Friday: Fresh New Look

Hey y'all and welcome back for another Friday post.  It's nice to be back in my regular slot, feels like home.

As some of y'all may have noticed, we've done a bit of a redesign on the site, and I for one think that it looks great.  The new colors give us a cleaner, crisper look, and the new logo is a work of genius (many thanks to Steve and BPoe for their collaboration on that).  While we have received mixed reviews on the new look, I think that most of that can be chalked up to fear of change.  After all, we've had people begging us for a revamp for some time, and now that it's happened, those same people seem averse to the change.  In the words of the late great Rick Nelson, "ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself", and we're pretty darn pleased with how it's turned out. 

In voting news, we have the regular COTW vote for September 29- October 5, as well as the COTW vote for the month of September, both of which close next Friday at noon EST.  In addition to that, we have the AIHL Redesign Competition going on right now, with entries due by noon EST on the 13th. 

 COTW Sept 29-Oct 5 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST) 

COTW September Vote (ends Friday @ noon EST)

 AIHL entries (due October 13 @ noon ET) 

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Now on to today's concepts!

Alan H.- Tampa Bay Lightning

Our first concept of the day is Alan H.'s design for the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Right off the bat, I love the reintroduction of black and silver to the Lightning's color scheme, it keeps them from looking to much like Leafs clones.  I also like the elimination of the wordmark from the main crest, it gives the logo a much more professional look.  The recolored shoulder patches look really good, and I like the font choice.  I like the idea of the lightning-esque striping design, it looks like something that would've come from Brooks F.'s 90s series, but in practice it looks less like lightning and more like a random zig-zag pattern.  One of the things that bothered me about the original lightning uniform that you've continued here is the double wordmark for the helmet logo, I think it makes it a little too clunky, so I'd go with one or the other.  Final verdict: an interesting design, but it misses the mark a little bit.  7.5/10

Joe D.- Vegas Golden Knights

Our next concept is Joe D.'s design for the Vegas Golden Knights.  This design is essentially the Golden Knights' debut design, but it swaps out the upper arm coloring for a more traditional striping pattern, and a slightly more consistent hem stripe.  While it's not necessarily a bad design, it kind of robs Vegas of their individuality, and I think that's part of the charm of their design.  Not only was it fairly unique, it was also a good modern look for a new team.  This one just pulls it back into a more traditional look that it can share with many other teams in the league.  Final verdict: not bad, but nothing I'd want to see replace the actual Vegas unis.  7/10

Kevin D.- Arizona Coyotes

Our final design of the day is Kevin D.'s concept for the Arizona Coyotes.  This design does a much better job of incorporating black into the color scheme than their current set, where it looks shoehorned in as an afterthought.  The elimination of white for sand looks beautiful, and does a great job of incorporating the logo into the design.  The striping is beautiful, as it is technically consistent across both sets, but color changes make it look different, and that's an tough thing to pull off so well.  I love the sand yoke on the dark jersey, it does a great job of helping the color balance.  While I normally wouldn't think that switching the coyote head design to a shoulder patch and using the roundel as a main crest would work, on a more traditional design like this it actually looks really good.  Final verdict: a great looking set that would definitely be an improvement for the 'Yotes.  9.5/10 and my COTW NOMINEE!!!!!

That's all for me today, see y'all next week!