Another concept series? Yes! This concept will be about the Sierra Inline Hockey League. The League plays in Carson City. Last season the league only had five teams. I will be doing new league branding. That will be in this post. Then I will be doing concepts for each team. This is like my RIAL concept series. This is meant to be more stand alone than that. Once I finish these five teams plus an all-star concept that will be it.
League Logo
I have been planning this concept since before the end of last season. Reno Pond Hockey was the only team that had matching jerseys. Everyone else looked like they were playing pickup. In the RIAL there is an effort from both the teams and the league to make sure each team has uniforms or is at the very least matching. It’s not that hard for teams these days as custom jerseys are as low as like $30. Given the more casual nature of the SIHL they don’t care. That isn’t a bad thing. I think uniforms are a part of the league branding. I think they could help small leagues attract players, teams, and fans.
The Sierra Inline Hockey League logo I created is black and white. The main focus point in this logo is the league’s abbreviation. The Shape of the logo is the shape of hockey rinks. Inside the SIHL is a mountain. The L is designed to look like a hockey stick. I wanted to create a neutral logo for this concept. The idea is that like with the MLS logo the color of the logo could change based on the team or use of the logo. I took the red out of the SIHL colors to make this work. I wanted this logo to feel like a natural progression of the previous logos. The common ground in the previous logos is that they both feature hockey sticks. Keeping mountains in the logo was a connection to the previous logo. This logo is new while keeping familiar elements. I wanted this logo feel like improving and not a total change. One of the strongest ideas behind this logo is and this concept is that the SIHL is committed to improving their experience for teams, players, and fans. Not this is a new league with the same name.
League Logo Timeline
One of the elements missing from the new logo that was in the previous logos is the league name. I did it as part of simplifying the brand identity. The logos in the timeline I took from the SIHL Facebook page. I think I may be missing some logos here but it isn’t super important to the concept. The first logo they have dates back to 2010. It has the league abbreviation, league name, and a hockey player. They replaced that logo in 2018. They may have been using this logo earlier but on Facebook it did not make an appearance until 2018. This is their current logo in real life. It has the league abbreviation, league name, a hockey stick and mountains. It adds red to the league colors. There is also a black and white version of this logo.
Both of the first two logos are fine. They just don’t look like modern hockey logos. I am not trying to be mean to anyone who made them. They are not terrible. I think the reason I am not huge on them is that they are very busy logos. Visually there is a lot to look at and a lot going on. Not to say that there isn’t a lot going on in my logo but I think I blended the elements better. With the timeline, the elements of my concept can be better seen in contrast to the last two logos. It can be better seen how it is a natural progression for the SIHL to go in that direction.
Other Branding Elements
I made a more minimal version of the logo. I also made a wordmark version of the logo. My idea for this concept is that secondary logos are necessary. There is a lot of detail in the main logo. Having a less detailed option is good for application purposes like jerseys. A lot of leagues use less detailed logos jerseys. I also made playoffs and finals logos. They are just examples of part of the visual identity of the league. More events and other logos would be created in the same way. The idea for this part of the identity is to keep it simple. There is a strong main logo with a simple supporting identity.
Zac Electrifly 