Review: Los Angeles Aviators (AUDL)

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

Team: Los Angeles Aviators

Web: http://www.laaviators.com // twitter: @laaviators

Representation: City // League: AUDL

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

Background: Los Angeles,California, has a historic and important role in aviation. In January of 1929, an aircraft established the longest time aloft at over 150 hours near Los Angeles. In May of 1955, the first transcontinental round trip on the same day departed from and returned to L.A. In 1977, the world's first successful human-powered aircraft was flown nearby in Pasadena. Also, in nearby Santa Monica, a Douglas Aircraft Company factory supplied the military aircrafts during World War II.

Of note, they were almost named The Los Angeles Republic.

First impression(s) from SLUDGE:  The Red Baron Pizza Guy. [h/t MisterGipson]

Eli's Eval: Angled type with pointy extrusions (serifs? spurs?)… we officially have a theme going! The font is reminiscent of the old Pan Am wordmark designed by Saul Bass, and I wish the logo was as well. The font is art deco-style, which is appropriate for LA's dominant form of architecture. The city name is title case, and the team name is all-caps, but using the same font, including the pointy serifs.

The logo of a vintage pilot is nicely drawn. (They also have an alternate female version for the Viva program, which is thoughtful, and nice that they didn't just make the scarf pink or something easy like that.) While the head(s) are nicely rendered with consistent line work, the three feathers coming out to the left need some help. They are neither feathers nor airplane wings nor a metal wing made of metal feathers. If there was only one it would read as a scarf, which would be fine and effective but with the two above it just gets confusing because they're trying to be too many things at the same time.

The other problem these "wings" create is that the logo is now directional, like the now classically awkward Patriots Elvis logo. That logo works well enough on the side of a helmet or even a shoulder, but on a logo tee anywhere else, really, it seems odd. I'm not saying these logos need to be perfectly symmetrical but a composition that is balanced based on central mass are generally better for sports teams.

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