Review: Washington DC Breeze (AUDL)

Part of the series critiquing the professional Ultimate team logos and nicknames.

Team: Washington D.C. Breeze

Web: http://the-dcbreeze.com // twitter: @theDCBreeze

Representation: City // League: AUDL

Disc within logo?: Yes. // Ultimate element in team name?: No.

Background: As a weather-related term, a breeze has positive connotations. As an automobile, it's not very cool; the Plymouth Breeze was a mid-sized 4-door sedan discontinued fours years after first introduced.

Elements from DC's flag include the red color, and the 3 stars (based on George Washington's family crest). View their previous logo.

First impression(s): A sperm-y "B" full of DC pride. Washington, DC sports teams are infamous for their offensive names (Bullets, Wizards, Redskins), so if anything, 'Breeze' is very PC.

Eli's Eval: Rather than drawing letters with a perspective, they have stretched type with a heavy stroke on it giving rise to awkward variations in the weight of the arms of the letters. The city name is included at the top, and it does line up nicely, but then it does not include the forced perspective making it seem optically at odds with the main part of the logotype. The double-stroke, gray and blue, are totally inconsistent as a result of inconsistent letter spacing: The tiny slivers of space between the middle arm of the first "E" and second "E", sliver between top arm of the first "E" and "Z" and the double space between the "Z" and "E", for instance. The entire "B" and its accompanying strokes are just awful on closer examination, most likely a result of the one-click perspective shift.

The logo itself is a slanted (not italic) "B" with a swooshing disc going back against the direction of the swoosh. Perhaps they are hinting about the efficacy of their breakmark throws? The incorporation of the DC flag's stripes and three stars is a nice touch. It doesn't make sense that they separated the swoosh from the "B" itself and gave it that little point that sticks out of the upper left since the white stripes and red swoosh don't even begin to line up. The disc itself has a shadow that is done poorly enough that it looks like we are seeing the bottom of the disc; better to have left it flat white.

The "B" logo looks good at small size (the favicon) which makes me think that despite some awkward moments it will look nice across the line emblazoned on a wicking tee. They need to give their files to someone who can use graphics software to clean up before they pay to slather it on collateral.

:Eli's Grades:
Grade: B-
On Logo: B
On Typography: C+

Thoughts on this AUDL's team name & logo?