Bowling Team Logo / Heat Transfer Makeovers

Redesign a logo for the Strike Kings bowling team. They want to apply the logo to team shirts using a heat press. Even if you don't plan to do your own makeover, read the makeover parameters and use them as a guide when critiquing the makeovers of other designers.

Shynet writes,

...the double black circles looks a little odd, perhaps the bowling ball and the word King could somehow be incorporated on one line so you loose the little full stop dot or a small line of gradually increasing bowling balls so it looks like its running towards you down the lane might help?

Although the team name is Strike Kings (plural) I think this design takes an interesting approach. It basically labels the wearer as a "king" -- a king of strikes. I'd probably want the little black dot (bowling ball?) to be a tiny "s" since that is the team name. I might try making the word strike right above king a little darker or bolder to more fully indicate the team name. What do you think of this logo makeover?

I really like this design. The pins form a crown. The twisted text suggest the motion of a bunch of pins flying after being hit. I might try making the kings in the circles a little larger or perhaps make them black. Seems like just a touch too much red overall. The faint lines suggesting bowling lanes are a nice touch. Bravo! Readers, what do you think of this makeover?

The designer writes, "My general idea is sort of classic lo-fi and here is my Strike Kings." It's simple and the image does have that retro/classic look. I'd like to see the same image used but with a bit of an update to it. Perhaps a different font or additional (but simple) imagery added. Maybe give the text a more stenciled look? What does everyone else think? What tweaks, if any, would you suggest?

Faith Martin says, "Considering this is a transfer and not traditional screen printing you could probably get away with the gradients. But if it were for traditional screen printing you would have to go with solid colors." RBCreative suggests, "If I were to tweak it I would split the team name with Strike on top and Kings on the bottom and the walking ball as the dot of the I in Strike." My own first impressions...

My favorite part of this redesign is the way the pins echo the crown and the red shape echoes both those parts and the tips on the crown echo the bowling ball. Nice repetition. While I think the little walking ball is so cute, I'm not so sure he "fits" with the rest of the logo.

Compare and contrast this design with others.

I like the simplicity. Nice clean lines and there is a bit of "royalty" in the font choice. What does everyone else think of this submission?

The designer writes about this idea behind this makeover:

I went with rheraldry—Olde English style font, faux coat of arms, crowns, purple & gold. I did include once concession to bowling—the scoring symbol for a strike.

Here's what I originally said about this makeover,

Reminds me more of a police badge than a coat of arms (the shape) but I get the direction you're going in. It could just be the size of the graphic but I wonder if the detail of the crowns would come through better at a larger size? I like the inclusion of the scoring symbol. It works both as a bowling symbol and as a type of design you might actually see on some coat of arms.

Readers, agree or disagree? Add your thoughts.

About this makeover Patience writes, "It is simple, clean, well designed and says it all without focusing on only one aspect. Good job." My thoughts:

I like how the broken alignment of the characters suggests they've been struck by a bowling ball and are crashing around about to fall. I also like the substitution of the bowling pin for the two i's. I feel like there's maybe a little too much space between the K/pin/N - perhaps needs to be closed up a bit to reinforce it's identity as the word "Kings" but overall this is one of my favorites. Nice use of little more than text to convey the bowling/strike theme.

The pins echo the king/crown theme but I'm not loving the font used. Hard to read. Overall, I think this design is too static. Readers, are there some simple changes that you think would make this a better logo?

About her design, Nancy writes, "Tried to keep this simple for heat transfer but wanted to use the strike symbol so I went for all the pins...Too much?" I think using fewer pins would still get the point across. It's not necessary to explicitly spell out everything. A few pins can suggest many. I like the font but I'm not loving the crowns around the pin necks. Or maybe it's because there are so many pins/crowns. Readers, what do you think of this design?