The Valiant Steeds

It was a Thursday night in Henderson when Bill Foley brought out the horses. This past Thursday, to be exact. And he didn't exactly roll out a team of equines, but he did unveil the newest team who will wear the branded equine on their chests as the Henderson AHL franchise - formerly the San Antonio Rampage - now has a name and an identity with the unveiling of the name "Silver Knights"!

I had written that I wasn't really a fan of the Silver Knights name because of how it might indicate second-best with respect to the gold-silver-bronze medal colours, but I have to admit that I never saw this angle as how they'd sell the team. Maybe it's because chess isn't prevalent in my life, but using the horse as the logo's focal point in terms of being knights is actually really clever. Only that idea is wrong too!

In saying that, let's take a look at the new Henderson Silver Knights.

Designed in the same way as the Vegas Golden Knights' logo, the Henderson Silver Knights carries on that same look with the front-facing horse staring its opponents down. The continuity in the logos is actually a really good idea from an overall branding standpoint, so this is a really well-executed logo at first glance as it relates to the overall branding with the logo being designed in a similar way as the NHL affiliate, yet it is its own distinct and unique logo. If there is a drawback I can find, I'm not a fan of what appears to be the background neck armor shown under the nose piece that extends downward in the bottom half of the logo, but I suppose that's a minor quibble when it comes to the overall logo's design, especially when seeing it from further away.

In their debut, the Henderson Silver Knights did include a more robust look at their logo. This explains a little more about the design.

Yes, it was pretty obvious that the face armor of the horse was a capital "H" for Henderson, so that shouldn't need too much explaining. The twenty lines of chain mail that I just complained about along with the twenty rivets in the armor represent the 2020-21 inaugural season for the Knights, and that's something I wouldn't have picked up on had they not pointed it out. As you can see in the image, silver, gold, and black will be the colours used for the Silver Knights franchise.

Those colours, for the pantone-concerned citizens, were also clearly established by the club in the unveiling. If you're looking to rebrand your Rampage fan site, for example, here's what you need to know.

Can I just say that I hate the idea of putting pictures in places where distinct, unique colour swatches should be? There are sorts of colours, shading, and shadowing in those pictures, so what colour is actually #C1C5C8? And I'll double-down by saying I hate that there are colours named after cities where these teams play. I'm not lost on the branding, but it seems that this trend of naming colours to trademark them is getting out of hand.

Because I hate these ideas, here's a better representation of the colour scheme using the hex codes above.

Isn't that easier? And I even have the RGB colour codes on there too! Personally, I prefer this over what they showed above, but to each their own, I guess. Just gimme the colours straight-up with out trying to convince me what the colour looks like.

The Silver Knights even incorporated some state imagery into their logo, and this was something that I completely overlooked as well when they proposed the "Silver Knights" name. As you can see on the Nevada quarter issued by the US Mint, the state of Nevada is known as "The Silver State", and the horses shown on the state quarter represent the fact that Nevada is home to the largest wild horse population in the United States. In knowing these two facts, the horse imagery and the choice of silver makes much more sense from a location-name correlation now. Again, the cleverness of the name works really well when one has all the facts, something I admittedly didn't when I first heard the name.

So what does this all mean? Well, to be blunt, I was wrong. The name actually works on a number of levels when one considers everything that it represents, and I'm a big fan of having teams represent their communities. I don't mind being wrong in this case because it means the team did a good job in convincing me that a name I perceived as bad is actually really good through smart design and a relationship to the community. While we have yet to see what the jerseys will look like, I have a feeling that the Silver Knights will be fine in that department too.

I'm never in favour of seeing a team move when one considers the history that the San Antonio Rampage had built in the Texas city, but I'll give the Henderson Silver Knights credit for making the relocated franchise a part of their community from the get-go. If they follow their NHL affiliate's lead, I suspect the success on the ice will be the next thing we're talking about when it comes to the Silver Knights.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!