Further Logo Research.

I went to the Uni Library on Wednesday and took out a book, Logo Design. This book offers a massive gallery of logos ranging from any subject from sport to music. I stumbled on a page in the sports section and realised that some examples were quite regal but still offered a powerful look without looking soft.

The top left design is for Spin Balon found on page 367 whilst the other designs are for Manitou, found on page 356.
I tried to research these companies a little more so I could have a better idea of the reasons for these logos, I was however unsuccessful as nothing related to these logos came up.

That aside though I chose these designs for their regal look and composition for a sports logo design. I really love the Spin Balon logo as the composition is well designed and has a symmetrical effect. The design has adopted the typical leaf crest surrounding the image with a banner and two lion silhouettes which symbolises power and royalty. I think I'm going to take the leaf crest design and see if I can fit it into my designs.

As for the other designs I simply wanted to expand on the symbols which can relate to a regal appeal. the 1740 design has a shield as the base background whilst the 1744 design has again a banner and a crown. A crown is what I already wanted to expand on.
The 1742 design I liked for the typography and its strong, bold and italic effect. This gives the impression of strength and speed, which reflects the nature of Ice Hockey. The word 'Sovereigns' will need to be big and strong to accomodate the imagery of my logo and therefore wanted to show what sort of effect I wanted.

Whilst writing this Alex was kind enough to send me a link which consists of two logos found on Dribbble.com which has the exact same vector look that I want to accomplish:

Found on http://dribbble.com/shots/442083-Durham-Bulls-Logo?list=popular&offset=243

Found as a GIF on http://dribbble.com/shots/441894-Soccer-Concept?list=popular&offset=5&fb_source=message

The style of graphic illustration is spot on in these examples and also the typography for Durham Bulls (a baseball team) has that action appeal. This logo works well due to the placement of colours. I think the blue is subtle and not too overwhelming even when it is the dominating colour used, however the white stands out from the black which makes it pop out, even more so the orange shadow gives it an almost 3D effect which make 'Bulls' seem to pop out in the foreground. The only thing I felt could have been improved is the impression that it is a baseball team. Admittedly when I first saw it I thought of Basketball as the orange really reflects that due to the colour of the ball. On that note the logo below, P.U.F.C Puffins have a football in the background of the icon, making it immediately obvious that it is a football team (despite F.C in the name). Even when also using orange it's obvious what genre of sport it is representing. In addition I really love the composition of the Puffin as it weaves through the circle and pulls out a little to the right, which gives it movement and direction.

The next step will be to sketch out some designs.