FanPost

Rebranding the NWSL: Dash to the border.

In which some arsehole plays around with things in photoshop/fireworks until he gets a good look, This TBM reader has gone on a quest to give the entire NWSL a unique look.

Good evening folks, tonight we go to the rip-roarin', bull ridin', blue dot in a sea o' red votin', metropolitan culture capital of Texas: Houston.

Now, I'm sure anyone FROM texas is currently angrily grabbing their 10 gallon hat in rage and planning on telling me in so many ways that places like San Antonio, Dallas, or Austin grabs the more "texas" experience more than Houston does, nothing to me spells the alternative Texas experience like an odd egg inside of it. And nothing fits that description better than Houston, home of the MLS Dynamo...of whom will likely kick the Revs ass next time they play. I'm not enjoying this road trip so far...

Anyway, we are now going to see what the little sister of the Dynamo have been doing, and we begin with the badge:

454px-houston_dash_logo_medium

This is where we begin going into good looking logos, but there ARE a few things that should be noted for criticisms sake, because there are a couple of things that do bug me about this; starting with the big DASH in the middle there that draws the eye. As far as I'm concerned, when you push your text outside the logo's predefined Boundaries (in this case, the borders of the shield), you've automatically made it look VERY minor league-y, and not to be taken 100% seriously. Second are the speedlines. Speedlines are fine in some situations, especially if one wants to add them to text, but this is...overkill. Almost three quarters of this badge are taken up by the speedlines, and the gradiented colors wash out the overall mix...though once I began running the main colors of these two together my eyes suddenly realized how this could be a positive if done wrong. Finally...Look at all that black. It's not anywhere on their uniforms, not even their sponsor appears in black. and this is BBVA Compass (which apparently has no branches in the Northeast so I was unaware they even appeared here in the United States), which could almost trademark black with how much liquid cash they have on-hand. But nevertheless, I guess my main criticism here is...

Dynamo-logo-l_medium

via www.houstonsportstalk.net

...it just looks like the brother club too much. There's really not a whole lot here to differentiate the two clubs. Hell, they even PLAY in the same arena. So what are we to do here?

Eliminate Black. Entirely: It brings to mind the Dynamo. We don't want to do that TOO much.

Put the speed lines...somewhere else: ...you'll see. It's more of an issue of where it COULD go rather than where it is now.

Center the text inside the freakin' shield: Again, MASSIVE pet peeve of mine in design, so we're not having any of that anymore.

Add a star: This is Texas, the lone star state. And they want YOU to know it's the lone star state. It's practically mandated by god and law that every major texas sports team, even those without any real name significance to a star, have a star in their logo. You'll notice this one is conspicuously missing one, so we must change this before the authorities pull up to drag this team out back and give the boots to it.

So with that in mind...

Bqnnntu_medium

...Yeah, sorry about your eyes, but there's a reason for it. Simply put...black, while it helped even things out, appears nowhere on their uniform and it quite simply just didn't really fit the "dash" idea unless I was completely willing to overhaul the ENTIRE color scheme, which is coming later, don't you worry, but I think the Dash could stand to keep theirs. Second, I should point out the star, which, amazingly for this group of logos so far, retains the soccerball itself. I've never really been a fan of logos or badges that retain their sport's ball or implement of play as a main element, but here, I found that Houston's version of a lone star flag...

800px-flag_of_houston__texas.svg_medium

...happens to have a lovely little circle right in the middle. Perfect for a soccer ball to fit in if one were to try and emulate, or at the very least, tie the badge back into the town in which they live. Again, a sport for regional identity/pride.

Now we move on towards their uniforms.

Women-s-houston-dash-2014-jersey-orange-28_medium

Same look as the revs, really the only positive here is that, unlike several other teams...they happen to keep their colors intact. Unfortunately as I've said time and time again, this is just lazy on Nike or the team's part, and is INCREDIBLY bad for branding if half the league looks exactly like you.

So here's what we're gonna look like:

Nv2wilx_medium

Features include:

Those speedlines...just in a more organized fashion: As you're probably no doubt aware, I am a huge fan of stripes in soccer kits, and here I made no exception. the difference of course, is that you're looking at a sash, instead of a random hodge podge of annoying lines to suggest X-TR33M FASTNESS, BRAH.

Numbers on the front of the shirt: This can work, but I usually prefer to keep them off to let the principle of the design shine through. Usually through the sash and badge method, you leave a good space you can fill in with...well, practically anything. Usually the provider of the shirt, but I think we've seen enough of the Nike Swoosh in our lifetime to care about that.

Color Co-ordinated Shorts to the sash: I wracked my head around how this was going to work, but eventually I decided on the shorts being the same as the sash, sort of giving a fullness to the main color of the kit. It also ensures that [KIT MAKER HERE] decides to use orange and blue in a much more useful way that they have been.

And with that, we look ahead to the skies....'till next time!

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