Faction symbols

[Kaliber84]

I am currently working on a brand new logo for the community channel.
For that I want to incorporate symbols of every (playable) faction. While I would've thought that there are existing symbols I can't find any.

So in short now I need new symbols for every faction and I am asking everyone in the community for ideas, advice or even sketches. If you have any suggestions please let me know and I will see if I can use them.
The symbols should be simple, intuitive and representative of the faction. Ideally anyone would be able to draw a symbol in a couple of seconds. And even without color someone else could recognize the faction it represents.

For example a 7-pointed start enclosed in a circle would probably be recognized as and is easy to draw.
But a spiral might not be recognized as even though it is a common motive in many nature cards.

Thanks for any and all input!

[Dodotron]

I don't have a lot of time right now, but I realised that northguards, master archers and battleship have this snowflake symbol in their card art and premium contruct has it on its in game model. That might be something you could use for the frost faction? I don't know if you could draw that in a couple seconds tho  

There might also be some stuff in the 'ingame lore book' you could use. I'm not sure, but you never know

[Kitsurubami]

Here is a quick approximation of the snowflake symbol on the northguards and on the iceage cards.

[BurningWorld]

Shadow:

ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD  

[Kitsurubami]

Nature had a repetitive tiki mask theme going on with their buildings, the one that I find most iconic is the one used on the healing gardens and stranglehold but there are many to choose from. 

Fire used what looks like a stylized symbol of a magma fiend on the  banner of glory, termite hill, and on the sails of the Spitfire.

[Palmolive]

Fire could be a sun, kinda 

[Dodotron]

Yes, that's what I meant @Kitsurubami! I didn't see they were different though. 

I also like the nature ones. I was thinking about the tunnel entrance, but your idea looks better imo.

[Kaliber84]

The snowflake symbol is wonderful. Many thanks

23 hours ago, Kitsurubami said:

Nature had a repetitive tiki mask theme going on with their buildings, the one that I find most iconic is the one used on the healing gardens and stranglehold but there are many to choose from. 

Fire used what looks like a stylized symbol of a magma fiend on the  banner of glory, termite hill, and on the sails of the Spitfire.

I see how those symbols are quite common in the Factions but I feel like they don't suffice. The tiki mask is actually also the Amii edition symbol for example (and not that intuitive imo). And the magma fiend might be recognizable but I'd like to avoid monsters in the symbols. I want to keep the symbols themselves as neutral objects/beings.

Currently I think Fire will most likely receive a stylized flame or explosion. My favorite for Shadow is still the encircled, seven-pointed star (see Portal Nexus or Stone of Torment). Nature, Stonekin, Bandit, Lost Souls and Twilight still lack ideas/suggestions. Thanks for your help guys.

PS: What do you think of a tree or a single leaf for Nature?

Edited April 22, 2018 by Kaliber84

[Kitsurubami]

2 hours ago, Kaliber84 said:

PS: What do you think of a tree or a single leaf for Nature?

For nature an ovate type or a lanceolate type of leaf would be nice as they are similar to the leaf that is attached to the Windweavers bow. 

Bandit you could steal the skull like symbol off of the corsair (symbol is also used on the npc bandit tent that spawns t1 units).

Twilight you could use something like the top round portion of the Willzapper since it has the pustular appearance that is associated with the twilight.

Lost Souls uses a coffin like motif on some of its buildings which may be useful; or something like an ethereal blue smoke/fog/flame, like the effect on the lost grigori and lost dragon wings.

Stonekin, maybe something that looks like the central portion of the XL spawn building what kinda looks like a face, or something where the bright blue of the stonekin is under rocks (like how the promo grinder chest looks)

Also the repetitive symbol that fire uses also looks like stylized flame which also has a striking resemblance to the Magma Fiend.  Where if you color the symbol red it'll be more recognized as flame as opposed to a Magma Fiend.

 

However, for most of these it seems like the color palette will be the most important thing in associating a symbol with the faction.

[Kaliber84]

@Kitsurubami

The Windweaver bow looks good as a reference.

For Bandit or any faction at all I won't use skulls. They are simply too dominant a motif for Shadow, Lost Souls and Bandits. Thus I can't depict a single faction using them.
I thought of using either 2 crossed hammers (Banditos, Amok) or maybe a stylized cannon (Corsair, Gunner, Artillery). Those ideas aren't perfect though.

Twilight doesn't seem to care for any symbols at all and relies solely on the color palette. That's quite a problem. The Willzapper is not good enough imo but I thought of it too.
But I might try to create a parasite plant thingy. Similar to the small spawn buildings, looking a bit like a virus.

The coffin is a nice suggestion for Lost Souls. If possible I wanted something that shows the resurrection aspect of Lost Souls. This might be a way to do it.

For Stonekin I might combine a stone-shield with the grimace on top. I hope that's still intuitive enough.

