Boston Bobcats Uniforms/Fields for 2022 GSL Season

Hey all!
    I am definitely new to logo design and I'm currently working on the uniforms and fields for my Boston Bobcats team for the 2022 GSL season.  Here is what I have so far.  I am wondering if this is sufficient or if there is someone here who can help me make it look a little bit better?  I'd love to learn how to make more professional looking logos!

Thanks,
Dustin Ehle (ICRMON)

I'm a big fan of the concept you have going here. I'm definitely able to offer help with anything you need. Quick question, what program do you use for illustration/image editing?

Awesome, thanks!!  I used a combination of GIMP and Microsoft Paint (yeah ... that's how beginner I am, hahaha)

ICRMON wrote:Awesome, thanks!!  I used a combination of GIMP and Microsoft Paint (yeah ... that's how beginner I am, hahaha)

I get it, I used to use those same two programs when I started out. I switched to paint.net (which I recommended to another GSL member who was a beginner), which has held me down for about 7 years.

Are you drawing the logo with a mouse or do you have some kind of drawing tablet?

I'd say you've got a good start here and you're on the right track.

Some simple things might be, picking a more sports-like font, or even toning down the blue to something less harsh? I guess what I'm trying to say about the shade of blue is, you kind of have to think about how that color would look in real life. The shade now in RGB has 0 red or green, while in reality, that's a near impossible color to achieve, although digitally, it's simple.

Let me throw some quick examples together to show how some small changes can make a big difference. But, you've got a good starting point going here with some good ideas.

Here's an example of a more football like font, plus, a less harsh shade of blue.

Full album link: https://imgur.com/a/awrptqK

The uniforms, once cleaned up a little, on the larger template I have should look good as is.
I'll put together an example of those as well here shortly.

Here's some uniform examples





The design is about the same as you have, but with some small changes. First, black and blue are kind of similar in color, so adding an outline helps make the lines pop.
The shoulder stripe should go over the shoulder to the back of the uniform, so it has to have an end to it, and that ends up on the back of the jersey.
The logo on the jersey would sit in the center of the sleeve, so that would show on both the front and back.
Like the helmet and sleeve logos, the pants logo can face to the front of the uniform on either side in each pant stripe.
And, a little overall cleaning up helps a bit too.

I'd also suggest a white outline on the logo when displayed on a color background.

At the risk of highjacking your design, I'd like to offer some tips.

Lines with less nodes are smoother and flow nicely. They also enhance the corners and tips of your shape. Contour lines within your image will give it more depth and add details; just be sure to not overdo them. As Austin touched on, a keyline around the entire image ties it all together and contains it.

Bobcats, lynx and other mountainous wild cats have distinct features that separate them from pumas, cougars and panthers. Their ears come to more of a point and their facial hair is, for a lack of a better word, muttonchoppy.

I hope these ideas help

rbronish wrote:

At the risk of highjacking your design, I'd like to offer some tips.

Lines with less nodes are smoother and flow nicely. They also enhance the corners and tips of your shape. Contour lines within your image will give it more depth and add details; just be sure to not overdo them. As Austin touched on, a keyline around the entire image ties it all together and contains it.

Bobcats, lynx and other mountainous wild cats have distinct features that separate them from pumas, cougars and panthers. Their ears come to more of a point and their facial hair is, for a lack of a better word, muttonchoppy.

I hope these ideas help

All good points here.

Here's another tip for something I like to do, when capturing a real life animal or object.

I often find an image first, then use the major points to build a logo.
For example, this:


Can be turned into this:

Thanks everyone for your input!!! I REALLY like that word art that was posted. As for the redesigned logo, I like that too except for the expression. I think it could look better with an open mouth and more fierce expres​sion(I canned it originally because I was trying it and however I was doing it looked really bad, haha)

haha, and I posted this reply before seeing that other logo

ICRMON wrote:Thanks everyone for your input!!!  I REALLY like that word art that was posted.  As for the redesigned logo, I like that too except for the expression.  I think it could look better with an open mouth and more fierce expres​sion(I canned it originally because I was trying it and however I was doing it looked really bad, haha)

I can give it a go and see what I can come up with.

