Taking the previous photo into Adobe Illustrator, I began to sketch the main lines of the elephant's face. Making sure that no line was too complex, I was able to limit myself into creating a simple sketch.

Once I had finished the initial sketch finished, I was able to connect many of the lines to create a more unified illustration. I added a thicker stroke as well as filled in the tusks and eyes to add more weight. In adding a thicker stroke, some of the details changed. The dented shadows in the ears and near the top of the head became unique in the way that they tapered off in the ends, which ended up inspiring the shape of the ridges along the trunk.

In this next step, I went ahead and made the stroke of the overall design even thicker. I made the eyes bigger in order to make the elephant look more intimidating. I changed the overall shape inside the ears and at the top of the head in order to thicken it and keep it true to the thick stroke throughout the piece. I hollowed out the color of the tusks to keep the reality of white tucks and changed the ridges along the trunk in order to further the illusion that the trunk was bending and getting further away from the view towards the bottom.

When it was time to add color, I copied my latest design four times and changed each fill to different bright colors. I chose these specific colors because they did not directly resemble the colors of an elephant, which would help further the sports team feel and add uniqueness to the illustrations. For the two left designs, I chose stroke colors that were simply darker versions of the fill colors. For the two designs on the right, I chose to make the strokes colors that would contrast with the fill.

In the end, I decided on the top left color scheme with green, but changed the outline to a complimentary blue in order to avoid an overwhelming amount of green.

Once it was time to add a team name, I decided to include a shape behind the design in order to unify the logo and ensure that it did not appear too top-heavy. I chose a shield because of its rough resemblance to the shape of an elephant's head. I made the shield a brighter orange in order to contrast with the rest of the design. This is where my final choice of the sports team colors came from-green, blue, and orange.

The typeface I decided on was Futura Medium Italics because of the sharpness included along the apexes of the "M" and because of its subtle italicizing.

This is the version I would go on to use for some applications of my design on team merchandise due to it's lack of complexity when it comes to color.

In order to avoid flatness, I took the last design further by adding drop shadows to make the design pop. I also added a gradient to make the shield look a little more 3D.

In the end, I decided against the gradient because of the darkness of the orange seeming far too out of place. This is the final version that would be useful in any print or web applications of the design.

This is one application of the logo to a team uniform.The uniform emphasizes mostly green and orange as the colors of the team rather than the blue because they are strong complimentary colors and this does not allow for tension in color that might occur if a third color (blue) was added. While the color is well seen in other applications, I felt that the uniform was best if kept simple, including the large team logo on the front of the jersey and the player number on the bottom of the shorts. The number remains true to the design as well in that it uses the same colors and typeface (Futura Medium Italic) as the name in the logo.

This is an application of the logo on to merchandise for the team. This sweater includes the blue that is the third sports team color, without overpowering with color. The front includes a print of the logo similar to that on the jersey and the sleeve has the team name as seen in the complete design. The name on the sleeve would continue should the other side of the sleeve be visible or unfolded.

Finally, another sports merchandise I applied my design to is a sports had. I decided to include only the team name due to its simplicity. The embroidered team name uses the same typeface once again and the same colors ad the rest of the designs. The stand-alone typeface gives a playful sports feel without having to include the whole logo and without having to complicate the embroidery.