Monday: The Smashville Post

Welcome to the Monday post!

So once again Steven nails a review of a recently unveiled logo,  thus there is no point in repeating myself on the primary logo being cartoony but at least it's original. However, I must go into more detail regarding the shoulder patch....for those who haven't seen it:

Photo from sportslogos.net

Yeah so....this is how NOT to do a Devils logo. I think one of the reasons why the NJ Devils don't use a pitchfork as their secondary logo is because they look like tritons, and of course that leads to thinking about Aquaman or the blue bionicle or something like that. However there's also the fact that they leave a lot of empty space which makes me think pitchforks should be sublimated and logos on their own without something added. This logo is clearly supposed to be a puck being shot so hard it's flaming, but there isn't enough detail on the sides of the logo to make me see the puck's edges. Rather, I see a circle with a bigger circle around it and a little script around the bottom of it. On its own, it reminds me more of a mediocre concept logo from one of those redesigns where the artist tries to design something original for the team based solely on the name and strips the identity from the logo.

My main problem with this logo is it has NOTHING to do with the Bevils main cartoony, sassy, sly, over the top and interesting primary logo. When I see them on the jersey, they look so far out of place you could easily convince me it was a fake. It's one of the WORST combinations of primary/shoulder  patches I've seen...ever. It's up there with the Yeti foot on the Colorado edge jerseys or the Wild's squared off shoulder patch for just being so out of place. On top of that, it's far too small and looks like an execution error type thing.

Congrats to Jake88 (or Jake M. as he calls himself now but I'm old school), and to BPoe as well, it was a super tough call in voting, and I think no matter who won, someone who earned it won! However with that we now enter August with little jersey news, it's kind of a dry period in HJC's year (as it usually is), so I encourage you to send concepts in! That doesn't mean slap a logo on anything and send it in, but if you have some concepts you've been saving concepts because you're not sure if you like the idea, send it in!

Voting this week is quite simple, we have the COTW this week, with 2 different artists and 5 concepts, 4 of them from Lucas D and 1 from Anthony C, two of this summer's most consistent artists in terms of giving us material. Poll is on the side of the blog, votes are due Friday

There's also the Hockey Card Competition, which you have 2 weeks to get your entries ready! Next week I'll start posting entries to give people lots of time to get something really unique ready. You want my vote? Score90 ;)

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

Hockey Card Comp (entries due August 11th)

On with today's concepts

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Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ Fantastic colour balancing on the jerseys here

+ Good logo choices 

+ The changes done here are at worse lateral and thins like the piping only being around the yoke and the collar are improvements

+ Good logo choices

- I have a feeling this concept is actually from 2011, as Lucas's next concept proves his execution is miles above this particularly in the logo pixelation and the white outline around the shoulder patches 

- Now back in 2011/12 I would have liked the yokes on the jerseys, but now, they just seem to clutter the jersey and take away from the little teeth by the collar. Not bad, but make it too much like STL 

Rating: 7/10

Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Lucas D.)

+ Nice job with the custom logo. It fits everything from the Vegas logo like the negative space first letter of the city name, but is also shaped like a guitar pick to keep with the music city theme, nice work!

+ Striping translates well here

+ Tennessee flag 3 "stars" make for a nice shoulder patch 

+ Said colour balancing 

+ Great execution

- The one thing I wish was also done was something new with the sublimated pattern on the arms. It looks medieval and out of place on a music city jersey (guitar strings?)

- Wish you'd kept the actual Nashville font

Rating: 8.75/10 

Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Patrick N.)

+ Straight striping could work for the Preds, it looks pretty solid here

+ Colour lay out is done really nicely! 

+ Logo choices are pretty good

+ Collars look really nice

+ Good execution 

- If Nashville played in any other division, this would be a mute point but in the Central, Minnesota and St. Louis have very similar striping patterns

- Would have preferred the NP logo on the pants 

- Primary logo is pixelated 

Rating: 7.5/10

Tampa Bay Lightning Concepts (By: Brooks F.)

+ A solid combination of Lightning jerseys here, both interms of colour distribution and jersey elements, along with the 90s over the topness we expect from Brooks (the colour lay out of the home and road remind me of the original Edge jerseys, which I personally LOVE)
+ Striping is over the top, but not to the point where it can't work
+ Solid logo and color choices
+ Great execution

- Small gripe, but the NOB is a wee bit small
- The striping I can taking not being completely balanced because of the black numbers, but the collar should be black
- It doesn't look bad by any means, but I do prefer the current lightning bolt on the pants; this bolt reminds me too much of the San Diego LA Chargers

Rating: 9/10

Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Justin B.)

+ Striping is a very simple version of their pre edge jerseys, and you know, it looks pretty solid
+ Logo choices are perfect, and I like the look of the yellow guitar pick logo
+ Solid layout and execution

- The hem stripe would look better if it matched the sock stripes
- Numbers would be yellow on the white jersey's back
- Piping should continue on the yoke so as not to look awkward like Washington

Rating: 7.5/10

Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Steven G.)

+ Striping is a solid mix of not only the original jerseys, but something built around the Adizero template that looks like a natural progression for Nashville
+ Perfect logo choices
+ Colour balancing is pretty solid, the amount of blue on the white jersey, while a little more than exactly as is would be if the yellow were as the blue on the yellow jersey, it looks pretty solid , similar to Chicago in that way
+ Great execution

-Collar on the white jersey should be yellow

Rating: 9.5/10 COTW Nom from me!

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