Austin Snelick wrote:Here's some uniform examples





The design is about the same as you have, but with some small changes. First, black and blue are kind of similar in color, so adding an outline helps make the lines pop.
The shoulder stripe should go over the shoulder to the back of the uniform, so it has to have an end to it, and that ends up on the back of the jersey.
The logo on the jersey would sit in the center of the sleeve, so that would show on both the front and back.
Like the helmet and sleeve logos, the pants logo can face to the front of the uniform on either side in each pant stripe.
And, a little overall cleaning up helps a bit too.

I'd also suggest a white outline on the logo when displayed on a color background.

I can help with the uniform design if you want.

That would be great!

ICRMON wrote:That would be great!

Just tell me what you want on it and I'll put it in!

So I think I like all the design changes to the uniform that Austin made above. I think the only thing really outstanding now is the main logo which would go on the helmet, sleeves, and pants. Could you possibly try using the logo Austin generated on the uniform and we can see how it looks? Thanks!

I also think I would like to remove the helmet stripe.

One more idea that you might be able to run with

Nice, rbronish! I REALLY like that logo!

I think that's the one. I was trying to come up with something but couldn't get much going. Rob's logo is really good.

I agree!  92Mafia, would you be able to use rbronish's logo above in the uniform design? Let's just make the blue the blue hue that Austin put in the above uniform modifications. Thanks!

Dustin, I’m glad you like it!

Alex, let me know if you need anything from me, like changing the blue or blowing it up to a higher definition

rbronish wrote:One more idea that you might be able to run with

Really awesome job with this one.

rbronish wrote:Dustin, I’m glad you like it!

Alex, let me know if you need anything from me, like changing the blue or blowing it up to a higher definition

Yeah could you send me that logo with a white outline, I’ll add it to the uniforms.

92Mafia wrote:

Yeah could you send me that logo with a white outline, I’ll add it to the uniforms.

Sent to Austin full-rez and lighter blue

rbronish wrote:

92Mafia wrote:

Yeah could you send me that logo with a white outline, I’ll add it to the uniforms.

Sent to Austin full-rez and lighter blue

Oh could I get it for the uniform designs?

92Mafia wrote:
Oh could I get it for the uniform designs?

Sent you a PM

Here are my final drafts for the Bobcats uniforms (Thank you Richard and Austin for the logos and wordmarks)! I added three more stripes on each side to match the number of claws bobcats have on their paws, curved the leg stripes to match the shoulders (the cats face forward), and added wordmarks to the chest and inside collar. I also made a "fauxback" alternate uniform that adheres more the the original design you made and uses the more "retro" logo. Any changes you need or additional uniforms you want made just let me know!

White:




Black:




Blue:




Fauxback:

This looks fantastic! I REALLY like the added Bobcats and "We are Boston" as well as the triple claw marks. As far as the design goes, I think I am good with these uniform designs, I might just fiddle around with some of the pants/sock color combinations. Thanks everyone for your effort!

ICRMON wrote:This looks fantastic!  I REALLY like the added Bobcats and "We are Boston" as well as the triple claw marks.  As far as the design goes, I think I am good with these uniform designs, I might just fiddle around with some of the pants/sock color combinations.  Thanks everyone for your effort!  

When you settle on any final designs, let me know, and I'll get things on the website.

By the way, are you going with rbronish's logo? (personally, I think it's the right choice, but you can make or request changes to it if you want).

Yep, I'm going with rbronish's logo.

So fields right? I wanted to let you know that I have Fenway templates in my pocket if you want, but Austin and John are the fields experts

rbronish wrote:So fields right? I wanted to let you know that I have Fenway templates in my pocket if you want, but Austin and John are the fields experts

I'll take the Fenway template if you don't mind.

