The Sakaarian Conflict Logo
A Star Wars Battlefront II: Starfighter Assault E-Sports Tournament
Case Study
Description of the tournament written by Wolfsack from the Wolf's Den Discord server:
"On the fringes of the Galactic-Empires control, a recent discovery of Sakaar IV's mineral-rich underbelly has garnered the attention of would-be traders, smugglers, and paramilitary outfits. Some speculate that control over the region will one day define control over the entire outer-rim territories, as aspiring warlords and entrepreneurs quickly try to unearth and cultivate these valuable geological discoveries into profitable mining & manufacturing outposts. Naturally, the Empire has also taken note, and has established a small foothold in the sector with prosperous aspirations of its own."
"Noting the Empires newfound presence, most entities have pledged to work with the Empire, knowing that less-than-fair operational agreements and contracts are preferable to annihilation... One such entity, however, has dared to intercept a small convoy of Imperial cargo ships - freshly loaded with valuable materials vital to the manufacturing of modern weapon and life-support systems. Given the fact that the Empire has not-yet fully established itself in the sector, and the temptation of a lightly-defended gaggle of Gonzati-class cruiser escorts carrying only a small wing of tie-fighters, the mysterious Khaos Squadron has taken the first bite - making its escape to an undisclosed nearby location with the Empires first batch of refined ore."
"Outraged by this insolence, the Empire has decided to send none other than its most formidable star-fighter pilots - the mighty Black Squadron, to crush the insurrection and end this Sakaarian Conflict..."
"Outraged by this insolence, the Empire has decided to send none other than its most formidable star-fighter pilots - the mighty Black Squadron, to crush the insurrection and end this Sakaarian Conflict..."
(The Imperial "Throwing Star" Logo is designed by Guitarbard from the Wolf's Den Discord server. The only thing I added to their logo were some effects to match the effects on the Khaos Logo. The Khaos Logo is designed by me)
Certain people in the Discord server had already designed animations and the new Black Squadron logo for their streams to debut in the tournament, so all the creating inspired me to put me in the mood to make something too. After participating in this tournament for every Thursday in the month of March 2021, I started concepting the idea for this logo in my head on the 28th of March. Mulling over the idea all week, I started taking my concepts into Adobe Illustrator to hash out.
My general idea was to have both titles of the teams "Black Squadron" and "Khaos Squadron" to be "conflicting" with each other for the same space on the logo. Directly referencing the battle which ensued both in the tournament nights which were then reflected in lore prompts summarizing the result of that tournament night. By using the font from both team's logos, the font chosen for both do not necessarily complement each other. But neither does two teams in the heat of battle. To play towards this "conflict" I realized that "Black" ends in a "K" and "Khaos" begins with a "K" and therefore made it look like where "Black" ended "Khaos" began. Since both teams have "Squadron" in their titles, I split the word in half using their team's chosen fonts for their half of the word. I used elements from their logo for Black Squadron as well as the logo I created for Khaos Squadron. To hide the style difference between the fonts, I added a translucent stroke in Illustrator to signify the area of "conflict" between the two titles.
When my initial work with the text in the title was completed, I wanted to add a certain flair to the text to keep with the theme of the tournament. Being that this was named "The Sakaarian Conflict" I suddenly remembered a certain filter in Adobe Photoshop that I had used before. On the main tool menus at the top, in Filter > Stylize > Wind, this wind effect I used to create the visual image of the titles being in "conflict" with a "rival" force. A subtle addition which blends in nicely with the theme of the tournament.
Also, I incorporated some Outer Glow effects with some slight noise spread from Adobe InDesign, again capitalizing on my workflow pipeline between Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Photoshop was also used to resize images whenever needed.
Within mere hours I had the majority of my work done with the current titles and logos seen in the final logo, however, I changed the direction in which I originally planned. I was going to have a vector art circle behind the main titles to keep with my go to style when designing. But when it came time to embellish my logo with the Star Wars assets, the vector art clashed with the assets. So, I began to research and ask the author of the tournament what "Sakaar IV" was.
Sakaar IV is an imagined name by the author of the tournament although he did say it is a planet. With that to go on, I then scoured the internet for a suitable planet that looked like it had a "mineral-rich underbelly" from the Prologue story of the tournament. Once I found the current planet you see, I knew it had to be the background of the logo and no just an added decoration off in the corner.
From this point forward, the logo was nearly completed. After choosing certain assets of Star Wars to play to the story of the tournament being two rival factions of the same Imperial side (Black Squadron being the strict fleet of the Empire and Khaos Squadron being the outcasts from the Imperial Fleet yet still working for the glory of the Empire as well as their own), I created a visual representation of what the tournament was about...
Two TIE Fighter squadrons, both similar yet very different, in dogfight combat with each other around the mining stations of Sakaar IV!
Total time spent on this project: Approximately 10 hours
For more Black Squadron and Khaos Squadron activity, check out their activity on Twitch and their website:
