally recognizable, so I just cleaned that up, layered it on top of Ohio, and separated out a type treatment for the logo.
Confession – I actually designed the main icon for this one a few years back, and screenprinted a few bootleg shirts for myself. When I wore one of those to the next bout, I had more than a few people ask me where they could purchase shirts with the new design.
Brew City Bruisers
Before
After
Well, at least this one’s legible…
This is another perfect example of a “parody logo,” but this time without any discernible reason for that parody. Brew City Bruisers is such a fantastic, evocative name, but instead it receives a “parental advisory” label treatment.
Sometimes, when I begin designing something, I get a flash of inspiration. It’s rare when that inspiration makes me laugh out loud. This logo is one of those rare cases. The moment I had the visual of an anthropomorphized pilsner glass in a roller skate, I cracked up. From there it was just a matter of transforming that mental image into a logo.
As with the Minnesota design – yes, it’s a little goofy. But it’s unique and certainly memorable.
Silicon Valley Roller Girls
Before
After
When I first started bouncing around the idea of writing this blog and doing this project, I was given a few suggestions of logos I should tackle for a re-design. This was one of those, and it’s not hard to see why – it’s lacking in any discernable character whatsoever. Unless people already know who you are, an acronym like SVRG is not going to set off lightbulbs over anyone’s head, so all you’re left with is some black text to tell you what this represents.
My solution on this one may be a little trite – a circuit-board rollerskate and some 8-bit text (in the same greens as the commodore 64 monitor I spent my early formative years learning BASIC on) – but it meets the criteria I set out for myself. Onward!
Blue Ridge Roller Girls
Before
After
I debated whether to tackle this one, as it’s the team I most actively follow and root for (they’re based in Asheville, NC where I live), but I decided that it hardly seemed fair to criticize the logos of teams whose members I don’t personally know, and not do the same to my home team.
This is a case where I actually like having a roller girl in the logo – she’s recently been redesigned, and it’s a very well executed illustration, but still falls short in the areas of legibility (the Blue Ridge text all but disappears as it scales down – script fonts in general are difficult in that regard), the hierarchy’s off, and while the girl-with-the-braids has the potential to be iconic, it’s not quite there yet.
I decided this one just needed a sprucing up, not a full-on redesign, so I cleaned it up, tweaked the browline, put a gleam in her eye and some blue ridge mountains in the background. That’ll do!
Bay Area Derby Girls
Before
After
This was another request, suggested by a former San Francisco resident, who thought the “heels and wheels” logo said nothing about the bay area. That, and the fact that it becomes entirely illegible from any distance (I watched them skate at the championships and had no idea what the logo was supposed to be until I saw a larger version on their website), pushed this one onto the list.
The B.A.D. thing, while clever, doesn’t really work. When the crowd is singing “BAAAY AAAREEEAAAAAA” in support of your team, that’s what your logo should be showcasing.
That and, you know, something about the bay.
Thus, the Golden Gate Bridge on rollerskate wheels. I tried using the bay bridge, but the towers of the Golden Gate are far more iconic, and since gold is the primary Bay Area uniform color, that subtle tie-in seemed to make sense as well.
There you have it!
I’m not trying to say that this is the direction these leagues should definitely go with a rebranding, or even that any of these logos is very good; conceiving of and executing a logo in the course of an hour isn’t likely to yield world-class results. Every one of these rebrandings, however, fits the self-assigned criteria of Legibility, Hierarchy, and Uniqueness, and every one could be used as the basis for a comprehensive branding system. More than anything, I’m trying to get people in the derby world thinking about their brand. I’ve got my fingers crossed that in the next few years we’ll see some major rebrandings of roller derby organizations.
It’s time to join the big leagues.
Republished with permission by Michael McFarland from his blog. Redesigned logos copyright Michael McFarland.
Comments
Minnesota
"You’ve got your standard black-eyed rollergirl, and the text emphasizes RollerGirls over Minnesota."
