Thursday: Traditional Thursday

Hello everyone, welcome back!

I'm in a pretty good mood today after the Pens took a 3-1 series lead last night. I'd normally feel worried since everyone seems to be blowing 3-1 leads anymore, but the Pens seem to be the one exception to this, so I'm hoping for that streak to continue.

Not much news to report on today, but if you check out yesterday and Tuesday's posts you can find the Kootenay Ice's rebrand and the Dallas Stars' 25th anniversary patch, so go check those out!

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This week in voting we only have one vote, the COTW vote. We also have the last day here for random competition entries, so hurry up and get your entry in!

COTW April 21-27 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

The Random Competition entries (due Friday @ noon ET)

Competition Entries:

T.C. Moore

Noah B.

Anthony C. 

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Anthony C. - Toronto Maple Leafs

+Hard to complain about such a classic look for the Leafs. Probably Toronto's best and most recognizable jersey design, whether you add the yoke or not.
-As a concept, though, this really isn't creative at all, just taking their old design and slapping the new logo on it. Anyone with basic knowledge of a graphics software can do that, and anyone at all can just imagine what this would look like. If this was for an Ideal NHL Series, it would be more acceptable, as your ideal NHL isn't necessarily a full redesign of every team. In that case, specify it.
-The vertical stitching needs to stop at the hem stripes.
-Unless it's just me, the hem stripes look a tad thinner than the arm stripes.
-The two fonts you used don't go together too well. I know they used to use a similar pairing but I didn't like that either. Stick with the block font you have on the numbers for the whole concept.
-I think the collar on the white jersey would look better in blue to blend with the yoke. You also have it white on the front of the jersey, and blue on the back.
Overall: 4/10. Be more creative. I know you have it in you, I can tell from some of your other designs.


Ethan B. - 2018 Winter Classic

-Presentation notes: your layout is really choppy. The background looks pieced together, rather than smoothly blending together. The white boxes are a bit unnecessary, but at least you are making sure the text contrasts. The extra white bars you have on the left and right of the image shouldn't be there either. The vertical spacing on Sabres vs Rangers is way too large and takes up too much space, while it should be a bit smaller on "2018 WC Concept". You'll improve with this type of stuff as you continue to create concepts, but these are just some things to think about.

+I like your starting points for both of these concepts. You have some really good ideas to start with.

+The Rangers jersey is almost there.

-There's just a few extra stripes in there that clutter it up too much. Lose the blue outline around the top red stripe, and drop the yoke to one shoulder stripe. That'll clean it up immensely.

+The Sabres jersey is going in the right direction with the striping pattern. Keep the arm and hem stripes the same distance away, though.

-The wordmark and back font are much too modern for a Winter Classic jersey, though.

-The jerseys are the striping are very pixelated, that could use some cleaning up.

***Edit***

Thank you to the anonymous commenter who pointed out that this is a stolen concept from Dylan N. (who formerly referred to himself as Wonka). I wish I'd have spotted it myself but unless you remember old concepts you've seen (if you even saw them) it's not the easiest. That also explains the presentation issues and the blurriness and pixelated areas.

Ethan, if you're going to create concepts, spend an extra few minutes and design something you can call your own. It may suck at first, I know mine did, and I'm sure many other concept creators will echo that statement, but that's what places like this blog are for. Send in the concepts, and we'll give you a critique to help you improve, but we can't critique you if it isn't your work.

Overall: 0/10

Garret G. - Colorado Avalanche

+The Avs desperately need a rebrand, and this would be a huge step in the right direction. 

+The switch to a blue base doesn't look bad at all.

-I'm not sure I'm a fan of the logo choice, but then again neither of their logos are anything special.

-I think the white stripes on the dark jersey are a bit thin. It works better on the white jersey, but since you're using the same striping on both of them, just change it on both of them.

-The sock stripes go up too high.

-I'm not exactly sure why this is, but the white jersey vaguely reminds me of Montreal. It might be the solid red yoke, the red cuffs, and the red/blue hem stripe (even though it's in the opposite order).

Overall: 8/10

T.C. Moore - Louisiana State University

+Purple and yellow is such a great color scheme.

+I like the striping. It's a little basic, but the tiny stripe in the center adds a tad to it.

-I like the idea behind the logo, but it doesn't work. I had to look closely to see what it was, and otherwise it looked like Louisiana with random lines through it. That wouldn't fare well on a hockey jersey.

+Despite the shoulder patch being the same concept, I think it works better since the design isn't meant to be completely visible, and it's meant to be one of those hidden details.

-The back numbers look a tad big, and the TV numbers look a tad small.

-As Phil has also mentioned, I'm not a big fan of this template either. While a template doesn't make a design look ugly, some other templates may accent the concepts better.

Overall: 8/10

T.C. Moore - Mount Allison Mounties

+Another pretty nice color scheme, but not quite as good as the purple and yellow.

+I'm not really sure what the logo is, but it works better than the A logo on the shoulders.

+The striping looks good...but...

-...in large part, this is the exact same design as your last concept. On the road jersey, it's exactly the same. Not sure why you have it different from the home jersey as the colors don't even match between both designs. I'm not sure if you had any reasons for this, but recycling designs just looks lazy.

-I'm not a fan of the slanted numbers either. I'll give you that it matches the logo's movement, but in my opinion slanted numbers should have stayed in the 90's/early 00's.

-I think the logo on the red jersey would be better as white with a gold outline, to match the numbers.

-Helmet logo is too low. It is on the last concept as well, but it's not quite as bad there.

Overall: 7/10

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And that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all again next week.