Be-Labor-ing the point: Sleektooned blog logos, Part 2

Since my first batch of re-imagined blog logos went over so well, I thought I'd ride the wave of popularity with a few more this holiday morning.

First up today is a totally unsolicited redesign of the logo for The Copper & Blue, our Edmonton Oilers blog.  Now I like Oilers bloggers -- back when I first discovered hockey blogs, my reading mainly consisted of James Mirtle, Tom Benjamin, Matt Fenwick, and about fifteen Oilers bloggers.  It was a glorious crew, and to this day the Oilogosphere is still one of the brightest corners of the hockey internet.

On the ice, it's been a different story in Edmonton.  Ever since dealing Chris Pronger to Anaheim, they've missed the playoffs five straight seasons, including the last two seasons finishing 30th.  Over the past two seasons the Oilers have picked up 52 wins; for perspective, last regular season alone the Vancouver Canucks picked up 54.  Ouch.

From a cartooning perspective, the Oilers have always been a bit troublesome -- "oil" itself is a drawable concept, but it's tough to personify.  An oil drop with eyes?  An oil rig with eyes?  A guy who gets labeled as an "oiler"?  There's nothing really concrete to grasp onto.  Fortunately, I found an idea that seems to have worked, at least for a logo's purpose.  I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out -- it has a recognizable oil theme, it reflects some disastrous times in Edmonton, and it has a neat lettering strategy to it.  And there's even a bit of hope -- looks like some survivors made it out on a life raft.  :)

Next was a vague request from Laura Astorian over at SB Nation St. Louis, a regional multi-sport hub.  Laura writes about hockey and the St. Louis Blues, but the site caters to all of St. Louis' sports.  And it doesn't even feature any logo at all -- no wonder she was asking! 

The design I drew up isn't overly inspired, but I think it captures the main things that need to be incorporated -- three teams and St. Louis' trademark Arch.  I'm a hockey fan first, so the bluenote gets center stage (from a cartooning perspective, the Blues might have the worst team name in the league, but fortunately there's enough context going here that it's easily identifiable).  It is nice that St. Louis' other teams have drawable mascots, too, even if I don't care one bit about those sports -- my first stab at a cardinal went pretty well ("Safe!").

Overall, pretty good logo, I think.  Too bad there's no place to put it.  :)

One more after the jump!  Which blog will it be?

Even though on the ice we're mortal enemies, I'm even taking requests from our Red Wings blog Winging It In Motown.  The Red Wings are an interesting-to-cartoon team, as they have one of the best logos in the sport, but it's only usable from the side angle; it's really tough to turn that wheel towards the viewer.  Fortunately, Wings fans have also associated themselves through the throwing of the octopus, which is a much more usable image. 

So, what did I do?  I mixed it all together in a blender and inserted the octopus between the wheel and its wings.  I don't really know what it means, exactly, but it is sort of an interesting-looking result.

This image has really grown on me since I made it, because even I don't fully understand what's going on in the picture.  Is the winged octopus flying or swimming?  Is he installing a set of tires or stealing a set of tires?  It really is up to the viewer to decide -- all that seems clear is that it the creature derives evil joy from whatever it's up to, which is very Red Wing of it.

And while I did break sort of a cardinal rule and allowed the tentacles to obscure the blog name, I'm finding that it makes me want to read the text even more.  Maybe I'm crazy, but this one strikes me as a really, really good logo -- man, the intrigue!  :)

Anyways, that's today's batch.  Maybe not so strong as the first, but that Ovechkin eagle set the bar pretty high.  Don't worry, Avs!  You're still on my to-do list, along with a few more from the comments of the last post.  Once again, if you have any blog you'd like to see re-logoed (and maybe an idea of what should be in it), feel free to leave it in the comments.

Go Labor.