EPT
But what is striking, looking back on the marks that I highlighted then, is that virtually all of the best were relatively simple. The Team Liquid logo, which is one of the most durable and successful in the business, is a good example. The logo excels in the criteria I set out at the time:
1. Instantly recognizable
2. Evocative
3. Flexible (can be altered for various purposes and work well on merchandise)
But it also is usually rendered in just a single color, and doesn't have many component parts to it. Ditto for the also successful logos of Cloud 9 and Fnatic, which at most have a gradient. The NaVi logo is a wordmark with a shield and a skew. Only the Virtus Pro and Isurus logos, which I praised, were more complex in the way that you often see the logos of professional sports teams. Even then, they mostly centered around a single element (a bear or a shark respectively) emerging from a shield. Few of these logos really convey, on their own an entire graphical language that the team then uses.
I'm drawn to revisit this topic, because the other day, I noticed an esports logo that so was such a stylistic departure from those around it—especially in terms of its number of distinct elements and the ease at which it suggested an aesthetic—that I was really taken aback.
This is Planet Odd:
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/commons/images/thumb/b/b6/Planet_Odd_Logo.png/600px-Planet_Odd_Logo.png){kind=logo}
There are four distinct elements to this mark and two engaging colors (lovingly ripped off from the Seattle SuperSonics?):
:
+ The wordmark
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yMIXBvI.png)
+ The stars
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ao1vbJB.png)
+ The globe
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RsJ8F3k.png)
+ The mascot
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tVTI38b.png)
Each of these four elements could form the basis for a graphic identity for the team. The wordmark font (Similar to Norwester, but I can't find the exact version) is unique among esports teams. The use of serifs in this scene is pretty rare, and the curved text is another element that differentiates this logo from the pack. The stars are stylized and small, but could provide accents to words in graphics. Along with the globe and the team name, the stars suggest a cosmic theme. Indeed, their website does a fantastic job of expanding that premise and adding new elements (like the swirling gases of the cosmos) to the palate.
You can remix the exact same elements that exist in the logo and create a lot of different stuff. For example, I made this in five minutes:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/evD77Fg.jpg)
Finally, there's the mascot. Obviously, there are a lot of benefits to having an animal as a mascot. But I'm really interested in the possibilities of creating your own custom character (I'm calling him the spaceman), as Planet Odd have done here. If the team have a dedicated graphic artist, there are all kinds of adventures that the spaceman guy can go on that help market the team. He can interact with sponsors. He can visit the cities of major tournaments. He can interview players. He can be made into plushies or stickers. When your actual sponsored players aren't available to produce types of content, perhaps you can animate it instead?
The Planet Odd logo isn't the greatest logo in esports, but it has a ton of potential. This is, as I understand it, an extremely young team, so perhaps they have the organization and capital to make a real dent in the esports scene and perhaps not. But this logo, as far as I can tell, kind of breaks new ground in esports logos. It's the most sophisticated design I've noticed.
Unlike even the classic single-image logos like Liquid, which are built on pre-existing history, there's a lot that can be done with the Planet Odd logo right out of the box, because it comes readymade with a language and a character all to its own. This new organization could've easily made do with one or two of those elements (perhaps the wordmark and the globe) but they went for more and succeeded.
In the world of esports logos, that's serious progress. I hope to see more logos like this in the future. There's still room for "simple" one-note designs, some of which are among the greatest logos in the entire world of sports. But to see an esports team aiming for something a bit more complex, with a number of elements that can be used in isolation is fun to see.
)
