Tuesday: Clash of Lightning, Roll of Thunder

Hello internet, and welcome back to another HJC Tuesday post. I hope you all had a better weekend than I did; let's just say watching my alma mater lose 4-1, going 0/6 with 1 shot on the power play, then coming back to my car to find a flat tire was not particularly enjoyable. But, my car's been fixed, BGSU rebounded and won the next night, and life moves on to today. So next, let's take a look at our voting and competition dates:

COTW Oct 13-19

LA Kings entries due Nov 3

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Concepts time!

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Cole W.- Calgary Flames

Cole starts us off in Calgary with threads loosely based off of the 90's look. First off, the absolute worst thing you can do as a designer is say "I can't explain it." A good designer will have an explanation for everything. A great one will have an explanation that relates everything back to a simple, basic theme. What's especially chaotic here is the lack of coherency between the stripes. There's a massive stripe over the arms, medium stripes on the pants and socks, and super thin stripes on torso of the jersey. The stripes on the side fall victim to the "No Show Zone," when they're about as useful as Niemi goaltending when a player's arms are down. Aside the stripes, the use of color within it is spot on, especially the decision to use the white C logo, not the black. I also like how you used red for the pants and helmet, as the color would have been overwhelmingly complex with black.

Grade: D+

Steven G.- Tampa Bay Lightning

Steven has a duo of sets for Tampa Bay, and these are different enough that I'll critique them separately.

Top: "Less is more" cried renowned architect Mies van der Rohe. This is an excellent example of how to make that work. The dual color scheme contrasts sharply, helping to bring extra attention to the few stripes. The bolts down the arm flow naturally from the yoke stripe, which is a genius way of integrating the bolts into the rest of the design. However, I wish the yoke stripe was thinner to match the hem stripe. The simplicity in the remaining stripes completes the look without detracting from the arms or cluttering the design. Compared to the logo in your next design, this one is far too static to fit the dynamicism of the rest of it.

Score: A-

Bottom: "Less is a bore," responded later architect Robert Venturi. This is essentially a Red Wings jersey wearing a fake mustache and hoping not to be recognized. The yokes don't do much other than clash with their corresponding helmet. Other than that, we basically have the current Bolts' look. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly a decent look, but also rightly criticized for being too unoriginal.

Score: C-

Overall Grade: B-, and my COTW nomination

Vaughn R.- Drayton Valley Thunder

The last two concepts of the day belong to Vaughn, whose first is for the AJHL's Drayton Valley Thunder. For a team that wears Dallas Stars knock-offs, a unique design is already an upgrade. While it's not a color scheme I'm not particular fond of, Vaughn is able to make it work for me here.  Much like Cole's concept, the inconsistency of the striping brings this one down. I do like how the primary home and away set is somewhat complex, while the alternate is somewhat simple, giving good variety for the team to choose from. About the alternate, though, the chest stripe doesn't work here. The logo feels slapped on over it as an after thought, rather than integrated during designing, and leaves the hem too bare. Staying on the alternate, the numbers on the back need a thinker green outline against the chest stripe.

Grade: C-

Vaughn R.- Drumheller Dragons

Vaughn moves on to Drumheller to wrap us up for the day. I should point out to our readers here, many of whom are with me in disliking the "grey for grey's sake trend," that grey is a part of this team's brand. A small touch that is too easy to overlook is how you don't include any white on the jerseys. It would have been too close to the grey, and wouldn't have provided a sharp enough contrast. The Islanders' style striping works well here with the logo and as a chest stripe, but they need to be slightly further apart. Your attention to detail was great by keeping the theme with the collar design. With the alternate, that logo has to be amended. The shade of orange on the logo needs to match the rest of the jersey, and its outline has to be thicker to make it stand out. Right now it looks like it's trying to hide, when it wants to boldly stand out. On execution, the numbers on the back are mildly illegible; thicker outlines would certainly be sufficient.

Grade: C+

That's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your week, and keep your stick on the ice.