Mahoning Valley Scrappers

107

There are cliché logos, and then there are logos so cliché that they're almost iconic in their clichéitude. To be typically cliché you just have to earn a lot of BLF points — that is the point of the BLF, after all. But to achieve iconic clichédom, a couple of other things are needed. You have to draw things with roughly the same level of detail as an Archie comic — detailed enough to be somewhat realistic, but lacking in enough detail to be kinda cartoony. You have to feature the name prominently but still have something else. You have to use whatever colors seem to be the current trend — which these days seems to be red, blue, and grey/silver.

It's actually been a while since I've reviewed a logo like that. I think the last one that really qualifies is the Williamsport Crosscutters, which was all the way back in July of last year. I hadn't really realized this until I got to this logo, and here's the same old cliché approach staring me in the face.

I haven't missed these logos. Not at all.

I'm not completely sure what this dog is supposed to represent. Obviously he (I have no doubt the designer intended the dog to be male) is supposed to be a ludicrously tough dog, as evidenced by the bared teeth, the hardhat, and the industrial chain being used as a leash. But is he supposed to be a junkyard (i.e. scrapyard) dog? A dog raised for dogfights? Or just a dog owned by a man with a three-inch penis who's trying to compensate? I have no idea. What I do know is the dog looks utterly ridiculous (and the bat in his mouth isn't helping).

Worse yet, this dog is not what most people would consider a scrapper. The term isn't all that well defined (literally; Merriam-Webster's definition is "a person who fights or struggles against something or to do something", which I think you will agree doesn't really cover it very well), but generally the term gets used to refer to someone who you wouldn't expect to do well in a fight but who does. It's especially used to refer to someone who's kind of scrawny but will still kick your ass if you don't watch it. In the realm of (for example) boxers, heavyweights like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis are not scrappers, lightweights like Manny Pacquiao and Mickey Bey are. If you're talking about dogs, bulldogs are not scrappers. A particularly vicious Yorkshire terrier or chihuahua is, if said yorky or chihuahua can actually cause serious damage. And if you're laughing at the idea of a yorky or chihuahua that can cause serious damage, then keep in mind that that's what it means to be a scrapper. People laugh at the idea of a scrapper doing any damage until they see the scrapper do a ton of damage, at which point it's a case of who's laughing now, motherfucker?

But of course, a logo which featured an actual scrapper would (by definition) not be an intimidating logo. That makes the name a bit problematic. It's not a bad name, per se, because the name is intimidating. But you can't make an intimidating logo to go along with it. This might be one of those cases where it would be best to just go with a word mark. And if they're not going to do that, then they should really just embrace the irony and put a chihuahua in the logo. Indeed, maybe they should just replace the bulldog with a chihuahua but otherwise leave the logo alone. So imagine a chihuahua baring its teeth, wearing a hardhat, and being held by an industrial chain for a leash. It'll look silly, yes, but it will show an actual scrapper in the logo. And maybe, just maybe, this won't cause people to wonder if the guy walking that dog doesn't have a three-inch penis.

Final Score:107 points.
Penalties: Region, 8 pts; Equipment, 13 pts; Irrelevance, 39 pts; Cartoon, 47 pts.
Bonuses: None.