I had been working on a rebrand of all MLS clubs, but was really struggling to come up with something for Chicago. The recent rumors of a name change finally got the creative juices flowing.
You can see some of those rebrands on my Dribbble page.
This. Yes, it's ugly. There were TONS of ugly uniforms in the 90s, but those were typically maximalist ugly - they did too much and suffered as a result (helloooo NY Islanders Fishsticks jersey - a shirt so terrible that someone literally wrote a book about it), but that's just because graphic design for logos was trending that way anyways. No many are retro cool, helped in no small part by the fact that they WERE panned at the time so not a lot of people bought them.
Now minimalism is in, and the Fire logo is, well, minimalistic ugly.
The one thing I will say it has going for it: The "crown" is at least supposed to be a fire. I think. It still looks more like a mountain called "Flipping the Bird" or something. But versus the old logo, naming your team after an massive fire that ran unchecked through the majority of the city, then basing your imagery on a fire department is basically uniform trolling when you think about it.
There a ton of great soccer books and though they are definitely not required reading they are super informative and fun. If I had to recommend one book it would be Inverting the Pyramid
For people new to soccer I recommend focusing on one phase or player. You could have a lot of fun just watching Luka and nothing else.
Former Chicago Fire media guys Sam Stejkal & Paul Tenorio talk about the Fire Rebuilt at the 17min mark.
"Stop Saying Soccer" Jan 15th: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cDovL3N0b3BzYXlpbmdzb2NjZXIubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M&episode=ZjFhNTBiY2EtMjRmNS00OTc1LTkxYjAtNmE5MzE3YTczNjFm&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiKuIyBo4nnAhVKJ80KHZVVDTsQjrkEegQIARAE&ep=6
>Phil from Black Fires on to the show to discuss the beautiful game both here in Chicago with the Fire and Red Stars and across MLS with the impending transfer of Chicharito to LA Galaxy. We muse over Rodolfo Pizzaro and Robert Berić linked with Chicago and continue our tradition of bringing in the global game citing examples from EPL, Ligue 1, and West Ham's inevitable relegation to bring it all together. This ones a big ol' burrito so settle in for 90+
A perfectly good antenna that will pick up dozens of channels in Chicago is about $20.
https://www.amazon.com/ANTAN-Range-Transparentn-Freeview-Television-Channels-witht/dp/B07VFWV37Q/
I had this one held up by thumb tacks. There is a lot of over the air TV in Chicago.