Thursday: A Post With No Name

Hello all!

I am mentally braindead today, so I am unable to give a fair, in-depth breakdown on your designs, without just being vague and boring.  Luckily, I have my wonderful sidekick (and girlfriend) willfully volunteer as a commentator to help me talk about these concepts. 

DISCLAIMER: Her opinions may not directly match mine. If they don't, my thoughts will be (in parenthesis).  She isn't a hockey fan (hold off throwing the tomatoes, she's in graphic design at least).  Hopefully this will be a fun, different kind of post to enjoy today.

Oh right, we have the HJC Open logo vote going on this week, and as always the COTW vote, both ending on Friday. Have you voted yet? No? Then do it NOW! 

Are you going yet...

Still here...

Well, in case you already have voted, or you've ignored my pleas to this point, lets get on with it! 

COTW May 26 - June 1 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

HJC Open Logo vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Baie-Comeau Drakkar Concept - Dylan W.

(First of all, before SHE <doesn't want me using her name> butts in, I must say that Dylan is one of my favourite artists, and always has some really original work. So it pains me whenever I see his work with no name... tsk tsk. Anyways...)

So the lines on the yoke remind me of a barbershop (known around these parts as the "barber pole effect").  I prefer the blue version, because the stripes create more contrast and pop out more, while the stripes on the white jersey cause a bit of a blinding effect.  Rule of thumb with colours, never use primary colours side by side as equal parts. (Agreed. Jersey style is pretty good, the colours don't blend as well. Not a designer's flaw, as the colours come from the logo.) I wouldn't mind seeing more gold on the jersey, because it is a main part of the logo.

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 4/10

William's Score: 7.5/10 (Decent design, but no wow-factor I'm used to seeing in Dylan's designs, and would like to see better use of colours).


Dallas Stars Concept - s2dio

After a brief history given to me by William on Dallas' past uniforms, I can see where the inspiration from this design came from. I think the design is really cool, and I feel like the Star's logo in the center has a cool ripple effect to the outer star on the jersey.

 (I love this design as well. But the recoloured logo is a bit of a loss, since it misses that cool 3D punch it has with the black outlines.  And while I agree with the ripple effect idea, the fact that the inner star is angled and the outer one is not creates an asymmetrical design, which I'm not much of a fan of.  I like how the white is used on the name and number outline, but wish the captains patch used white instead of grey, same with the TV numbers.)

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 7/10

William's Score: 8/10. As much as I hated the Stars during this part of their jersey history, I miss their "star spangled" jerseys, and would love to see a comeback looking like this set.




Detroit Red Wings Concept - s2dio

Having the white stripes go through the Captain's patch (as I just told her what it was for), makes it difficult to read.  It resembles the look of a candy cane (which is hardly a good theme for a team as "manly" and historic as the Red Wings.  I'd say the stripes are way too busy on the jersey, and the pattern isn't that pleasing to the eye).  And there is too much red. Between the chest and the knee is just a big clump of red. The numbering on the back looks good being bold and having thick red lines to outline it. (But arched text? Not sure about that).

 (Agree. I like the chest stripe idea, but the pattern is too big and busy.  Tone the stripes down a bit, or simplify them, and add some hem stripes. Maybe if there were white stripes on the side of the pants, it would help, but of course this template doesn't show the sides of the pants, so nothing we can do about that.)

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 5/10

William's Score: 7.2/10  Well executed, but not my favourite design I've seen from you by a long shot.

Seattle Seahawks Concept - Steve M.

I like the blue one (I see a pattern here...)

I think there should be less green in the jersey, since green is such a minor colour in the logo.  Maybe make the green stripes thinner, or using them as an outline or some other secondary use. (Something I've been saying about Seahawks concepts for a while now. Why so much green???) The green outlines on the numbers don't stand out very well, blending in with the blue and to some extent the white as well.  The grey version is bad.  It could be the lack of contrast between it and the background, or the jersey and the logo, or the green and grey combination. (Agreed on all parts).

(Last point, yoke outlines with no contrasting yoke bug me.  The design of it is cool enough, but it just looks so unnecessary).

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 8/10 for the blue one, 7/10 for the white one, never/10 for the grey (didn't know "never" was a number...)

William's Score: 6.8/10  (Cool flashy designs, but the green is overused and the grey jersey has to go).

San Francisco 49ers Concept - Steve M.

Meh. (Literally the first thing that was said upon looking at this concept).  I see nothing that screams masculinity or testosterone in these jerseys. (Or the 49ers, for that matter.  The jersey doesn't really fit the team or logo).  It's a calming, humble, (and classic) design.

(The numbering and lettering all look good, but I really wish there was some more gold and black in the jersey.  Right now this just looks like a Red Wings reject jersey).

Agreeing with William, a little bit more gold would be nice on the jersey.  Not much to say about this jersey. Not outrageously terrible, but not super amazing. Just in the middle.

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 3/10

William's Score: 7/10 (The jersey is alright, and there aren't any glaring flaws, but there's nothing here to keep me interested.  More colour would solve this issue).

St Louis Rams Concept - Steve M.

I like this (because it is mostly blue?) No, because there is a good colour balance to complement the blue, based on the logo.  I'm actually liking the white one the best.  I like the swirling horns design on the alternate jersey (As do I, very original design idea that would look great on a real jersey).

The very thin white stripe on the blue jersey is a nice touch to make the stripes pop out a bit more. (Finally, something I disagree with. The thin stripe doesn't add anything to the design, and is just noticeable enough to be distracting from the good elements of the jersey). But it's subtle, it's supposed to be subconsciously noticeable. (Still think not being there at all would be better).

(The main jerseys look like a classic design in their own right, but that alternate is crazy vintage magic! That old ugly goat logo gives the alternate some character, as does the curly horn stripes.  Another awesome thing is the sublimated arches on the main set. Good reference to St. Louis.)

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 8/10

William's Score: 8.2/10 (While I still disagree about the thin white stripes, this jersey has enough cool things going for it to make up for it).

Chicago Blackhawks Concept - Trent D.

At first glance, I like the design of the jersey and it looks cool.  But with a closer look, small execution flaws can be seen throughout the design, such as the arm and hem stripe patterns being flipped, the sock stripes don't follow the same pattern, (the logo is gigantic, the number on the back is gigantic and off-centered, there is no name and no TV numbers).  

The helmet detail is a nice touch.  (Indeed, the diamond in the rough of this concept. Instead of simply putting a helmet decal of the full logo, he just added the headdress of the logo, which gives the helmet a cool effect).

Likelihood of Her Buying It: 7/10 

William's Score: 5/10. (This design has a lot of potential, but many execution flaws bring this down. With practice, you'll get those errors fixed and be making solid concepts in no time!)

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(So I'm going to give Steve M's St. Louis Rams concept my COTW nomination for the day.  Very solid work, and I'm still loving that old-school alternate jersey.)

Thank you for reading my comments, I had a lot of fun looking at all of your creativity and the effort you put into each design!

 (I know this post is different in many ways to my usual work.  Hopefully you don't take the comments and criticisms too literally, this was (as every post always is) a fun commentary on everyone's designs. I'm sure some of you will disagree with our comments (we even disagreed on some things).)

(Here's hoping I'll be less braindead next week.)

(As always, thanks for reading, and have a good weekend!)