Sometimes, Work Actually DOES Equal Fun

So, we have this big corporate shindig coming up where there will be a volleyball tournament and all sorts of stuff celebrating 25 glorious years of corporate success or something like that. Yay, corporate mandated fun!

Anyway.

Each of the teams that will be playing in the volleyball tournament is supposed to have a team name and logo for their shirts, and the logos were supposed to be designed by this graphics dude up at corporate. But apparently he got his butt fired about a week and a half ago, before actually doing any of that pesky team logo work. So, since I tend to be more on the creative side than most of the folks around here I got tagged with the responsibility of designing/creating the team logos.

This has been a gas. Lately, my opinion of my job (technical writing, a.k.a. information design and development) vascillates wildly between general boredom (when I'm doing the technical writing) and out-and-out loathing (when I'm forcing my way through a frustrating array of "busy work" that involves all varieties of writing that gets shoved at me when I'm in a lull -- not technical writing, but often other types of technically-oriented marketing and sales collateral, none of which is my exactly part of my job or even my forte, but none of which anyone else here wants to/knows how to do...). So getting a chance to stretch out a bit creatively, even on quick turnaround work like this, is pretty invigorating.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the logos I came up with. These are largely from scratch ideas -- aside from a team name and the occasional "how about something like ...." rough idea I didn't really have much input from the teams on whart they had in mind. I'm happy with the variety of styles I worked up. They all have, by design, a cartoony "line art" quality since these will be screen printed onto t-shirts and can have no more than 4 colors plus a "clear" color (i.e. the shirt color).

First, the "APC Dream Team":
(I work for APC. This is not my team, though...). Next up, "The Fighting Sugar Bushes" (a reference to this...). The base image was a cute widdle fuzzy wuzzy squirrel holding an acorn that I found in an online kid's coloring book. I just ... evil-ed it up a bit.
The Giraffes (kind of a lame team name, but I like the look of the logo):

The Hot Buttered Monkeys -- this is my team. Long story on the name, and it's not even particularly funny. But it makes a great graphic. Face lifted from a Family Guy screen capture I found during an image search. I don't watch Family Guy very much -- is this character frequently featured?
Next, the unofficial winner for Most God-Awful Poor Pun in a Team Name: "To Kill a Blocking Nerd." Ugh to the team name, but I like the image quite a but.
And now, I tempt the gods of trademark and copyright a bit (although since none of this is earning anyone any money, and it all falls safely under parody, I think I'm safe....) with "Over One Billion Served":
And finally, "Power Spikes." Went for a sort of "propaganda style" here....
All in all, solid stuff I'd say. Opinions welcome.

Mood: Beat (spent all day in the sun at Sea World yesterday)
Now Playing: Kate Bush, "Aerial"