Maybe I will simply build upon the current Magma Fiend symbol for Fire and reshape it. I need it to be more Flame and less Fiend if you know what I mean.

[Kitsurubami]

I made a quick outline of the coffin lid from the Lost Banestone; possibly adding the ethereal blue smoke effect coming out of the sides/top of it would give it a nice effect, or forming the Lost Souls smoke/flame effect into one or multiple escaping souls may be good.  Well that and coloring and texturing the actual lid (I'm bad at art so I'm limited to outlines).

Maybe for bandit you could use the 2 crossed hammers (or 2 crossed cannons) and use the t1 spawn tent (or whatever you want) and do a variation of the pirate skull and crossbones flag, where tent takes the place of the skull and the 2 hammers take the place of the crossbones.

[Kaliber84]

Nice work. The detail on the coffin is actually a bit much but I'll combine a simplified version with a couple of escaping souls. Should do the trick.

[Necrospaz]

Do you mean like a simple logo representing the factions?

 

 

Something very very simple knocked up in paint in a couple of mins.

The dual colour factions could be interesting

 

[Treim]

I think simple is the way to go here. I think @Necrospaz suggestions are actually pretty good. It is simple yet you instantly know what is meant, with maybe the exception of Shadow which represents risk and in a broader sense suffering to achieve ones goal. I think the purple colour scheme is good but i am not sure myself which symbol represents risk or suffering and is recognizable by everyone.

For the dual colour ones i think it is a lot harder to find something but i would stay true to finding something that makes them easily recognziable, so i would definetly try to avoid "complex" symbols and stay true to what works for the pure factions. I think the easiest way to distinguish factions are actually their colour schemes.

For example i would really like an blue white ghost/etheral flame for Lost Souls, even though flames are probably also used for fire. The symbal is easy and the flames itself are a reocurring theme in the faction. That is probably still the easiest to find something for.

Whenever i look at Bandit cards i always feel remembered of desert warriors but not sure if i am alone with that and i don't think using a sun would be telling enough. Not sure at all what to do with Stonekin and especially Twilight yet but ill keep thinking about it.

[Necrospaz]

1 hour ago, Treim said:

Whenever i look at Bandit cards i always feel remembered of desert warriors but not sure if i am alone with that and i don't think using a sun would be telling enough. Not sure at all what to do with Stonekin and especially Twilight yet but ill keep thinking about it.

Bandit or souls could possibly be a skull

Skull and crossbones for bandits?

or even the renegade logo?

 

amii edition card logo for lost souls?

or even the lost souls logo

 

Twilight could even have the twilight edition card logo

 

Not very original i know but could form the basis for inspiration.

 

 

Stonekin.... idk.

 

MAybe a picture of a diamond or something? (reflection of adamant skin?)

 

[Kaliber84]

 @Treim @Necrospaz

Simple is indeed what I am looking for. But I'd also like to use existing motifs already found in the factions if possible. The pure faction symbols aren't that hard to create/find.
Color schemes are actually things I want to avoid. Logos I want are ones that are also recognizable in black & white.

What I really need is something for the mixed factions. They have existing motifs but most of those are also used by other factions and are thus unusable to me.

Here is the logos so far. Next up is Lost Souls. Bandits, Stonekin and Twilight still need convincing ideas.

Edit: Added Fire symbol

Edited April 23, 2018 by Kaliber84

[Treim]

just a thought: I think what might help is characterizing the factions for what they stand and then let yourself inspire by existing symbols for those traits. i am not sure if that works but might as well try, right?

For example the key trait of twilight to me is mutation, I don't think there is an exisiting symbol for mutation though so maybe you can find a symbol for change?

for stonekin you probably want something like sturdiness, strength or stability?

and Bandits i wouldn't exactly know what their most important trait is - i first thought lawlessness but it doesnt really seem to fit, maybe you got some ideas for them?

 

[Kitsurubami]

Maybe something like this for twilight, just a modification of the twilight edition card logo.  Feels like it needs more in it though.

[Luki]

41 minutes ago, Kitsurubami said:

Maybe something like this for twilight, just a modification of the twilight edition card logo.  Feels like it needs more in it though.

I see some alien nipple

[Treim]

17 minutes ago, Luki said:

I see some alien nipple

ugh now that you mention it....

[Necrospaz]

Can't unsee.

[Kaliber84]

Update

Finished the Lost Souls logo I'll be going with for now. Looks better in monochrome though.

[Kaliber84]

Update

Finished Stonekin. Also colorized Stonekin and Lost Souls with a dual-color scheme. Looks much better imo.
I might rework Lost Souls when I'm finished with the other symbols.

[RumbleBum]

maybe a skull with crossed harpoons would fit the bandits. I-...I mean my nephew drew this insanely well cropped logo:

I don't really have any ideas for twilight but you might want to look at "twilight willsapper" for some inspiration

[Kaliber84]

@RumbleBum

Not sure about the skull but the harpoons are an amazing idea! Thx