Of course, since it was one of the first leagues in the world, it *wasn't* standard at the time. Rather, it helped to set the standard. And as there was no interleague play in 2004, of course "RollerGirls" is more prominent.
"I’ve got lots of family in Minnesota, and apart from the bitterly cold winters, the two things that come to mind when I think of the state are lakes and moose."
There has been one short-lived roller hockey team called the Minnesota Moose back in the 90s. I've hiked and camped all over the state, and the only place I've ever seen a moose in person was on Isle Royale...which is Michigan.
It's a neat idea, but I think far too goofy for a league that wishes to be taken seriously.
The Moose was an IHL team
Also the Minnesota Moose played their home games in the Saint Paul Civic Center, which was later demolished and rebuilt as the current Xcel Energy Center, where the Minnesota RollerGirls have skated 3 times now. Full circle?
That's right, you're right.
I had not connected the IHL team that played at the Civic Center with the team that played in the Target Center. It was during the Dark Times after the North Stars moved to Dallas when I was angrily ignoring hockey in all its forms. :)
Mind changed
I'm still not 100% sure about it, but reading through the article was definitely a very different experience than just seeing the "new" logos. With all of the recent highlighted gun issues, a couple of us in Jacksonville have been talking about new logo ideas. It'd be interesting to see what someone would come up with.
Only slightly unrelated, I get up in Elyria, so it was kind of tingly to hear someone else relay the "Cuyahoga river caught on fire" story.
Nice work.
2¢
Wait. It's not a gun club?
Amen, dirtyrawkstar.
Really?
Change the logo? That would just upset Nino Brown. You know she has been working hard to take $5 blockers and make change with their asses.
Interesting Topic
I knew this would come up sooner than later, though to be honest, I thought team names would come up before logos in an article like this.
I'm going to say that despite all the gains the sport has made in the past ten years, we're still not ready for primetime yet because of the number of leagues that are consistently capable of top-level play are too few to set up a season that can be broadcast on tv. So I get that this is supposed to make leagues think about the future for when there are enough leagues to be broadcast, but I sure hope that people don't actually think that a redesigned logo is all of the sudden going to convince networks that roller derby is big enough and competitive enough to get games being shown ASAP.
ANYWAY, the advice about hierarchy and the kitchen sink is spot-on. It's interesting how all this comes to the forefront when leagues start having to use their logos for uniforms or on the scoreboard at games and even subconsciously realize that their logo doesn't work as well as they thought they did when the final design was approved. I LOVE the reimagining of Charm City's logo, for instance.
My one big sticking point is that not every logo HAS to be so damn literal about its location, especially when the results could include a moose wearing lipstick. Just because Minnesota has moose isn't a good reason a women's derby league should incorporate that into a logo. Unless it's for a joke, because I'd buy that lipstick'd moose on a shirt for shits and giggles.
BAD Girls, for example, don't need a bridge or hippies in their logo because I'd say generally people do think San Francisco when they hear/see "Bay Area". That's also true for Gotham (their logo rocks on so many levels I can't stand it),Windy City, and even Charm City. Do Angel City Derby Girls or Los Angeles Derby Dolls NEED something more "LA" than Old English type in their logos? I hope not, because it would suck that some people think that either of those leagues would do something such as adding bad plastic surgery to their branding to make it "more representative" of the region they're from. A silly example, possibly, but we have a moose wearing lipstick as a silly example, so...yeah.
Leagues that have a local nickname that anyone outside of a fifty mile radius wouldn't have a clue-by-four, however, that starts to make sense, but again, it doesn't need to be so literal. The Burning River redesign is an interesting take that I would make an exception for...mainly because I don't know shit about Ohio. Brew City is more of a pronunciation/pun league name, in my opinion, so to go literal on that wouldn't be a great way to introduce newbies to the sport, in my mind.
In the end, this article is indicative of a realization that as the sport gets bigger, there are aspects that have been holding on that may need a refresher in terms of what derby is about currently and whether that comes across to people who don't have the vested interest in the sport like its current participants. Certainly thought-provoking, and that is definitely a great thing.
