Snohomish County FC officially announces logo, colors, nickname “Steelheads”
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, WA—Snohomish County Football Club is excited to officially announce our identity as we continue to prepare to build an elite adult amateur men’s soccer club for Snohomish County, Washington.
Go Fish
Our official name is “Snohomish County Football Club,” and we have adopted the nickname “Steelheads” along with the primary colors Orange and Black, and secondary colors White and Tan.
Our official club crest, designed by Mark Lavis, is a circle with a black band featuring our name and a Steelhead in the middle. The Steelhead’s scales remind one of a ‘soccer panel’ shape similar to those found in balls and nets. They alternate orange and tan until they give way to the distinctive Steelhead head and mouth.
About “Steelheads”
Fishing is a favorite pastime in Snohomish County, and Steelheads are among the most-popular catches of anglers. Steelheads travel out to sea (Salt water) and back to rivers (fresh water) to spawn. They are a strong fish that can survive over multiple seasons. Some have been known to live as long as 11 years and get as large as 55 pounds.
Mark Lavis is a Yakima, Washington resident who attended the University of Oregon. He is the man behind SporRepor.com, a satirical and informational website for Northwest sports. Lavis saw that “Steelheads” was winning a name poll posted by goalWA.net and wasted no time in producing ideas around the name.
“First off, I think more teams should have a fish as a mascot,” Mark says with a sly grin. “When I saw SnoCoFC were floating the nickname “Steelheads”, I had to jump on board and make sure they converted to the Church of Salmon and Trout.”
Mark Lavis.
As Lavis was thinking fish, he was also thinking color schemes. “My color inspiration came from utilizing colors combinations I would like more sports teams to use in the US. After floating a few to SnoCoFC, we found common ground on Orange/Black/Tan/White.” Fast-thinking and with a dry sense of humor, Mark adds, “One day I will find a team that wants to bring eggplant and jade back.”
Lavis believes simple is best. His Steelheads design might look fancy because of the hexagon patterns, but in reality it is simply a fish, in a circle. “From the onset of my design process, I wanted to embrace minimalism. Awhile ago, I heard something from someone that always stuck with me as a designer. It’s that in order to have a great logo, a 5-year-old needs to be able to mimic your design from memory. That can be said about well-known known logos across the sports world. I wanted SnoCoFC to have a logo a kindergartener, somewhere in Snohomish County, could mimic during his free time next year. I wanted for this logo to communicate SnoCoFC; no matter if I drew it or a 5-year-old did.”
Social media and print media are very different things these days, but a logo must be able to carry over strongly to both styles of communication. “I crafted my logo so that it could be broken down and fit into various mediums with ease. At its core, it’s nothing more than a fish head and a bunch of hexagons. You can do a lot with hexagons from a design standpoint. You can make them small and large to fit them where you need to. You can put them in a row for a scarf. You can even make them into the body of a steelhead salmon. It’s a very rudimentary shape that SnoCoFC can take advantage of since it’s now unique to them in the northwest.”
Mark becomes a logo nut
Mark Lavis designs – Mark Lavis.
“In middle school, I became a rabid fan of sports logos,” Lavis reveals. “I had always been a sports fan growing up but something about logos just clicked with me. When I set out to craft my own humorous sports news website, Spor Repor, I made it my mission to have one of the best sports logo databases online; not giving a damn that it didn’t really tie into the rest of the site.”
Lavis can now add his Snohomish County Football Club Steelheads crest to his collection. He’s not done helping launch the Steelheads, though. Lavis will continue on as “Brand Manager and Graphic Designer” for the fledgling club. After all, there are posters to make, scarves to create, and websites to fill with orange and black.
#GoFish
Snohomish County Football Club (SnoCo FC) is a group of local soccer players and supporters in Snohomish County, Washington who are organizing in order to bring elite amateur men’s soccer to our area.
