Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge MLS’s new logo. At least, Reddit readers are sure going a great job of making the best of a bad much-discussed situation. Instead of looking at the vast white space on the league’s new crest as a point of weakness, a number of users on the site’s MLS forum have decided to make lemonade. Along the way, MLS may have crowd sourced its way into a solution.
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That’s right, MLS fan – Reddit’s /r/MLS forum may turn out to be the caped crusader in this ready to save MLS’s new Gotham. These are the strange days created by this new logo.
Consider the Real Salt Lake logo user “oussan” created to start the thread:
After oussan challenged the subreddit to post their own, the idea took off.
The Philadelphia Union, from user Oshi Hidra:
The defending champions, Sporting Kansas City, via CTbeersnob:
The Houston Dynamo, from user nick188:
The Portland Timbers submission via atrain714, one that was as elegant as it was indecisive:
And the Columbus Crew? The whitespace becomes Zurangatang’s way to salvage the hard hats:
User onlynickleft took a crack at Toronto FC …
… while ctc23 was one of a number of users that offered a San Jose Earthquakes options:
User nimik uploaded two versions of the Montreal Impact’s potential crest. Here’s the first:
And here’s one take offered for the LA Galaxy, by user seantrowbridge:
User zschi001 posted this for D.C. United:
And here’s TheFitzMonster’s attempt at New York Red Bulls’ crest – a great job of incorporating the parent company’s iconography:
From the Pacific Northwest, user eosrebel went with a classic landmark when offering the Seattle Sounders’:
And user b0bb3h kept is simple when it came to the Chicago Fire’s potential crest:
Finally, consider these offerings from MLS’s future (or, potentially future) teams: taylor314gh’s Orlando City,…
ibpants’ New York City FC, …
aubrey83’s Sacramento Republic, …
and timberflynn’s San Antonio Scorpions:
Perhaps this is me feeling guilty about ripping the new logo apart, but some of these look amazing. And the whole concept of using the MLS’s crest as a framework? It’s sold me on the idea.
Revamping what looked like a half-finished product, Reddit readers have solved MLS’s new problem, improving on the league’s desire for team-centric logos (above) in the process. While there are a few teams unaccounted for, the idea has still cast MLS’s partial product in a different, more favorable light. Is it possible /r/MLS can solve the league’s new problem?
[RELATED: Another solution for the new MLS logo]
Edit: After posting this piece, there were a lot of people noting that MLS may have intended the white space to be used in this way. Of course, that’s possible, even probable (Brian Straus has something on it). Still, the only time the word “space” appears in MLS’s “Next” explanation is the describing the crest’s divide, and it doesn’t change the face there’s a vacant half to the stand alone logos:
“FIRST HALF AND SECOND HALF: The first half contains MLS and the three stars. The second half is an open white space that brings you in and out of the MLS world.”
I’m more inclined to give MLS the benefit of the doubt than I was this morning (it wouldn’t be the first time something flew over my head), but it sure does appear the white space was supposed to be at least as symbolic as functional. Or, perhaps better phrased, it’s symbolic and functional. Regardless, the stand alone logos were still designed with a void in that second 45.
