Thursday, July 16, 2015

Review: San Diego Growlers (AUDL)

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

Team: San Diego Growlers

Web: http://www.sdgrowlers.com // twitter: @SDGrowlers

Representation: City // League: AUDL

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

Background: "The Growlers want to instill fear in their opponents, and a growling grey coyote (native to the region) represents this feeling perfectly. San Diego has also been called the craft beer capital of America, so the name is also a subtle nod to the nearly 100 breweries that exist currently." [via]

First impression(s) from SLUDGE: 1) Do coyotes growl? Listen. 2) The zig-zag lines on the coyote and in its mouth look like writing. See.

Eli's Eval: With the intentional double entendre with breweries, I think they left some great design opportunities on the table by going only with the coyote. The coyote itself is a very nice silhouette but the details seem to be missing a professional bite. The line quality, the anatomy of the mouth and the inconsistent shading and proportion all leave the impression that this is artwork leftover from Snoop Dogg's first album liner notes. (Just because that is an iconic album doesn't mean the artwork is top quality or should be emulated.)

The type is clean and clear and looks a lot like the Gatorade font. The good thing is it is familiar, it is legible, and the kerning is good. The extra pointy serif on the E in Growlers is a nice way of filling the gap that the L leaves and also giving more movement and action to the type. I do not like the odd highlight on the left of each letter. In design if you don't have a reason for including something you should leave it out, and there is no reason for this. No other aspect of the design has a highlight (save the top of the Coyote's forehead) and there is no other dimensionality to any of the type. It is so small as to be more of a distraction and since there is no larger dimensional context for it to fit into it is merely visually confusing.

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

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