Whoa hey! Sorry for the lack of content lately, but it’s been wild times for the BLH staff. I recently moved so since Friday my life has been nothing but boxes and climbing stairs, while Shawn got himself a big boy job and has been burning the midnight oil with all that fun new work!

But today we’re back, and with one of our favorite things: Grading a new logo!

From the moment the Southern Professional Hockey League announced it was heading to the Quad Cities, and that the Quad City Mallards name was owned by the ECHL, we waited with a ton of excitement about what the new team in a new league’s name would be.

Today, we have our answer as the Quad City Storm name and logo was officially unveiled at a press conference today. Take a closer look:

But, we’re not here just to look at it, we have some thoughts on this new logo and we’d love to share them, and I think it’s safe to say that we are not in complete agreement on this new look

Rovitz

I think the logo is pretty good, but not great, but I’ll come right and say that I think the name is a letdown and pretty lame.

There are just so many teams already named the Storm, two of them in the same region Quad City will play in. There’s the Tri-City Storm of the USHL over in Nebraska, then the Sioux Falls Storm of the Indoor Football League, a minor league baseball team named the Storm, there’s a team named the Storm Chasers, and Tampa Bay used to have an arena football team named the Storm. Been there done that. It’s a letdown because they had a blank slate and could have been anything, and they went with the most generic name this side of Eagles, Bulldogs, and Wildcats.

Seriously, the indoor football team in QC is the Steamwheelers, paying homage to the boats that traveled the river when the town started, that’s an A+ name and makes Storm look even worse by comparison. There should be a rule that all minor league teams have to be named after something local, and Storm is not local. Everywhere has Storms. Really lame, sorry.

Now, onto the logo. I actually think the logo is pretty good for the most part, especially considering that I think singular nicknames like Storm are really hard to make good logos for. I like the lightning bolts off the Q and Y, and I like the wind-wipe effect on STORM. The tornado logo is pretty good and there could be potential with that for a mascot or alternate logo, but the hockey stick is again, lazy and not needed. We know you’re a hockey team, you don’t need hockey gear in the logo to prove it.

Oh and the colors are good, I like the powder blue, black, and grey, has a bit of a Milwaukee Admirals feel to it, and I’ve always thought their colors looked good on the ice.

OVERALL: For me it’s a mixed bag. I give the Storm name a D-, and the logo a solid B-. Really a disappointment that they had a blank slate and went the tame and unoriginal route with the name.

Shawn

I’m mixed, honestly. I definitely understand the backlash for the “unoriginality” and everything along that byline, because sure, Storm definitely IS a common name. The USHL has one, every travel league has one, I’m pretty sure one of my best friends played on like the Lapeer Storm or Lightning.

As well, like Rovitz said, the local appeal/personality is…not there. The Peoria Rivermen took advantage of a long-time hockey community name and geographic features, the Fayetteville Marksmen based theirs off being right next to Fort Bragg and being veteran owned.

However, for every reaching-name, there’s logistical problems too. Like ability to actually take advantage of traits of that name. Rovitz liked the Quad City Rapids, but making a logo and fan base around that can be tough. Storm, while common and “safe”, also makes sense when developing a new identity. They’ve almost always been bird-related with the Mallards (save that terrible QC Flames affiliation logo/name), but I do not hate this idea from the team.

This team is owned by two previous-season ticket owners from the Mallards. They did a name the team. The chances and possibilities for different names were there, but they went with this one based on something compelling. This name and logo, all things considered, could’ve been terrible.

If you go to gimmicky, like the Quad City Quacks, yes it’s funny and awesome in my opinion, but it drives away established fan bases. Baseball in the minors has found a happy(ish) medium, but I think Quad City made the right choice. Bonus points for the alliteration on City Storms.

Now, onward to the logo. Holy cow, there’s potential with this one. The text on storm is…alright, but the yellow-eyed intense Tornado? That’s awesome. You can have so much logo fun with JUST that logo isolated. It can be hard to come up with a decent logo for a name like Storm, Thunder, Lightning, Havoc, Mayhem, etc. but I personally think this one sticks. It reminds me very heavily of a mix of the Omaha Stormchasers (MiLB) mixes with Lake Erie College Storm.

Heck, they might be related. I personally really like the logo, and I think done right, they can make that one of the best independent-logos in the league.

Color scheme rocks. Hands down. Unique, mysterious, and an amazing dynamic-shift from what QC has been known for. Seriously, the color scheme might be what makes this all work for me. A+ on the colors, really stick out amongst opponents. Reminds me of old Tampa Bay Lightning.

Overall, they mix a safe name with a great color scheme and high-potential logo. For what it could’ve been, and for what it is, this is a B+.