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The Westeros League: The Night's Watch Rangers

Posted by Mongo

Continuing the Westeros League design posts with the Night's Watch Rangers.

They are the last defense against the monsters beyond the Wall. Up at the end of the world, they are the sword in the darkness. Over two seasons they've trained and froze and waited for the chance to keep the things that go bump in the night away from the lands to the South. In season 2, we saw exactly what they are going to be up against as a horde of White Walkers came marching towards the gate.

OK, the Night's Watch had to be included. But deciding how to figure this one out took some time and head scratching. There isn't really a city associated with those at the Wall. I couldn't decide what to even call the team. Do I call them the Crows, because there isn't a family name associated. Eventually, I settled on Night's Watch Rangers but still didn't have a masoct, so I went with the crows as they are sometimes called.

The immediate inspiration was The Oakland Raiders due to the difference of only two letters. I based the overall design on the logo of the Raiders but substituted a bird for a Raider and used the Bastard Swords instead of the Cutlass. Since there is no real house for the Wall, I went with the Raiders colors, using a small amount of red for the eyes and tongue of the crow. The last addition was putting in the motto of "I am the sword in the darkness."

You can find the Night's Watch Rangers in my stores:

The Night's Watch Rangers

available from Skreened and Redbubble

Black Unisex Fitted Tee from Skreened: $29.99

Black T-Shirt from Redbubble: $24.54

Heather Grey Hoodie from Redbubble: $47.40

Sticker from Redbubble: $2.40

iPhone 4S/4 Deflector Case from Redbubble: $37.20

See all of the Westeros League designs at Skreened and Redbubble.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Westeros League: The Valyria Targaryens

Posted by Mongo

As we continue looking at the desgins of the Westeros League, we get into the real fun ones. Up next, the Valyria Targaryens.

Watch My Design It video for
The Valyria Targaryens

This was an important team to bring to life. It is the fourth storyline that plays out across the first two seasons. While the Baratheons fight the Baratheons/Lannisters and the Night's Watch venture North of the Wall, the Targaryens and the Dothraki make their way to the Narrow Sea and get ready to attack King's Landing. Daenerys totes along her three dragon babies and encounters court assassins and the mysterious people of Qarth.

According to the wiki, the sigil for the Targaryens is a three headed dragon, representing the three dragons that were rode into battle by Aegon and his sisters. Their colors are black and red.

Now, I had a few options in the design to consider. The ancestal home of Valyria or Dragonstone could represent the city of the team, then again, they reigned in King's Landing for 300 years. In the end, I went with the ancestral home of Valyria. I went with a more Dungeons and Dragons type of font for the name while the city remained a basic serif based one. I neglected to add in the motto because I couldn't get the words to fit into the design very well. I may go back and add it in later, perhaps.

The actual mascot was very hard to realize. I needed to have three dragons, but joined at the neck. I didn't want to take on trying to draw the full body of the dragon and while looking through sports logos for inspiration I came across one that struck me as pretty cool. So, the finished dragon heads were drawn with the Denver Broncos logo in mind.

Using the logo as the basis, I drew up the dragon head, paying attention to the angles and lines. I also added the scales based on one of the old direwolf images. I've never drawn a drago, so I kept tweaking the face until I thought it felt right. I then copied the orginal and made two more behind it, rotating each to add depth and visibility of all three. Lastly, I added the logo and city. I kept the simplicity of the Broncos logo, feeling that less could be more in this case.

So, here it is, and you can find the Valyria Targaryens in my stores:

The Valyria Targaryens

Available on Redbubble and Skreened

Smoke Anvil Unisex Value Fitted T-Shirt from Skreened: $26.99

Black T-Shirt from Redbubble: $24.54

Black Hoodie from Redbubble: $47.40

Sticker from Redbubble: $2.40

iPhone 4S/4 Deflector Case from Redbubble: $37.20

See all of the Westeros League designs at Skreened and Redbubble.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Westeros League: The Highgarden Tyrells

Posted by Mongo

Kicking off the second half of the Westeros League, I went with the Tyrells of Highgarden.

