The Black Crown

We eventually settled on a concept based on the official bird of Oakland, the Black-Crowned Night Heron. The bird won this distinction the thanks to the advocacy of the members of a third-grade class, one of whom described the heron as "a cool and funky bird, just like Oakland.". The birds have been uncommonly successful settling in Downtown Oakland near Lake Merritt.

I experimented with a few different ways to draw the bird, continuing to use pen and paper to hone the final concept.

Logos

After we arrived at a style of bird, I moved the drawing to Illustrator and began to explore logo designs digitally.

I started with a circle, but eventually tried out a crest, a traditional style of logo for soccer clubs.

The final design

For the final design I used hard angles for everything other than the heron’s eye. The logo includes a custom lettering, which emulates the hard angles of the bird and matches the vertical stripes in the bottom half of crest. The visual representation of the crown was a late addition, and is a favorite for the Oakland Genesis players. The gradient in the background recalls the distinctive Bay Area fog.

Logo in use

The logo and font has been used on hundreds of jerseys, shirts, and other gear for Oakland Genesis players, as well as merchandise, which sold out (hoodie, jersey) by the team’s sponsor, local clothing company Oaklandish. The logo has also been used for hundreds of digital assets. Designs and photos below courtesy of Oakland Genesis and Oaklandish.