Tuesday: Go West, Young Man

I'm blanking on a creative, catchy greeting to today's post, so I'll borrow someone else's instead.

"Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

Now that I've thoroughly captured your attention, welcome back to HJC for another exciting Tuesday. Before we get to the daily concepts, we have our first entry in the Concept of the Year logo contest:

Burkus Circus:

Thanks to Burkus for the entry. There's still ample time to get your entries in: the deadline is Friday at noon. Our quest for the Best Concept of 2017 charges on, in addition to the usual Concept of the Week. This week's vote is for the best of December. The winner moves into the 4th Quarter vote to be held next week, and that winner goes to our COTY bracket. Lots of excitement ahead, to be sure!

COTW Dec 29-Jan 4 vote (ends Friday @ noon EST)

COTW December vote (ends Friday @ noon EST)

COTY Logo entries (due Friday @ noon EST)

We have three concepts today, so let's get started:

Noah B.- Adelaide Crows

As much as I like this design, I have to point out that the logo was taken from a Reddit thread without any credit given to the original designer. As designers ourselves, we don't want to see concepts that are stolen from around the internet, which is why we have our logo policy, to keep our site honest and fair. I don't believe you had any malicious intentions, but I don't take citation omissions lightly.

Grade: F

TC M.- Kansas City Outlaws

TC calls back to the defunct Kansas City Outlaws of the UHL, whose lone season was 2004-05. The team's uniforms were all black, so TC's colorful western-esque set is a good improvement in that regard. How the colors are balanced could have been handled better; the red yoke doesn't work between the white helmet and black pants, and similarly with the tan yoke between the red helmet and black pants. I appreciate when a designer sees the need for different striping patterns between the home and road, and acts on it. Excluding white on the road was the right road to take, since the ligher tan works as a great contrast to the darker red, using black as the divider. The secondary logo is a great crest logo, but the primary doesn't work shoulder patch; the elements within the logo are way too small to be visible to spectators.

Grade: B+

Lucas D.- Colorado Avalanche

Lucas ends today's post with an alternate look for the Avs. The blue-out look was a bold choice, and the white yoke and maroon accents add a great splash of color to keep the skaters from becoming blueberries.  The grey stripes don't give the design what it's looking for, camouflaged by the white stripes. The shade needs to either be darker, or the stripe should be thicker. To really make the yoke work, another strong white element should have been added, such as a thick, white stripe down the pants. Speaking of the pants, I almost never like pants without striping on them, especially here when the rest of the uniform is so wonderfully colorful. The font is fantastic for the Avs, and the arched nameplate complements the yoke is a neat way.

Grade: A-

My COTW nomination goes to Lucas D's Colorado Avalanche. That wraps it up for this second Tuesday of the year, see you next week, and keep your stick on the ice.