Friday: New Writer and a Lot of Blue

"Good day to yous," as we say in Buffalo. Ricky Mazella reporting for Hockey Jersey Concepts. Some of you may know me as a contributor to HJC, but others as the founder and owner of Buffalo Nickel Graphics. Shameless plug aside, it is great to be able to help Ryan and the gang share your talent with the world! I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a member of the posting team and look forward to cooperating with them. In the meantime, let's get to the meat and potatoes of it all!

First of all, having just come back from Bruins territory in Springfield, MA and returning to Sabreville in suburban Buffalo, NY still as a Ducks fan, I'm sad to see my team bow out so early and the heartbreaking loss by Toronto (my apologies and sympathies to Ryan and the rest of Leafs Nation). But we've seen some great first round hockey and so far we are being entertained by these conference semifinals. As much as we all love our playoff hockey, we can't forget about what's happening here at HJC. That includes (most importantly) the reminder below that I am providing you with.

                     COTW May 6-12 vote (ends SATURDAY @ 11:59pm EDT)

Will Scheibler is today's featured concept artist! The following is his profile card:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Philadelphia Flyers (Brady S.)

Resuming his Nike SWIFT Redesign series, Brady presents us with a simple look for the Flyers from Broad St. with this set. What I like about this set are the color distribution and the striping. The thick center stripe with the thin outer stripes add character to this jersey to make it more classy. Except for the white center stripe on the orange jersey (that has always seemed unusual to me),  the colors don't clash with each other and the numbers are legible in the white and you can cheat with it in this set unlike some others. As much as I don't like the yoke, it is an important part of this concept for me where the black accent is more present and no yoke outline is necessary - as portrayed here. An 8 out of 10 is in order for this concept.

Phoenix Coyotes (Brady S.)

The second concept in Brady's series suggests a bi-color scheme. I like it and fortunately for the Yotes, they'd be able to pull it off with this or something similar. The silhouettes are what make this set, otherwise I'm not so sure we have anything. I mean, I definitely favor the white jersey, but I'm not completely sold on the counterpart because the yoke doesn't transfer well. I would replace it with the brick red and add a white outline, but then a reverse jersey would need to be made and I won't fancy that either. The striping is fine as is, but it wouldn't hurt to see another stripe added on.  7.5 out of 10 is my verdict.

New York Rangers (Adam H.)

I do appreciate the effort in trying to turn back the clock, but I never really liked this template because it is typically an injustice to a good, clean concept. The font used here gives me a bad vibe, but is better than other fonts here. The "R" in the primary logo seems out of place, but can be overlooked. Again, this has a lot of potential, just not with this template. This is a 7 out of 10.

Nashville Predators (Adam H.)

I really want to like this one but it's a difficult decision. I know I said that this template typically fails concepts, but it actually works here. The only thing with that is that the red throws me off. In addition, the logo gets a little lost in the striping and you can barely make out the crest script on the alternate. On top of that, a gold name and number on a white jersey will never fly as it will get lost in the surrounding white of the jersey. This may be a 6 out of 10, but send this to the drawing board and we'll someday get a winner!

Buffalo Sabres (Tristan M.)

This combination of eras may be epic. The original team crest is revived using the Buffa-slug font (which I personally liked). The striping  is phenomenal with the exception of needing the hem striping on the white uniform to match the striping on the sleeves. Also, I would suggest that there is a jersey color stripe between the number and number outline to create a double number outline as the gold gets lost in translation. Make sure all stitching inside of the panels are not showing (especially over the striping as seen above). Please consult the tutorials link on the side of the page to make sure your concept is well executed. This set brings back a pastime and is very much a retro-modern look that I know would be a well accepted set here in the Western New York community! Overall, 7.5 out of 10.

Chicago Blackhawks (Tyler G.)

Today's final concept comes from my fellow co-author Tyler, who submits a jersey for his beloved team from the Madhouse on Madison. I always liked black jerseys for this team. This however also provides contrast with the hem being white. The slight difference from the actual alternates is that there is an extra red and extra white stripe. To accommodate both, I would either change the bottom of the sleeves to white or color the hem black while adding the extra white and extra red stripe to it. I see an 8 out of 10 with this one.

--------------------------------------------------------------

It feels good not to be a one-and-done writer on HJC as my only other post was nine months ago from Sunday as a part of the original writing application process. Man, was it really that long ago? Well this is one small step for HJC and one giant leap for me as I learn from my experiences blogging for HJC and as a concept artist myself. Keep on sending stuff in to us as we look forward to your content and appreciate your enthusiasm for designing hockey stuff! I can't wait for the next time I get to post here a week from now, over and out.

-Ricky