Texas Showdown is the premier Texas tournament for fighting games. It needs a premier logo to match. Our challenge is to create a dynamic, exciting, recognizable esports logo. It will appear on websites, displays, trophies, stream overlays, commentary backdrops, t-shirts, and more.
“Please use the shape of Texas and the colors red and black.”
Instructions make our job easier. These make perfect sense. Texas Showdown has been around since 2001. People have seen these shapes and colors before. They associate them with the event. But their use requires care: Texas has a well-known outline that’s unique and generic at the same time. The colors red and black blend together when placed next to each other. Here is how we deal with both of those challenges.
From literal shape to esports logo
If you know your states, Texas is easy to spot on a US map. Its complicated borders outline a shape unlike any other in the nation. You’d think that would be fine on a logo, but it’s not. The literal shape represents the actual state of Texas and applies to everything Texan. It is generic. We’re creating a unique esports logo for the Texas Showdown – an action-packed, prestigious, one-of-a-kind event that happens there! FGC hype!
See the evolution in the image above. We start with the state’s complex borders and sketch simple shapes that fill the space. Rough pencil becomes smooth vector graphics that look like Texas. The opposite-angle star adds tension, motion, and reps the Lone Star State.
Red and black solution
Red and black have equal color value. When placed next to each other, they blur together. This causes problems. Red text on black (or black text on red) is hard to read. Sharp outlines become dull. Shapes lose definition. The solution is to separate red and black with a high contrast color. The light gray outline does the job for the text above. It also works great for the red stripes in the Texas Showdown logo.
Designed to work everywhere
Logos should look good anywhere. To make sure this happens, we create two versions. One is for light backgrounds and the other for dark. Having this choice makes it easy for promoters to brand the event. Stream overlays, commentary backdrops, videos, photos, apparel, trophies can be any color. One of the logo choices will always work.
Check out the gallery below to to see the Texas Showdown esports logo in use at their tournament.
Photo credits for the banner, backdrop, and trophies go to EvilBuho.
Brand your next event
Make your gaming tournament look professional with a logo from a Graphic Advantage. Call us at 951-786-4178 today.