Monday: Sunsets & Tomahawks

Welcome to the Monday post!

New Jersey Casual designs are coming soon! Stay tuned and be sure to tell us what designs you want to see next! Those ideas do help Steve in creating new designs!

Voting this week has the normal COTW vote, and and COTY 1st Quarter vote. The best of the past 3 months will go head to head to head to see who reigns supreme and will be seen again next January during the 2018 COTY Semi Finals! This is your first chance to determine who the best of 2018 is, so please remember to vote!

Votes as always are due Friday @ Noon EST!

1st Quarter Vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

COTW April 6-12 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

St. Andrew's College entries (due April 27 @ 6pm ET)

We also have the St. Andrew's College redesign competition ongoing right now! This is your chance to have a concept made real, as St. Andrew's, a real boys college in Aurora, ON, has graciously asked HJC to host their redesign. They do have specific requirements, so please read the rules carefully.

Let's look at some of the entries that have come in since last post!

Burkus Circus

John E.

Zach R.

Great stuff, those entries are due April 27th! Good luck designing!

On with today's concepts!

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Minnesota Wild Concepts (By: Adam G.)

This was my vote in the Colour Swatch Competition, and overall I do think it is one of the more interesting Wild redesigns I've seen in a while. I happen to love sunsets, so going for a wilderness sunset motif really works. The gradient feels both vintage and modern, and I LOVE the inclusion of the shooting star shoulder patch in the darkest colour of the gradient. I will say though, there is a lot of black on this, despite there being almost no black (maybe there is, you tell me) in the actual colour swatch. The contest rules did say that white and black could be used for accents, and while this didn't break the rules, it wasn't totally from the swatch. That aside, outside of the garden,t I would have liked to see some more colour, particularly on the socks, hem and pants. Neutral coloured numbers are fine, but adding some gradient to the pants wouldn't hurt. Finally, I actually think a grey alternate would have worked better then orange, but orange has a certain quality I do like

Overall, I won't give this COTW nom because it's up this week since it won the competition, but a solid concept and one of Adam's best to date

9.5/10

Los Angeles Kings Concept (By: Jon R.)

We saw in yesterday's post what this set looks like in Forum Blue (no, the Kings don't wear purple) and yellow, so here's how it looks in the current colour scheme. I've always like the Kings current white jerseys, and this is no exception. The piping is used to the jersey's advantage rather than as a mandate, and the cuffs blend well with the gloves and pants. The logo swap, while predictable, looks the part, but I would have liked to see the LA Stadium Series patch somewhere on this jersey. The black helmets need a logo and numbers. I also would like to see some silver in the striping, maybe between the stripes and cuffs, or a thicker silver outline in the numbers.

Overall, a solid Kings redesign, with nothing to outrageous attempted, but enough to be considered an improvement 

8/10 

St. Louis-Chicago Identity Swap Concept (By: Lucas D.)

This ongoing series by Lucas usually has fantastic logos, and this is no exception. I like the tie in of the stars on the swooshes with the tomahawk. The striping itself works okay, but for a team like Chicago, this doesn't feel like a Chicago jersey simply due to the 'Hawks wearing the same jerseys since the mid 1950s. On top of that, the colour layout reminds me more of the 40s jerseys, which would give perfect use fo the roundel primary on the shoulders. Finally, I would have sped the tomahawk black on the white jersey, or find a way to add more black to the jersey. I do like though, how the colour layout does not feel completely foreign, and that Lucas has done a good job making these their own thing, rather than feeling like exclusively recolours 

Overall, a creative series that continues to impress, but dealing with such entrenched designs is difficult. 

8/10 

Washington Capitals Concepts (By: Justin B.)

I have to give Justin credit! Combining the Weagle and both the WC and SS designs along with the DC flag for inspiration really has brought something nice. I'm not usually a fan of Washington in primarily blue, but here, it really works. I'm also not usually a fan of designs that use the same pattern on home and road, but again, here it works, particularly with the flag design on the arms. I would have preferred blue numbers on the road jersey's back, but that's not a design killer. Would have also been nice to see some sort of shoulder patch, particularly on the white jersey, even if it is the Washington Monument or even just a star. This concept is just further proof that the Caps should fully adopt the Weagle as their primary. 

Over, a solid design with lots of small details us jersey designers love, and enough of a refresh the Caps could really benefit from using something similar even if that means losing the red machine look.

9.25/10 COTW Nom from me! 

Anaheim Ducks De-Edge/Adizero Concepts (By: Adam G.)

The Ducks took almost a decade to figure out how to use they non-Mighty logos properly, but upon doing it, another problem arose; colour balancing. This set perfectly fixes the issue the current white jersey has. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim striping works really well in the way Adam has placed the colours. The Orange jersey is absolutely gorgeous, and I like how the duck foot looks on orange. Why Adam chose to keep the duck mask roundel instead of just the mask is beyond me, but at least there is a shoulder patch. 

Overall, a really solid jersey that would fit a CCM classic look even in the Adizero era, and one that would have been well beyond welcome in 2006-07

8.75/10

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