More Leafs Re-brands

Got another collection of Maple Leafs Re-brand submissions for ya. It's late on a Tuesday, so I'm gonna leave the in-depth commentary to you guys in the comments section.

Our first brave soul to actually re-name the Leafs is Roccot, with his Toronto Toros concept. I'm diggin' the logo, but I'm wondering if the bull is too similar to the bull sculpture on Wall Street. This is Roccot's second submission - Here's his Leafs design.

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Oh, hey, another team name change! J. Smith is the designer of this Toronto Red Rockets concept. Below J's graphic is his explanation as to why he chose the name Red Rockets. Unfortunately, the name makes me think of the South Park episode where Cartman yells "red rocket, RED ROCKET!" as he, well ... nevermind.

 

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs are now the RED ROCKETS. While honeymooning in Canada, I was impressed with iconic “red rocket” street cars, and as far as I know (I’m from Illinois), they are a Toronto trademark/moving landmark(?). I chose the older version of the streetcar to better include some design elements listed below. While searching the internet for inspiration, I found a picture of a streetcar station sign on Wikipedia and fashioned my own. Some design elements include:

• T-shaped pantagraph -T for Toronto
• Crease-shaped windshield painted light blue
• Puck-shaped headlight
• Goalie stick “bumpers”
• Railroad track striping/piping across the bottom & from neck down arm (I know, maybe a little cheesy)
• Railroad crossing shoulder patches (T for Toronto replaces the RR, although, the RR for Red Rockets would work too)
• Name and numbers on the back –font= Felix Titling
• Red Rockets on front –font=Papyrus (written in the sign above the windshield, maybe a little small)

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The next Leafs submission was sent in by Eric Westhaver. Below the graphic you can read about Eric's concept in his own words.

  

I've designed a uniform based on the look of another lesser known team from Toronto. I've seen some St. Pats-based concepts and some Arenas-based concepts. This one's based off of the Toronto Granites. The Granites represented Canada at the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix. There's really no other term to described them: they destroyed the competition. They scored 85 (yes, 85) goals in only 3 games without giving one up.
 
Red and blue are still intact, but red accents have been thrown in for good measure.

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And finally we have Connor Hanley's Leafs submission. Connor warns us that we should be afraid ... Very afraid.

 

Comments

[Link]

I'll all for those Toros jerseys.

Conor's reminds me of Thanksgiving... you know the real one

In America

I'm kidding my Canadian friends

[Leigh Michael Dengis]

I really like Eric's concept. Could do without the red stripe on the arms though.

[Mike]

Love the Toros jersey, great to see the WHA make an appearance!

[Gary Punzak]

The first thing i thought of when i saw the toros concept is the wall street bull. We used the CN Tower in our logos, so is using a sculpture of a bull any different? The logo itself looks cool, but it screams American market to me. Could use that as a Rangers rebreand and call them the NY Torros.

[johnny griswold]

Gary, you asked and answered your own question. It's not a matter of tracing for accuracy vs. not tracing, but using a bull sculpture that is a NYC and American icon.

The real question is, would this be considered a true re-brand? I'm not rejecting the submission at all. It's too cool looking. But as a conversation starter, would updating the Toronto Toros logo/jersey be a fitting re-brand for the NHL Toronto club? Just askin...

[Tom]

The Red Rocket rebrand idea is a strong rethinking of the core Toronto concept. The execution is a little rough...I'd love to see what you could do with that branding, Johnny.

[johnny griswold]

Damn, Tom! Givin' me more work!? haha.

[Starry-One]

I've never commented on here before, but I have to say, I'm really digging the bull logo.. I can't say it's appropriate for a Toronto team, and it's a little overdone, but the logo itself is great!

[johnny griswold]

@Starry-One

I agree. The Toros logo, so far, is the most interesting to me. Maybe because I'm sick of seeing a maple leaf!

I think if the bull were re-drawn using a different reference photo, and perhaps limiting the amount of shading/highlight elements within the bull, it would be a very strong entry.

My early money is on this one winning. (Still a lot of time left for entries, though!)

[ross]

Thanks to those that like it.

I'm not big on research or putting in any quality time on these concepts. They are just filler when I don't feel like doing real work. If someone has another bull pict I'd be happy to insert it.

Roccot (aka Ross Taylor for the original Leaf concept posted)

[johnny griswold]

@ross -

I'm so with ya on the amount of time that you can realistically dedicate to a non-paying gig (concept art).

[Koho]

I was really hoping someone did a Toronto Toros concept for this competition, I like seeing the updated versions of past teams. I always thought we should do a competition on here for updating the WHA to what they would look like today if the WHA still existed and the NHL was the league that went defunct.

[johnny griswold]

Koho, that is definitely a good idea. After the Original Six Rebranding competition is over with, I'll switch to WHA.

Would it be better to wait until ALL six teams are finished before moving to WHA or go back and forth between the two?

[CML]

Love the Toros - not as a TML rebrand but as a 2nd GTA team again would be awesome.

Also digging the Granite concept. Looks traditional and could fit for an original six team.

Love the concept behind the Red Rocket - very original. Very appropriate as a rebrand since both the TTC (the transit name) and the Leafs are slow and not that reliable! Before the last trades I would have said old as well.

[Starry-One]

Johnny -- You're right, the shading is a little much, but I really do like the image itself, I wouldn't change much about that at all. It's "rough" still, but in what you are saying, it's nice not to see that leaf!! I also really like the concept "red rocket" -- but it's also pretty rough looking -- some work around that concept could produce something that might challenge the current leaf.

[johnny griswold]

The Red Rocket may be an interesting concept, but I can't see how a trolley car image could challenge a maple leaf. I mean, this is Canada, where maple leafs are on everything! haha.

[vlad]

switching between rebranding the original six and rebranding the wha would create more variety.

[Koho]

I think we should finish the original six first and then move to the WHA one. I'm not sure how to organize the concepts because there were 16 franchises in WHA history with each one changing its city or team name a couple times and that would make it very long to do it team by team ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Hockey_Association#Timeline_of_teams ). Might just be best to make it like the canada v.s. usa competition and have a deadline for all concepts and people can send in the submissions for any team they want (including all the defunct and relocated teams) until the deadline.

[johnny griswold]

Well, let's finish the Leafs competition first and then see where we're at as far as interest goes. I may put it up as a sidebar vote.

[Koho]

It just seems like there are so many teams in the WHA that could be updated that the competition might take too long if we do it team by team, but that is the preferable way as a designer to do it team by team. I have no problem with switching between the WHA and Original Six competitions, variety is good.

[CML]

For the red rockets, I would suggest incorporating the TTC shield as the shoulder patches. A buddy of mine, who had red hair, used to use the red rocket as his ice breaker with girls in the bars - "Hey baby, want to ride the red rocket?" Then he would show them his transit pass. Got a laugh and smile 8 out of 10 times.

[Koho]

Let me guess the other 2 times out of 10 he got slapped or a drink thrown in his face haha.

[Michael The]

I love the "Thankgiving" concept!

Actually, that would make an awesome specialty jersey for the Leafs or the Marlies..

[Vern]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103489613206&v=wall

I posted a comment last week and it appears to have been deleted.

[johnny griswold]

@Vern -

Your comment was not deleted. ALL comments on that page were hidden until the voting ends for the Leafs re-branding competition.

The comment you are talking about is on the official Leafs rebrand page and I want that to be clean of all comments, so I hid them. I just want the graphic submissions and the voting box on that page.

Once the voting is over, those comments will go live again.

Nobody here will be silencing your voice, Vern.