Tukapa: The Cast Iron Chicken

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue the O’Dowda legacy by being the 5th generation of my family to play for Tukapa Rugby & Sports Club. A proud club, Tukapa has plenty of history attached to it, which just adds to the fantastic culture they have at the club. While their logo is simply too sacred for me to even think about touching, I thought I would create a fun, modern version of their beloved mascot: The Cast Iron Chicken. Long story short, the Cast Iron Chicken supposedly came from an over cooked chook that a Tukapa team had the unpleasant experience of eating way back in the day. That chook spawned both the mascot and victory song sung at the clubrooms. My version of the chook has been Marvel-ised (as I like to call it), showing off a more intense, scarier version of the original. This means, plain and simple, that “Tukapa means business!”.

 

 

 

Massey Vet XV

My current team, the Massey University Vet XV, is a team that has withstood the test of time. The only team left of the original “Tri-Nations” competition and still going strong in a club that has lost two long standing teams due to declining player numbers, the Vets have a long and proud history. Their current logo is quite dated and in need of a bit of a spruce up, so my version modernises the original while keeping the main core concepts. The Ram is a mascot for the club and university, while the Aesculapius rod (snake wrapped around the pole) is a worldwide symbol for veterinary practices. The medical cross was used as a background with a Sky blue fill to represent the club colours.

Taupo Rugby and Sports Club

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Taupo Rugby & Sports (Taupo Sports for short) was a team I played for during my first year of teaching. While it already has a wonderful, iconic logo, I had such a blast playing for that team that I couldn’t help but give a logo a go. The original featured a black, blue and yellow colour scheme on a shield with a rugby ball, goal posts and mountain. I did a number of designs for this one, as there were many combinations and styles that I could try with it. For all of them, I modernised the shield and writing, while adding a more detailed mountain. I don’t actually know if the mountain is supposed to be Mount Ruapehu or Tuwharetoa, so to be safe I just added a similar shaped mountain to the original. The different logos incorporated a mix of some or all of the following:

• A rugby ball, like in the original.
• A Māori pattern (Koru and Pakati).
• A trout, symbolic of Taupo.
• Waka paddles, representative of the body of water that is so important to Taupo and it’s locals.

Fantasy Basketball

For several years, a close group of friends and I have battled it out in Fantasy basketball. While a hobby to many, this group takes it’s Fantasy Basketball life-or-death seriously and so it was only fitting that I designed a logo for each team to add that extra zing to our league. I will keep updating this post as I make them.

1. The Lob Squad

My first request! My good mate, award winning journalist Christopher Reive, asked if I could make him a logo for his fantasy basketball team. He wanted a logo that was similar to a retro Utah Jazz logo, with a ball being palmed as the “D”. Being a good Taranaki Lad, I thought I would add our beloved mountain into the design, as the Jazz logo also featured a mountain range. The logo could also quite easily be used for a social or recreational league basketball team.

2. Block Party

Chris’ little brother Nic only asked for a logo that had red and blue. To the untrained eye, that could mean a number of things from police lights to that iconic scene from The Matrix. However, I know Nic as a long suffering Philadelphia 76ers fan. Basing the logo on the current 76ers logo, I took the team name very literally by adding a big hand mark and a party hat while only using the two primary 76ers colours.

3. Diesel Inc.

Now this one was a tricky one. One of my closest mates from Uni and renowned car salesman Ryan “Mouse” Phillips is a big fan of the Shaq-Kobe Era Lakers. He once even went so far as to give himself the nickname “Mouse Diesel” as a nod to one of the most dominant and iconic forwards to play the game. His list of demands were simple:

• A nod to Shaq and Kobe.
• Tie together Kobe’s logo, as well as the lakers logo font.
• A subtle #34 (Shaq’s playing number).
• An oil/diesel reference.
• A black/gold colour theme with slight hints of purple and gold (Lakers colours)

As you can see, the subtle purple and gold were incorporated in the oil spray and 34 at the base of the rig. Kobe’s iconic logo (please don’t sue me Kobe) was used as the bracing for the rig and the Diesel logo is reminiscent of the famous Lakers font. All of this finished in a big gear cog.

