Legacy Need help creating a football (soccer) logo/crest

Hi Everyone,

I've coached my daughters recreational and school football (soccer here in the U.S.) team for three years. Some of my friends and I have just formed an independent competitive/select team that will compete against many of the large clubs here in my area. We are trying to keep costs down, and we really need help creating a team crest to place on our uniforms. I played around with Umbro's crest creator and I have attached some samples of what I generated.

I have an idea of what I like, but I don't have the skillset to actually create it.

Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated -- I'd like to thank you in advance.

Here are the answers to the questions:

1) What is the exact name you would like in your logo?

St. Charles Lightning or just St. Charles (if a lightning bolt(s) is prominent)

2) What is your website address (ex: http:/site .com/; Site Name)?

I have registered the site stcharleslightning.com and plan on creating a website using WordPress as a content management system. The website hasn't been created yet, but I'm flexible with the color scheme. I generally like gray scale color schemes with an accent color.

3) Description of your website or business:
We are an independent girls football/soccer team.

4) Search the Internet for any logos/designs on the web that you feel convey
the style you are looking for?

I really like the simplicity and boldness of the Torino crest -- It's clean, easy to read, and uses 3 colors but I would like ours to be limited to two.


http://goo.gl/Ft2ku

I also like this Sunderland Crest. It uses 3 colors, but I feel it could be very effective as just a black and white logo. Once again I love the clarity. I also like how the crest is broken into regions - the top makes me think that Sunderland is near water.


Sunderland-Old-Logo.png (image)


5) Requested size of your logo:
The logo (crest) will be used both on our website and on our jerseys.

6) Do you have any images/photos that can be used for the logo? (must be copyright free)
I'll keep looking, but obviously lightning bolt(s) would be needed. St. Charles is located at the confluence of two of the worlds largest rivers (The Mississippi and Missouri rivers) so imagery like rivers or riverboats would be appropriate in more elaborate designs like at the top of the Sunderland logo. We will be playing in U-8 for our first season and so 8 stripes or stars might be nice as a nod to that.

7) What logo styles do you like (text only, image only, text and image, etc.)?
Text and Image

8) What colors do you want to see in your logo?
We are trying to keep our costs as low as possible when screen printing our jerseys. I personally like grayscale color schemes (white, shades of gray, black). It would be best if we could limit the colors used to just two.

9) What colors do you NOT want to see in your logo?
Bright or neon colors.

10) Describe the target audience for your logo
Soccer league, parents, players.

11) What are the top 3 things you would like to communicate through your logo?
The location of our team (St. Charles), lightning (via lightning bolt imagery and possibly wording), and the year established (Est. 2011)

12) Where will your logo be used (print, website, etc.)?
The logo/crest will be used on our website and on our jerseys.

13) Do you have other info or links you want to share?
As mentioned above, I created a few crests using Umbro's generator -- I have attached a couple samples. They are a tad wide for a crest though IMO and I prefer not to have a soccer ball in the logo if possible, but I didn't have many options. I prefer the dark gray and white one of the two attached.

14) Finally we need is there a style font you prefer, please let us know.
I honestly prefer Sans Serif fonts like Univers, Frutiger, Futura, and Franklin Gothic.

 

After looking at the excellent work that Covert Pea has done for BoboBarlow, I'm thinking that we might be happier with a three color logo of white, black, and an accent color.

 

I've been looking for some royalty free clip art of lightning and I found the following page:

Lightning Icon clip art - vector clip art online, royalty free & public domain





At first I thought I wanted to keep the logo Grayscale, but now I'd be happy in seeing any creative use of color after seeing the incredible work done on this forum and the application of color. I'd still like to keep the number of colors used at 3 or less to help with costs.

I'll keep looking. Does anyone have any royalty free clip art sites that they can recommend? Thanks!

 

We've decided on the color of our uniforms and we are going with a basic Adidas Squandra II jersey in red for our away jersey and classic white for our home jersey. We will wear white with white stripes shorts with both and solid white socks. Here are images of both jerseys:

Red


White

 

Hi CP,

That would be awesome!!! Thank you so much.

I'll take a look at the link, and please let me know if you need any additional info from me at all.

 

I've been looking for some lightning art, but can't find a whole lot -- I'll keep looking. I absolutely love the work you did for BoboBarlow (link) and I'm also impressed with the work that ModMan did for stuartmac (link). I hope that is helpful. Once again, thanks so much for your help. It will make the girls so happy to have a cool crest.