Off the top of my head, Boston has three suitable stadiums for GSL play.
Fenway Park (which would share with baseball for a good portion of the season)
Harvard Stadium
And Alumni Field (where Boston College plays).
Since all stadiums are within Boston, there's no reason why games can't move around, as long as there is a single stadium that hosts at least 6 of the 9 home games. Colorado and some other teams move around to play at different stadiums during the season as well.

Let's go with the Boston College stadium. I like the design I made with my first field upload, so maybe just use that as the baseline design?

ICRMON wrote:Let's go with the Boston College stadium.  I like the design I made with my first field upload, so maybe just use that as the baseline design?

Okay, sounds good.

Could you post that field design here? I don't have it.

Oh sorry, I think I misinterpreted this. I do not have a Boston college template. I'll take the updated logos and apply them to my original design using the GUD template.

Hey all! Here is the field I came up with! I think it looks pretty good but feel free to polish it if you want. Also, I tried to modify the uniforms but my fill tool wasn't working very so I was wondering if someone could make the following updates, please (the baseline is the most recent uniform update in the thread):

Helmet on every uniform combo: Remove the helmet stripe on top and make the facemask black
White jersey with blue pants: Make the socks black on the top and white on the bottom (currently white on top black on bottom)
Black Jersey Black Pants: I see this being a unique black-out combo, so can I have the socks and shoes be black? Also, can we make the helmet black as well for just this jersey combo?
Black Jersey Blue Pants: Make the top and bottom socks all black (shoes stay white)
Black Jersey White Pants: Make the bottom socks white and the shoes black
Blue Jersey Blue Pants: Make the top socks black as well

I think with these changes we should be all set!!! Thanks everyone for helping me out with this! I really appreciate it!

ICRMON wrote:I was wondering if someone could make the following updates, please

I can help you out with these. Do you like the AR Darling font on the collar (it's the Icons' font), or would you like a different font?

Thanks! Yeah, I think that font works

How do these look?

Here's the field on the Boston College field template (template by rbronish; thanks!)

These look AMAZING!!! I am good with the uniforms and the field being official for my team. Thanks for all your help everyone!

ICRMON wrote:These look AMAZING!!!  I am good with the uniforms and the field being official for my team.  Thanks for all your help everyone!

Everything good with the fauxback?

Yep! I'm good with the fauxback as well!

Wow, great stuff!

Since this logo isn't being used, any chance I can use if in the UWFFL Youngstown Bobcats?

It's fine by me if you want to use this logo.
Here's the logo in Youngstown colors:


Full album of the logo on different backgrounds.
https://imgur.com/a/y0AMpPq

Hey! I noticed the uniform combos were posted to the main GSL page. I noticed one issue: It looks like the numbers for the blue jersey are white with a black outline instead of black with a white outline. Would someone be able to update this, please? Thanks!

ICRMON wrote:Hey!  I noticed the uniform combos were posted to the main GSL page.  I noticed one issue:  It looks like the numbers for the blue jersey are white with a black outline instead of black with a white outline.  Would someone be able to update this, please?  Thanks!

Oops, that's on me. I put everything up on the site after I transfer the designs onto my templates. I don't know why I changed the number color there, but that's an easy fix.

Austin Snelick wrote:

ICRMON wrote:Hey!  I noticed the uniform combos were posted to the main GSL page.  I noticed one issue:  It looks like the numbers for the blue jersey are white with a black outline instead of black with a white outline.  Would someone be able to update this, please?  Thanks!

Oops, that's on me. I put everything up on the site after I transfer the designs onto my templates. I don't know why I changed the number color there, but that's an easy fix.

Fix made (hold shift and click refresh on the page to see the changes). But, I now I'm remembering I changed the number colors on purpose, to see if they would be more readable (which, yes, I know there are no actual GSL games on a field). From a broadcast booth, it might be hard to read the numbers. I guess I just didn't change the colors back after my test, and just uploaded the uniforms. Lots for me to keep straight around here this time of year.

Let me know if there is anything else that needs fixed on anything.