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	Philadelphia Phantoms	5
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Posted 2004 February 22

There are certain names that, while being perfectly good names, don't really lend themselves to good logos. The image may be a powerful one, but it isn't a visual image for some reason or another. For these teams to come up with a logo as good as most other teams is even more impressive because of the handicap they're dealing with.

This is exactly what the Philadelphia Phantoms have done.

The handicap here is obvious: phantoms, by definition, are invisible. It is, by definition, impossible to draw something that is invisible. But in spite of this, the Phantoms logo does indeed include a drawing of a phantom. The outline of the logo is essentially a gateway to darkness, and inside that darkness are two glowing eyes looking straight at you. It's a stroke of brilliance.

I have mixed feelings about the "wings" on the sides. On the one hand, it doesn't quite look right. Blur your eyes just right, and the bottom part gives the appearance of a ZZ Top beard that has been combed sideways. But it needed something more than just the shape of the face, and it wouldn't have worked to have something regular like a square or circle. (A circle would have been particularly bad. It would have made the logo look like the "Have a nice day!" face's evil twin.) Borrowing a detail from the parent team's logo was as good as anything.

The one area where the logo does truly drop the ball is the word "Phantoms" in the logo. Quite simply, it isn't necessary. Also, it's the only spot in the logo where the purple and orange touch each other, and purple and orange are two colors that don't look good next to each other. They should have left this off.

Final Score: 5 points.
Penalties: Alliteration, 2 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts; Fade, 6 pts.
Bonuses: Cool-Logo, 5 pts.