Friday: Plain and Simple

Hello HJC universe! Friday is upon us yet again, and I am here to deliver the daily dose of concept goodness.

After a few weeks of mayhem here on the blog, with the pairs competition, and COTY voting, this week is a "regular" week here on HJC. We have our normal COTW voting going on, and an individual contest, redesigning the Roadrunners.

Votes for COTW and entries to the Roadrunners comp are due tonight, so hustle and get them in!

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

Roadrunners entries (due Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

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Speaking of the Roadrunners competition, here are some more entries:

Stephen T.

 Steve M.

Ricky M.

AJH

Bastian S.

Danny R.

Mike S.

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On to the concepts!

Bowling Green - NCAA - Leo D.

A good collegiate look here for the Falcons. I particularly like the logo treatment on the orange sweater. It is cool how the white stripe, and the brown stripe curve around the white circle in which the logo is placed. I would like to see brown piping on the edge of the sleeve stripe on the white sweater, I feel it would make the sweater look more cohesive. And some work should be done on the numbers and lettering, overall they seem spaced oddly and sized, and the brown on orange is hard to see. 7/10.

Los Angeles Kings -S2dio

Overall a pretty strong attempt here from S2dio. Initially I hated the script in the back striping, but it has really grown on me, and it is very creative, and well executed so I need to give props on that! The black jersey is straight up awesome, and the gray jersey is really close, I feel like it could benefit from a black shoulder yoke, like the stadium series jerseys. I am not sold on white numbers on the gray sweater, I feel like black would be more legible. I am definitely not sold on the gray socks with the black uniform, I do think mis-matched socks have a place and could look really god in certain cases (eg. the Bruins), but here it just doesn't work for me. 7.5/10.

New York Islanders - Stephen T.

The blue sweater is basically an edgeified version of the Isles 1984-1995 blue sweater, the white sweater does show some innovation though, by adding in the shoulder yoke, and featuring orange more prominently. Flipping the colour balance on the white sweater (making orange more important than blue) takes some getting used to, but does create a nice rhythm as you look down the sweater, going from orange shoulder yoke to blue crest, and then finishing with the broad orange hem. Needs some refining, and takes some getting used to, but a solid start here nonetheless. 7/10.

Cedar Rapids Roughriders - USHL - Alex J.

Nothing to complain about here. Execution is perfect, presentation is very attractive. Great colour scheme, good logos. I know some people will complain about the half arm stripes, and I am not the biggest fan of them either. For a small market team in a small league, a formulaic templated jersey is they way they often go. This is realistic, but I would like to see something a bit more creative. 7.5/10.

Phoenix Coyotes - Stephen T.

These fauxbacks simplify the Yotes original look quite successfully. Gone are the angles arm stripes in favour of simply horizontal ones. gone is the curved/pointy yoke in favour of a regular one. I know that the green yoke was a key element of the original uniforms, but if we are simplifying, I would get id of it all together, it sticks out on these concepts. Even getting rid of the green all together (to better fit the Coyotes current branding) could be a good move. The green is really lost in the arm stripes, and I don't think losing it al together would be a bad thing. 7/10.

Djurgardens IF - Formerly in the Swedish Elite League - S2dio

These loud and eye catching uniforms certainly work for a European team. In this case, I actually really like the mis-matched socks, I also like the logos on the socks... very European. The pants striping is also really cool, having stripes on one side of the pants. The sweaters themselves are pretty solid, I like how the cuffs match the chest striping. The logo does seem a tad large to me, but that is not that big of a deal in this case. 7.5/10.

Edmonton Oil Kings - WHL - Cedric L.

I like the theme of these sweaters. Kings live in castles, so the castle hem pattern is cool, also the jewel pattern picks up on stuff from the logo. What baffles me here is the 2 distinct templates, that really brings down the presentation. Some good ideas here, but they need a bit of polish, and some better presentation. 6.5/10.

Columbus Blue Jackets - Leo D.

First off, one small error to correct. striping should always go over the stitching, we shouldn't see the template of the jersey on the hem stripes. Second gripe, it feels like there is too much red on this uniform for the BLUE Jackets, this could be fixed by getting rid of the yoke, and using blue equipment. I like the logo, but feel like it is best suited as a shoulder patch. 6.5/10.

New York Rangers - Christian L.

I like everything that is going on on the arms, and torso (above the chest) the arm striping looks like a really well done modernization of the Rangers look. the logo is not symmetrical, or strong. Having the NYR (without anything else) as the main feature in the logo is maybe worse than having SENS or BOLTS on the front of a jersey. the hem striping is also strange, I get what is trying to be done, but in this case, I think full normal hem stripes would be a better option. Fix the hem stripes, and throw a Rangers shield logo on the front and we have a solid sweater. 6.5/10.

Carolina Hurricanes - SnowMonster

OK, these are awesome. If we don't get the hurricane flag pattern, actually making the Canes look like they are wearing Hurricanes is a sweet option. I love the tie-ins to the whalers, which are explained well, and the tie ins to the logo. If the Canes wore these they would look like a team of Tazmanian Devils (the cartoon character, not the actual animal) roaring around the rink. Very clever and creative, and very well executed. 7.5/10 and a COTW nom from me.

Well that's it for me this friday. Hope you all enjoy your weekend as you scramble to get Roadrunners entries in by tonight's deadline. while you are sending in your entries to the contest email, please also send in your COTW votes to the regular email. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the roadrunners entries, and getting to vote on them next week.