Our third and final IceHL Artist Spotlight this weekend features tdog — a phenomenal designer with seven different finalist entries. Also known as Rik Oko, tdog has even seen two of his designs win their respective polls already — the Motorheads and Sentinels.

His logos for the Outlaws, Guardians and Scorpions were runners up but his Hellcats and Kodiaks logos remain in competition. The Edmonton Kodiaks poll goes live this week where he'll face Roccot and Sean Cox Tattoo.

In order to get a better idea about where Rik got some of his inspiration, I asked him to offer up some background on his finalists. Attached to each description is a small version of the logo being described. You can see the full versions in each team's logo poll.

I really am not one to talk (or write) about myself. I entered some art for the heck of it. I love hockey and I have always had a sick fascination with uniform design. I'm a big overall sports fan who secretly critiques uniforms and jerseys while watching games — occasionally doodling my version of what they should be wearing. I guess Icethetics gave me an opportunity to take it to a more final stage. It was fun to create some quickie art for the fictional IceHL.

As for the background, it has been a while but here goes...

Outlaws – I really didn't want to do the hat and scarf. So I decided on the horse. And eventually caved and put the hat and scarf on the rider as well as the shoulder patch. I found that the team name was the most tedious part of the design. It was hard in such little time not to make it look hokey. The majority of the time was spent designing the two logos. But I tried my best to make it all coordinate. I also tried to keep the colors to fewer than four on all designs — three if possible — and to match the colors to something related to the city. Too many colors on a logo for a sports team is overkill.

Motorheads – I would have liked to have taken more time on this one. But basically I wanted to do an amalgam of a face/head with an engine. I like setting the logo on a shape, usually a circle works best. It balances it a bit more for me. The side patch was an idea for the chest logo at first.

Sentinels – Kept it basic. Big W, silhouette guard. Tried my best not to get too detailed or busy. I think I modeled the colors similar to the previous Caps colors, even though I hated those jerseys. The flag logo — again pretty simple — similar in design to the Hurricanes' flag. I didn't want to overdo the patriotism here. I avoided stars until the last second addition in the script logo.

Kodiaks – This was a real quickie. My original submission had the Kodiaks letters on the chest front.  I wanted to convey ferocity and speed and have the head look like it was tearing at the edges but due to lack of time i played it safe and put it in a circle. Same with the bear claws.

Hellcats – I wanted a retro look to the plane and also a little hokiness so I based it on the Islanders logo. I hate the team but love the logo. The orange H in the background is supposed to be searchlights. Imagining the plane on a night time bombing mission ready to destroy the enemy — er, competition. I tried to change the "S" in the logo since it looked like a Nazi symbol. I was only able to change one and left the others since I ran out of time again.

Guardians – My fave to work on since I am a NYer. Just took the lion head from the statue in front of the Main library. What? It's a guardian... work with me here. The five stars represent the boroughs. And I think the color scheme I borrowed from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I like that pewter gray.

Scorpions – Utah color scheme, mountains, and a scorpion shaped like an S with a white "S" behind him. What more can you ask for?

 

As always, any questions or messages for Rik can be directed to him by writing a comment below. Approved comments should appear within 48 hours of submission.

The Spotlights will return next weekend after a final week of logo polls. That means the time for uniform design entries is just over the horizon!