 

Hi CP,

That looks so cool - the colors are great. I'm hoping that you could possibly work in the Est. 2011 and the word Lightning now. At first I thought that we didn't need the word Lightning, but after seeing it without it, I'd prefer it to be there. Sorry about my misdirection there.

I really like how you integrated all the text (the city, team name, and est. 2011) for BoboBarlow. (I really LOVE how that turned out ). I like the current shape of this crest but would be absolutely fine with changing it if needed to fit the rest of the words on there.

Honestly, I'd be happy with a similar shape as the one you used for Bobo if helped get the text in there. Honestly, I love how you arched the city name, had the team name is a straight banner, and the Est. 2011 in a scroll for the Rovers crest.

Also, what do you think about making the red circle behind the lightning be a red soccer ball? I know I said that I preferred not to have the soccer ball but I'm visualizing that could be really cool to have the lightning "striking" through the soccer ball. And the logo would let you know it was for a soccer team then. Sorry about my confusion with that. It really helps to see this to get additional ideas.

Once again, thank you so much for helping me.

 

Hi CP,

The lightning bolt looks so cool -- I love the way you used the black next to it -- it literally pops off the crest. Looks 3D!!! So cool!

Here is a red soccer ball I created using the crest generator from Umbro. The color red isn't right but I thought it might be a useful image for trying the whole soccer ball behind the lightning idea to see if it works. Hoping that you can correct the color if the soccer ball behind the lightning idea looks cool.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!!!

 

Hi CP,

Here is another soccer ball in red with white.

Thanks!!!

 

Hi CP,

I've been in vacation for the past several days.

Please let me know uf you need any additional information from me. Once again thank you so much for your help.

 

Hi CP,

That looks great - I absolutely love it. The shape, the font, the colors, and the design are spot on.

I have just one request. I was hoping that you could show me one just like it with the words St. Charles and Lightning switched.

I'd like to see the crest with the word lightning emphasized more by having It in the banner in white and then decide between that one and this one,

And I'm also thinking that the wording will flow just a little better with St. Charles at the top in black, Lightning in the banner in the middle in white, and Est. 2011 exactly where it is. It will read from the top down "St. Charles Lightning Est. 2011" - I think that would make the crest perfect.

Once again, thanks so much for your help. The girls will absolutely love the crest. It looks amazing. You are extremely talented!

 

Hi CP,

That's perfect!!! Love it, love it, love it! In the word of my 7-year old "Awesome."

We are learning that the availability of the red Squadra II jersey may be an issue in one of the main sizes we need, and there is a chance we may need to switch to a new away color. We're going to try to switch to a new Adidas style in red, but if we can't we will likely go with Navy blue for our away jersey with an all white home kit.

I'll hopefully know tomorrow the direction we are taking and I'll let you know what away Jersey color we choose as soon as I know. I'm thinking that the color scheme may need to be tweaked if we end up switching but I'll go with what you think is best. If we switch colors, I'll post a picture of the new away jersey as soon as possible.

Once again, I'm so impressed with your work. Thank you so much for helping us out in such a quick manner. I showed one of the other coaches and he was thrilled with the design just like me.

 

Hi CP,

Barring any availability issues, we plan on going with the Adidas Tiro 11 in white for home and red for away. Here is a picture of the Tiro 11 in red. The Tiro 11 red looks a little different than it did on the Squadra jersey, but I doubt it would mean that the crest colors need to change. What do you think? I'll totally go with your professional opinion.

Tiro 11 in Red
Thanks so much for your help!
Mark

Looks okay to me. What do you think?
You need to remember too that the colour of an image represented on an online site can also be slightly 'off' to the real thing.

CP

 

Hi CP,

That looks simply amazing on the jersey!!! I'm totally blown away, and I know the girls and their parents will absolutely love it. That's exactly what I was looking for in a crest.

Once again, thank you so much for your help. I'm not sure how I'll be able to repay you, but if it is ok with you, I will put a link to your site from our team site once I get it up.

Thank you so much!!!
Mark

 

Hi CP,

I have downloaded the zip file. If at possible, could I get it in a vector format like AI? That would be awesome.

I will absolutely link to your MSS biz and if I need any additional graphic work for the team I'll come to you, and by then, hopefully we will have a few fund raisers under our belt to pay you with.

Thank you so much!

Mark