Thursday: The Famine Continues

It's that time of year, folks. The HJC Open is right around the corner and the entries have started trickling in. This is my favorite competition of the year as it's always fun to see what each designer pumps out in such a short time. But before you can break out, you must break into the competition, so be sure to craft a strong look for the qualifying stage of the competition. Remember. if we get more than 20 entries, 16 competitors will move forward into the knockout round. Less than 20, and we do battle with 8, so get those concepts in.

in the same vein, the blog most go on. I know we're all saving as much as we can for the Open, but let's make sure not to neglect the blog while that's going on. I have a couple mini-series I'm working on, so I'll be sending those in shortly. If you're working on anything at the moment, I encourage you do the same. And if you're not, I'd love to see you get started. Even if you've never put together a concept before, art is art and there's no way to get better without getting started.

REMINDERS:

 COTW-June vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 COTW June 29 - July 5 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET) 

 HJC Open (begins Friday July 13) 

On to the concepts!

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Lucas D.- Orlando City HC

Purple. Yes. Purple is so beyond criminally underused in the NHL, so leave it up to the MLS to give it the attention it deserves. And a full length yoke? No better way to give Purple the attention it deserves than that. Way to keep the gold always touching purple as well and preventing the all-too-common YOWS (or GOWS as it here). This extends to the numbers as well, so great attention to detail there. The numbers, however, represent the one fatal flaw here, where  the italics cause an unnecessary contrast with the upright text in the crest here. A simpler font to match the logo text would be much for effective here.

Overall Rating: 9.0/10

Purple is the color of royalty and Lucas presents us a look ready to reign here.

Matt G.- Peru

I know neither the US or Canada qualified for the World Cup this time around (one significantly more surprising than the other), but my Spanish side has been all over the action this past month. With France and Croatia set to do battle this coming Sunday, we take a look back to a team that did not make it out of the group stage. Peru has rocked the chest sash look for as long as anyone can remember. Truthfully, it's a look that I think should be tried in professional hockey as a full time alt. Unconventional, sure. But for the right team, I think it could really work. Unfortunately this set rehashes my main issue with the Peru World Cup set. Much like Canada's national hockey jerseys, the black seems shoe-horned in. The cresting does not have enough in it to contrast the red on either set, although I'm not sure there's a simple solution. I think having the numbers and cresting on each look in white outlined in red might do the trick, but again, it's hard to tell without seeing it in action.    

  

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

A competition-ready look for the Peruvians, but not one without the same flaws of its inspiration.

That's all for today folks. 

Lucas takes home this week's COTW NOMINATION for his ORLANDO HC CONCEPT.

We'll see you all next week!

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