I wasn’t going to include them, but sort of had to. After all, Margaery plays a big role in season 2 of the show, as does her brother Loras. The Tyrells are feisty, yet regal. So, in that aspect, I guess they should be included in the league of designs.

Watch my Design It Video for
The Highgarden Tyrells

My biggest problem with bringing the Tyrells to life was how to adapt a rose sigil into a more anthropomorphic setting of mascots and logos. There are not a lot of flowers that function as a logo or label for sports teams. That led me to the only team that I could find that was based off of a flower, The New Orlean Saints.

The Fleur de Lis design on the Saints logo only served as inspiration from the standpoint of placement of a Golden Rose. The shield became more central to the logo. The lettering, I thought needed to be somewhat regal and ancient. I leaned towards Celtic or Scottish lettering styles for both the team name and motto. The colors followed the described ones from the wiki page I looked at.

You can check out my stores to see the Highgarden Tyrells gear:

The Highgarden Tyrells

Available from Skreened and Redbubble

Anvil Unisex Heavyweight T-Shirt from Skreened: $24.99

Heather Grey Girly Fit T-Shirt from Redbubble: $24.54

Hoodie from Redbubble: $47.40

Sticker from Redbubble: $2.40

iPhone 4S/4 Deflector Case
from Redbubble: $37.20

See all of the Westeros League designs at Skreened and Redbubble.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Westeros League: Riverrun Tullys

Posted by Mongo

Chugging right along in the Westeros League designs. Next up... The Tullys of Riverrun.

Watch my Design It Video for

The Riverrun Tullys

For this one, I also wanted to stay away from well known professional teams. The easy way out would be to look at the old Miami Marlins logo from when they were still called The Florida Marlins. I did look to them for inspiration but didn’t feel like it would work as a design style. I wanted to go more minor league with this idea. So… I started doing searches on minor league logos with fish or nautical mascots when I came across the Columbus Catfish.

I liked how the fish called curled around the name. I also liked how the team name was shaded and at an angle. I found a fish picture and then redrew it facing the opposite direction, adding an angry eye to it. Eyes are hard to do. I’ve had a few designs that were crippled by the idea of having angry eyes attached to them. Case in point, the Iron Island GreyJoys. That Kraken was Cray with those eyes in the early stages.

After I finished up playing with the fish, I got started on the name. That became another nightmare. Here’s a little tip for you folks looking to do pop culture sport logos. More often than not, the font style for a team name is custom. Someone might come along and develop a font based on it, but for the most part, the customization is meant to encompass only the characters in the logo. The rest of the alphabet isn’t usually a consideration. So, when I looked at how the 3D visualization of the word “Catfish” had all solid bottom lettering, with very few gaps, I didn’t take into account that I had a “Y” in Tullys to deal with from a spatial perspective. As it is, the fin of the catfish covers the bottoms of the “F” and “I” reconcile this problem. I didn’t want to cover the “LY” in Tully because it’s not like we are familiar with a Tully like we are a catfish. You can lose whole letters in catfish and know what the word is supposed to be just by association. Also, the side of the S was hard because there is a break between the top half and the bottom. I made several attempts at either splitting them or combining them. That’s another thing I find hard. It takes a real good eye to make three dimensional designs on a two dimensional plane. I’m just getting the hang of it and still find it extremely difficult.

Now there are fonts like Chisel, Stowe Open Face , or Wednesday Matinee Shadow that sort of give you the triangular shaped letters with shading on one side, but again, the letters in these types of designs are usually customized for just those letters. Catfish only shares two letters with Tullys, leaving me to figure out how to do a “Y“. For the colors, I kept the silver color for the trout and let the red and blue play out in the lettering. The blue was an easy match for the shadow of the lettering while the red became the sides of the letters which sort of matches the inspiring design of the Columbus Catfish. I didn’t bother with the points at the middles of the letters because of the “L” and “Y” in Tullys making it more like a hybrid of the Spartan and Wednesday Matinee Shadow font types. Probably the easiest part was the city and motto.

In all, I think it’s one of my better looking designs. I think it stands out as one of the best of all 14.

You can check out my stores to see the Riverrun Tullys gear: