Tuesday: Winter Blues

Welcome back to HJC. We've hit the dead of winter here in Northeast Ohio. It's cold and lifeless outside, with the barren landscape made to seem unnecessarily more barren with Cuyahoga County's lack of snowplows. Not only is it more dead along the banks of the Rocky River, but here at HJC as well. In today's post, we have a lonely pair of concepts. Fortunately, there's an exciting new contest here on the blog to keep us from becoming Monty Python's parrot; the peewee Semiahoo team has contacted us to design their next set of sweaters. Even more exciting, the winning concept artist will receive their own jersey!

What's more, we have somewhat of a rarity this week in three separate votes. This first, as always, is for Concept of the Week. We also have the 4th Quarter vote, with its winner becoming the remaining candidate for the best of 2017. Speaking of Concept of the Year, the logo to be awarded to the winner still needs to be selected by you! So take a minute to go through all our votes, and check out the rules for our competition. You'll have a full two weeks on that comp, so take your time and make it something you'd be proud to wear!

4th Quarter Vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

COTW January 5-11 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

2017 COTY Logo vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)
Semiahoo PeeWee A1 Competition: (Entries Due Friday January 26 @ noon ET)

Now, let's see both concepts-

Brendan P.- Colorado Avalanche

Friend of the blog Bpoe starts us off with a new set for the Avs. To start, this simple thick/thin pattern works for the Avs. The peaked yoke around the elbows ties in nicely to the logo, and fits the theme. I especially like how Brendan put the Colorado C within the triangle, mimicking how it is in the logo. The colors have both upsides and downsides to them. The double blue scheme doesn't work with the maroon, but the darker blue does a make a solid "base" so to speak that the lighter elements build off of; restricting the darker blue to the pants and gloves really sells it.

Grade: A-

Noah B.- Geelong Cats

Noah's continuation of his AFL series, now on alternates, lands on the Geelong Cats to conclude today's concepts. Unlike Bpoe's Avs, the thick/thin isn't working well. The lack of hierarchy within the design creates somewhat of a mess. The bevy of yoke stripes is fighting the thick/thin/thin pattern at the bottom for attention. I'd recommend toning the yoke stripes down to two, because the thick block of blue lends itself better to the logo and solid pants. Noah's presentations are nice and clean as always, though a side view of the pants would be appreciated.

Grade: C+

My COTW nomination goes to Bpoe's Colorado Avalanche. That's it for this week. With the month half over, enjoy the remainder of it, and keep your stick on the ice.