Monday: Third Party Concepts

Welcome to another Monday post on HJC.

We had a decently controversial previous week in HJC, and while things remained civil I figured I'll give my two cents. I already said last week that I do enjoy the occasional hand drawn concept, but you have to remember the medium you're working with. Neat and thick pencil lines, crisp logos and matching colours are the key to a good hand drawn concept execution-wise. It's a difficult thing to get right but if you can get it right you'll be one of a few who can do it! It takes a lot of practice and time to get the talent to do hand drawn concepts full time but they have a certain charm to them.

Political concepts, at least to me, have to be politically neutral and focus on the design aspects of a Party's logo and making a good jersey. They should not show your personal opinions, this isn't  and it never will be a political blog, it is a design blog. As Ryan said, the concepts last week and into this week made fun of everyone and were fair. The main part of the designs were how the campaign logos matched up with the jersey design. Jokes are always welcome on HJC, but beating up on certain candidates and specifically not one might be suspicious.

I'd like to think I review concepts fair, and try to make sure that subjective criticisms are labeled as such out front. The best example of this is that concepts inspired by the 2009 Blackhawks WC are not my favourite as I do not like that design very much, but they can still be great concepts. Speak with your COTW vote and mention in the comments why your concept deserves to be praised. If there is additional information on certain logos or striping patterns that the average reader/writer wouldn't know, put it on the concept! It'll help you for sure. However execution errors are such and writers pointing them out does not mean they hate you. The worst thing you can do with criticism is to take it personally. We as HJC writers do not attack artists personally because it's wrong and we'd be jerks if we did it. If we did, we wouldn't be writers anymore.

In non-PSAish news, the World Cup of Hockey Design Competition is in its entry phase, and this is one of the most creative contests HJC has ever had. Click the banner above, read all the rules and experiment! The point of this competition is to create a good set of locker room gear for the champions, so take some time to research some recent championship t-shirts and hats to see what works and what doesn't.

Let's look at some entries that have come in so far:

There were none: let's get some rolling in! Entries are due this Friday!

Don't forget to vote for COTW as well as the COTW August vote.

WCoH Design Contest Entries: Due Friday @ noon EST

COTW (Sept. 2nd-8th) Votes: Due Friday @ noon EST

COTW August Votes: Due Friday @ noon EST

On with the 6 concepts!

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Jill Stien Presidential Campaign Concept (By: DT Concepts)

+ Striping is very simple but the colours are laid out well and match the logo

+ I do like the collar DT has used across this series, a good unifying feature 

+ The font DT chose matches the campaign logo (it might be the same font, lemme know if it is)

+ Good execution 

- The compass in the 0 would make an excellent shoulder patch along side the American flag 

- American flag is pixelated 

- Remember to follow HJC's logo policy and credit where you got the campaign logo, it's obvious you didn't steal it but policy is policy 

Rating: 8/10

Gary Johnson Presidential Campaign Concept (By: DT Concepts)

+ Striping pattern is unique

+ Nice colour lay out, but the shading needs work 

- This is probably DT's weakest entry, as the primary logo isn't strong enough on its own with the very plain grey pixel torch (if you want to fix it add some detail to the torch handle) and the shade of yellow chosen blends right into the yellow

- Same problem with the flag

- Blank pants

- As it was mentioned last week, the cluttered backgrounds make it hard to see some of the details on the sides of the jerseys and the lower arms

Rating: 6.5/10

Argentina Superclasico Concept (By: Ted N.)

+ Through some research, this is a match between Boca Jr. & River Plate, a famous match that has been going on since 1913

+ Ted has done a good job translating the classic looks of both teams onto a hockey jersey, even going as far as to use the team's correct designers 

+ The small changes Ted has made with the jerseys like arm stripes not being adidas stripes and the yellow collar only add to the look

+ Good execution 

- Blank helmets are such an easy fix 

- I don't really like the arm band stripes in the middle of the arms, they stick out a little too much 

- Call me a hockey traditionalist, but it'd be neat to see these designs with the club crests as the full sized primary hockey logos. 

Rating: 8.5/10 

South Carolina Stingrays 25th Anniversary Logo Concept (By: Burkus Circus)

+ I like how the curves under the script match the curves of a Stingray's wings

+ A very simple logo, but it does get the point across, kudos for Burkus for trying logo design

+ Good execution, but the presentation needs some work

- Looking at the concept as a rectangle, the majority of the concept is blank space, and then two red parts. It'd probably be beneficial not to print the concept you and snap a picture of it and just send is as a file 

- It'd be cool to see the script integrated into the curved section, it'd make the logo a little more concise and add to the blank white parts 

Rating: 7.75/10

Edmonton Oilers Crossover Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ WOW, that is a gorgeous logo. You could integrate this into the current look as a shoulder patch with a couple colour changes but it's a perfect crossover of the Dallas loog

+ Jerseys are recoloured Dallas jerseys, but that's the point of the series and again it looks as it should

+ Great execution, as expected from Lucas 

- Should have been nice to see an Alberta provincial outline with the E logo in it as a shoulder patch 

- Not a huge fan of the white collar on the white jersey, but that is how Dallas does their's with a black upper part and inside, so using orange would fix that

Rating: 9/10 COTW nom from me! 

Carolina Hurricanes Crossover Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ Once again Lucas shows off his logo strength, somehow making a Hurricane out of an Avalanche and while it's not perfect, I can tell it's a Hurricane without straining too much
+ Good job crossing over the Hurricanes colours onto the Avs striping..it's terrible striping but this is a swap, not a
+ Excellent execution

- My biggest problem with the logo comes in the wind stripes that still look like an avalanche. It's not bad but I can't seem to find wind in it. The rest of the logo works
- Again, the lack of shoulder patches hurts the concept. I would have gone for something based on the North Carolina flag (like a star NC type thing you see on the lacklustre NC flag when compared to the palm tree on the SC flag)
- Black numbers on the white jersey don't look good and don't match the white tv numbers on both Avs jerseys

Rating: 8.5/10

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