Tuesday: Stadium Series Finale This Week!

Hey there everyone! There's a lot I'd like to talk about but unfortunately I'm a little tight on time today! So I'll keep it short and sweet!

Congrats to Canada on their Olympic Gold in both men's and women's hockey. It's sad to see the US do so poorly their last 2 games but at at least 6 Blackhawks are coming home with medals!

In case you haven't seen it yet, Ryan released the schedule for the Pairs Competition's presentations
http://www.hjcdesignblog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/pairs-competition-presentation-schedule.html

Also, big list of COTW nominees this week so definitely get a vote in on that. We'd hate to see it end up in a tie. 7 concepts! That's the longest list of nominees I think we've had in a while!

COTW Feb 17-23 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

But what I want to get out there, and Ryan mentioned it the other day, is I'll be attending the last Stadium Series game this weekend in Chicago. I'd love to get some sort of meetup with any HJC readers, writers, concept artists.... anyone who's involved with the site in one way or another!

Ideally we could all meet up at some point during the Fan Festival during the day and snap a pic together and we could share it here on the site. If not, we could all meet separately at some point if things don't work out in our favor. I've heard from two people so far and hopefully there's more comin'.

If you're interested tell me in the comments, send me a tweet ( @dbrodesigns ) or email Ryan and he'll get you my email address for sure!

Now onto the concepts!

Toronto Maple Leafs Concept - Ben A.

Ben gives the Leafs some new sweaters. The look like a mix between their current set and their current alternate. The logo looks a tad large on all the jerseys. As for the CN Tower in the logo, I think including some specific tie to the city in the logo would look good on a shoulder patch or some sort of secondary logo. The main logo shouldn't be touched. The Canada Night alternate is a neat idea, but I don't know how Leafs fans would take their team coming out in Habs' colors... Ryan, other Leafs fans, any thoughts on that? TV numbers would be cool and the leaf logo on the blue jersey should be white to stick out more.

Also, presentation note, I'd make a less busy background for your concepts. Either make that picture almost transparent or use a solid background. Makes it easier to see the concepts.

Rating: 5/10

Anaheim Ducks Concept - Michael G.

Michael keeps the Ducks current colors and makes their jerseys a tad more traditional. The slanted stripes serve as a nice tie to the team's history, since they've almost always had some sort of slanty stripes. It would be nice if both jerseys had a hem stripe. I don't care for how the striping is different between the two but the jerseys are set up the same way so it's not a huge deal. I don't care for the amount of bronze on the dark jersey. That's a color I wish they'd use less and less of everyday. Swap the orange or white with that bronze and the jersey, in my opinion, would look better.

Rating: 6.5/10

Krefeld Pinguine (DEL) - Stephen T.

Never noticed it before, but their logo is an NHL shield.... Any European jersey looks better without ads. I would take the Sabres alternate over any European jersey for sure. Absolutely. Nice simple jersey here. Nothing extraordinary but a trusted look. I'd rather see the gray in the striping white. The number font looks a little thin but that might just be me.

Rating: 7/10

 Quebec Nordiques Concept - Christian L.

The updated "unused Nordiques" logo looks good in these colors. A thicker outline on the logo would help it stand out from the dark jersey, or maybe make the logo a brighter color. But I like this dark makeover for the Nords. I would like to see a light jersey to go with this jersey and have a whole set. The striping is neat too, and personal preference, I'd rather see it on the hem too. I understand the use of the fleur de lis.

Rating: 7/10

Calgary Flames Concept - Wings98

This appears to have been Wings' entry into the Flames competition held a while back. Getting rid of black is a good idea. I always thought it was a bit unnecessary. As we've seen here a lot, this new design is nothing extraordinary but it's such a proven look. It's hard to make it look bad. The only thing I'd change here is making the logo stand out more on the dark jersey. Whether that be making it mostly white or giving it a thick outline.

Rating: 7/10

Pittsburgh Penguins Third Jersey Concept - David P

David brings back the sport gold in a big way for this concept. Drawing some inspiration from the old Pittsburgh Pirates of the 20's he puts together a really good looking jersey. This would be a neat Winter Classic jersey. And plugging the Penguin into the Pirates logo looks really good. That'd make for a really good T shirt. 

Rating: 8/10

My Chemical Romance Tribute Jersey - Gerard M.

Gerard steps away from his NFL series after finishing it and whipped up this My Chemical Romance jersey. MCR is a band I'm somewhat familiar with, and as of recently, have been trying to get all their albums so I can listen to all of them through. The only one I have is Danger Days plus a few scattered singles from the bands run the last 13 or whatever years. The LA Kings used the band's song "Welcome to the Black Parade" during their banner ceremony last season which was a pretty good ceremony. Overall, I like the jersey as a tribute to the band. Fits the look and feel of the band. 

Rating: 8/10

Arizona Coyotes Concept - Justin C.

Justin, the back-2-back COTY winner has put together something for the soon to be rebranded "Arizona Coyotes". I like this new logo. It looks like Justin filled in an unused Coyotes logo that was thrown around during their rebrand about 10 years ago. The logo popped up on Icethetics a month or so ago and it's nice to see someone pick it up. Somewhat reminiscent of their first look from 1996-2003... The one thing I'm not agreeing with here is the thick black outline on name and numbers. I'd say either thin it out or get rid of it altogether. Other than that, pretty good jersey here. I'd like to see a light version of it.

Rating: 8/10

Minnesota Wild CCM Alternate Sweater Concept - Tristan M.

Tristan's CCM sweaters series is one I really like. This one is no different. I'd prefer a green jersey but the WIld in red would be something worth seeing. It does come off looking like a Christmas sweater here though. Maybe get rid of the yoke. It might make the jersey look less unique since at that point it would look like a Christmas-y Whalers sweater but, it's such a good look I could look past it. The TV numbers also look a tad big.

Rating: 8/10

Sherbrooke Phoenix Concept - Stephen T.

I love hockey jerseys because they have the widest range of design possibilities of any sports uniform. I love that the logos are always large, front and center for everyone to see. Yet, I would like to see some jerseys utilize this design normally set aside for a soccer (or "football") uniform. It's a good look. This particular team might run into some problems being that the QMJHL logo and probably a Reebok logo would need to go on the front somewhere but, this looks good. The team's logo resembles a soccer logo being it's placed in a shield. Only problem here the TV numbers are hard to see. I didn't know there were TV numbers at first. I already have my COTW picked out for this week and it's unfortunately not this set right here, but I'm sure someone will nominate Stephen for this.

Rating: 8.5/10

Hamilton Lynx (NACHAAC-FakeLeague) - Dylan W.

Please tell us what the NACHAAC stands for... that's a mouthful! The logo looks great! Could use a few more tweaks here and there but it's really good, especially with these colors. I like the jersey design as well. It's a familiar jersey cut but with a Wonka-ian twist on the cuffs. Dylan did a real good job making a team from scratch and its a good thing he's not taking part in the Pairs Competition or I'd be scared.... Only thing I suggest changing is making the paw print shoulder patch on the white jersey white.

Rating: 9/10 and a COTW Nom!

Well that's the post ladies and germs. Anything from the beginning of the post you wanna talk about? Any of the concepts that stick out to you? Let's get a conversation going in the comments!