MKE must go to the Cell

[Jimmy Lemke]

Link: Downtown needs to become a reality, immediately (http://www.brewcityball.com/forums/content.php?577-Downtown-needs-to-become-a-reality-immediately)

We don't need to own the Cell. We just need to play there. We might even find friends at the WCD if we offer more for the naming rights of the Arena.

[Jimmy Lemke]

518

Wouldn't this be the best billboard for the program?

[illwauk]

Can't say I want to argue with anything here. I still think it would be best for the university seek ownership of the building, but if simply having the naming rights is a good enough commitment for the MVC (and I would imagine it is, seeing how we're even in this discussion), then I say bring on the practice facility that'll help us compete there.

And yes that would be a pretty good billboard, but that mock-up also drives home the fact that we SERIOUSLY need a new logo/identity package.

[lutzow10]

Illwauk: what is your beef with our logo? Just wondering. I have seen u talk about it plenty of times but i never quite understood why u don't like it. My thought is that it isn't the greatest. But in comparison to a huge portion of Division 1 logos i would say ours is still in the top half. I mean i understand ur beef with our mascot bring the panthers. It is extremely generic. But i would love to hear (or see if you have one of ur cool designs up ur sleeve) what you think our loo should look like if changing our mascot wasn't an option. I have seen all your text based concepts. But what do you think we should do differently for a panther based logo? Like i said just wondering. I know u prolly have some cool ideas.

[illwauk]

Funny you should ask that... I'm actually working on an article about my beefs with the logo right as I'm typing this.

http://media.ticketmaster.com/tm/en-us/dbimages/69726a

Problem #1: GRADIENTS... F***ING GRADIENTS! This is the biggest no-no in sports design. Not only are they hard as hell to embroider, they look terrible and cluttered when shrunken down. Case in point:

http://images.footballfanatics.com/FFImage/thumb.aspx?i=/productimages/_1156000/altimages/FF_1156412ALT3_xl.jpg&w=400

Any just think... that's actually one of the BETTER embroideries I've seen for our logo.

Problem #1.5: Since when is gray a school color?

Problem #2: They've taken away the oval that contained the previous version (the one on Jimmy's mock-up), but they arbitrarily kept one of the outer accents, which now looks like a deformed tail. Seriously, what is that?

Problem #3: The "Milwaukee" type is weak... like mid-1990s MS Office Word Art weak... which has everything to do that it uses impact, a stock MS Word font that should never see the light of day on a sports logo. The slashes in the letters are also inconsistent and superfluous to the point that it comes off as cheesy.

Now as far as what I think the Panthers logo should look like if changing the mascot isn't an option... unfortunately drawing detailed mammals is not my strong suit. Fortunately, I don't have to because the perfect Panther logo for Milwaukee already exists:

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc382/illwauk/UWM/standing_panther_zps69c057e5.png

Here you have a sweatered mascot, which lets you know this is a college team, and the M monogram pushes the Milwaukee brand. You also only see black, gold and white. No gray or gunmetal. No overly highlighted areas. No gradients. Just a solid, classic look for a college athletic program.

One last point... a college teams' primary logo should ALWAYS be a monogram, which is why I push my Power M design so hard. Observe how bad Florida Gulf Coast's logo looks on TV graphics when you watch them this weekend. You can barely even make out the word "Eagles," let alone the actual bird. This is why most big time programs use a monogram as their primary logo. Ironically the team FGCU is facing (Florida) is one of the few that does not, but that's the type of thing you can get away with when you have a unique mascot like the Gator. Obviously that's not the case with us. We need a much better monogram to be our primary mark, and the standing panther to be our secondary mark (and our ONLY logo of an actual panther).

EDIT: It turns out Florida Gulf Coast went from using this (http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/mem/graphics/auto/FGCU_Logo.jpg) in the first two rounds to this (http://alumnioutlet.com/images/collegelogos/FGCU-Florida-Gulf-Coast-University.jpg) for the game last night.

Anyway, sorry for dragging this off-topic. Feel free to move these last two posts to the Off The Court section if you want, Jimmy.