I agree, but
I didn't know Bay Area was San Francisco, and they're a team I really got behind when I first got in to roller derby. (Now I love them and am looking at visas to spend more time there). I agree with your post , but if we're looking at it in a 'future of roller derby', I don't mind location references, mainly because they don't teach American geography in schools that aren't in America.
Maybe in a decade
I'll agree with Tara about derby being ready for primetime. Maybe in a decade this discussion will be useful. Anyway these 'logos' look far too cartoonish for my taste.
Too Soon?
I don't think it's too soon to discuss bad design that is seen in league and team logos. It *is* too soon to think that merely redesigning a league logo will all of the sudden make derby overall ready for broadcast. HUGE difference, there.
My new question: is it too soon to discuss league and team names that include, "Rollergirls", "Dames", "Dolls", "Vixens" as saying "WE'RE A VERY SERIOUS AND LEGITIMATE SPORT SO GIVE US YOUR VERY SERIOUS AND LEGITIMATE ATTENTION, RESPECT, AND MONEY"?
Oooo interesting article
One of my pet issues is definitely league names and logos - and overall branding. I don't want to annoy anyone so I will give no examples. :)
I don't agree with everything you said, and some of your after examples are really showing the whole "did it in an hour" so, you know.
I have always been a fan of iconic logos. When we designed the London logo we tried super hard to get it to be a riff on the tube logo, but Transport for London balked at the final hour.
SVRG Rebrand
Silicon Valley Roller Girls has rebranded the text logo with a female robot head, which you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/svrollergirls.
Let us know what you think!
THIS
THIS THIS THIS A MILLION TIMES THIS. For my old league (Resort City Roller Dolls), I designed the logo myself. I wanted to make sure it didn't make us look like floozies to outsiders (which seemed to be the initial reaction from people in our region when I mentioned derby) and it would work for everything from stickers to letterhead to tiny sponsor spots on websites. It doesn't have a roller girl, but it does have a skate wheel. Hopefully the only crime I committed was that it needs a little glow behind it on dark backgrounds.
Also, I've noticed on WFTDA.tv that a lot of team logos don't key cleanly (on the score graphic some parts of the logo that should be solid are translucent, vice versa, the edges look funky) and it's not because of cheapy equipment. They're not using what a full studio would use, but they're not using bullshit either (their equipment is perfectly capable). I love Charm City to death, I LOVE that logo, but it was also the biggest offender during the regionals webcast this past year. Drove me nuts.
Actually one thing...
The only thing here that I slightly disagree with is that it shouldn't have a roller girl on it. I think the logo in some way needs to scream roller derby and here's why: you're advertising yourself within the sport but also to outsiders of the sport. MLB/ NFL/ NBA team logos don't scream that sport because they don't have to-- everyone knows that baseball is a thing and the logo represents a baseball team (most of them anyway). A lot of people still have no idea that there's roller derby in their area and probably wouldn't know it existed if not for the stupid network TV episodes. Having your logo scream derby in one way or another helps when it comes to recruiting new skaters and bringing in fans around your community. I do agree with doing this graphically as opposed to making ROLLER GIRLS bigger than everything else on the logo. If it can be done without using an actual roller girl, that's awesome.
HOWEVER!
If you can't scream derby in the logo, the other option is to make it very visually explicit in print/ video advertisements (which I swear one of these days I'm going to write a column on the do's and don'ts of advertising your league to the general public audience but that's a whole different thing). There's a lot of crap to juggle in a good logo, but yeah, most roller derby logos need help.
Please do!
We'd love to have an article on roller derby advertising. Send it here.
Alright, but
prepare for a damn book!
LOGOS THAT GOT IT RIGHT
I would love to see which logos you feel like "got it right" - thanks!
Regarding "Don't put a rollergirl on it"...