4. White Men Can’t Jump

Feeling a bit left out, I decided to make my own teams logo. I’m a 90’s kids and proudly represent anything from my era. As well as this, I think throwback logos and designs are awesome. My logo is a nod to the retro, with a number of nostalgic inclusions. The crown is a nod to the Fresh Prince himself who started his journey like so many ballers did by “shooting some b-ball outside of the school”. The pattern inside the ball hits you right in the nostalgia and would look great on clothing or a bus seat.

5. DMT Mindmelters

 

Jared Gray, our leagues current champion, is an explorer, a traveller, a wanderer and has named his team after Dimethyltryptamine (say that as quick as you can 10 times), a hallucinogen that is well known in the far reaches of the world. While I have never partaken in hallucinogens, I imagine the sensation would take you through space and time and hence I have added a galactic background. Being a fantasy basketball team, I made the logo more relevant by adding an atom with a basketball nucleus. This was a little nod to the term “Ball if Life”, which details how important basketball is to certain people.

6. Flash Jordan

Michael Jensen, fellow workmate, is a big fan of Jordan and wordplay, so it was no wonder that his team was named after both a great baller and a great cult classic. My design featured a modern take of the Flash Gordon logo with a basketball in the centre, while still maintaining the retro font and colours. The logo was finished on an arrowhead shield with a red lightning background.

7. Miller Thriller

Jake Blanks (the man, the legend) asked for a 1995 Pacers Jersey inspired logo that encapsulates the Reggie Miller attitude. He also said he would have zero complaints Michael Jackson thriller themes somehow find their way onto the design. Check and Check.

8. Old Faithful

Ben wanted an old school Nuggets logo vibe with a Tetris styled skyline and a mushroom cloud in the background. It was tricky, but I managed to get all these in (though not in the same order) with a Mushroom cloud, a skyline and a half basketball with a Tetris texture.

 

London Wasps

Inspired slightly by the Charlotte Hornets modern logo, this logo represents a modernised version of the London Wasps traditional logo. The Wasps abdomen has the Union Jack on it, representing London and finished with a wasp nest/honeycomb background.

Dragons (Bell Block Marist Redesign)

I grew up just outside of a small (well, not so small anymore) Taranaki town of Bell Block. They haven’t got a huge amount of sport teams, but their rugby league team has a strong following. Though never having played for them before, as a local I thought I would do a redesign of their logo (pictured below). Their design is taken from the Dayton Dragons baseball team in the states. My design features the team colours, a subtle dragon inset that flows into a koru and is decorated with kowhaiwhai patterns.

Mana in Education, where it all began.

 

Over the last two years, I have been fortunate to be a part of the Manawatu Teacher Rugby team, Mana in Education. I jumped at the opportunity to create a logo for this new initiative, which now features on all of our playing, training and off field gear.

Revolving around the iconic wind turbines, I tried it with both white and green. The other one is a more basic logo made for embroidery. I did a bit of research into the traditional Māori patterns so there was a bit of meaning behind the logo as well as connections to our roles as educators/leaders .

Pakati (top turbine): representative of warriors/battles/courage and strength.
Ahu ahu mataroa (left turbine): Shows talent and achievement in athleticism or sport and can also be representative of a new challenge.
Kowhaiwhai (right turbine): Geneology, history. The white Kowhaiwhai normally represents purity, promise for the future, an awakening.
Koru (Middle): represents peace, tranquility, personal growth, positive change and awakening.

Welcome

Welcome to Tomanaki Logos. I’m a teacher, sports player/enthusiast and amateur designer (if I even have that much credibility!) who enjoys making and redesigning sports logos. As of now, I do this for fun and recognition, with the hopes that in the future I can help sport teams that do not have the resources or money to design a logo reflective of their proud clubs.