From this picture, which seems to be a collection of all the MLB logos, (I know nthing about baseball, so...) it seems that about half the baseball teams have some kind of reference to baseball in their logo: http://crazy-frankenstein.com/free-wallpapers-files/sport-wallpapers/bas.... The inclusion of a bat/baseball/baseball diamond seems about the same as including a skate wheel or a rollergirl in a logo, and baseball is an established sport that most people know about, unlike roller derby, which I would still say only about half the people I talk to know about. Similiar trend here: http://mocii.com/wp-content/uploads/football-club-logos-vector.jpg with football teams. If we're going to look to other professional sports teams as the standard, it seems like putting some kind of reference to the sport in the logo is actually fairly common.
To use the example in the article, the Erie Seawolves logo, both the old and new ones, have baseball bats in them.
League vs. Team vs. why aren't we clubs?
The main point missing is that he's trying to liken teams to leagues, and those logos serve different functions. Derby leagues should probably be marketing themselves "Clubs" rather than "Leagues" and then marketing their individual teams within the club appropriately, and then of course marketing their charter with some of his branding recommendations (because some of the points are very good).
The argument about the Cleveland Indians is really hard to uphold when its the LOCATION in derby logos that has textual weight, rather than the team name.
Baseball Clubs
MLB teams are actually clubs with several teams on different levels making up their organization. Most baseball clubs are made up of a 7-8 teams total. The minor league teams are affiliates of the major league club, and while they are usually separately owned, they essentially just develop talent for the major league team.
As far as calling derby leagues or derby teams "clubs," I agree 100%. This is a much more accurate term. At this point, most derby "leagues" in existance do not compete internally for any sort of championship. Newer leagues tend to follow the A/B/C teams mold, which is very much a club structure.
Bay Area
Bay Area isn't San Francisco, it contains San Francisco. There's also Oakland, Richmond, and Berkeley teams. Which is actually the problem I have with the logo as proposed - there's a lot more the Bay Area than the touristy Pier 39, Golden Gate Bridge part.
This is part of a bigger discussion, but: why is everyone's goal for derby getting on ESPN? Could be cool, but the grassroots, DIY, start from scratch nature of the sport may be lost. I like my derby punk rock, and free from the scandals and nonsense that plague other televised sports. Do we really want to become the NFL?
Plenty of room for everyone
The grassroots, DIY part of derby need not be lost if those that want to keep that spirit play that way regardless of how big roller derby gets in the future. If 20 or 30 years down the road when derby gets bigger, gets to the Olympics, goes professional, gets on TV, etc., it will not and need not change how everyone is playing the game today now. If you want to do it that way, do it that way.
That being said, football is doing pretty well for itself, at every level, in part due to the NFL's influence. (For better and for worse.) If roller derby ever did have a stable NFL equivalent, by that point the game would be so well off, at every level, that the positives would outweigh the negatives.
I get the whole branding
I get the whole branding issue, but honestly, if I was going to buy a t-shirt today, I prefer the current logos for Rose City, Charm City and Minnesota to the redesigns. The redesigns look corporate and devoid of soul, like the graphic equivalent of a barcode. I get that maybe that's the point, but... you know there are those of us who cling to our primitive DIY origins (for better or worse). Give me derby flava over corporate icons.
Forest/Trees
I think many are missing the intent of the article for the 'examples' provided. The intent seems to be to me, that the OP is suggesting in his professional opinion that Roller Derby logo's for the vast majority of leagues out there could use some updating for various reasons, which include but are not limited to : How they appear in Sponsorship Packages/ News Releases, Viewing on Official letterhead, Webbased viewing, Swag, and use during live streaming/scoreboards.
In that aspect, I totally agree with what he has to say. He gave some personal examples of what 'he' would re-design and offer that fit what is considered the industry standard for proper branded logos. He didn't say "You should totally use these" or "Here, I made these; buy them from me." He does have some valid points, and others that can be easily dismissed based on how the league/team/club feels. For instance, I agree completely with Tara regarding the lipstick moose, It could be relatively fixed (minus the Area representation) by using the existing MN Rollergirl head, and swapping the Minnesota and Rollergirls in size like he did.
Nobody is saying Derby HAS to go Primetime (again), but it doesn't help to look sharper and more instantly noticeable.