Wednesday: Back in the New York Groove

Hello everybody and welcome to another Wednesday here at HJC. Glad to be back this week after a vacation in the beautiful city of Chicago. Having gone to see many sporting events over there, between baseball and soccer, it was very exciting, never mind the touristy stuff like Millennium Park. It was also touching to see some of the tributes around United Center regarding the passing of Stan Mikita. Overall a great experience and I can't wait to go back again. That said, there's a reason its called the Second City, and its because New York is ahead of it.

Speaking of New York, we have two concepts from the greatest city in the world today, combined with a few other interesting looks.

HJC OPEN: THE FINAL ENDS THIS WEEK! Two artists remain. Pick a winner!

REMINDERS:

 COTW  August 3-9 vote (ends Friday @ noon EDT) 

 COTW July vote (ends Friday @ noon EDT) 

 HJC Open Finals vote (ends Friday @ noon EDT) 

ON TO THE CONCEPTS!


Burkus Circus: New York Americans Concept

If there's any team, past or present, that should have bold and obnoxiously patriotic jerseys, besides Team USA, it's the New York Americans. If you look at some of their most famous jerseys, they were even more obnoxiously patriotic than these. The home blues are fantastic because you get red and white stripes with a field of blue stars (albeit only a modest 6), the latter being the base of the jersey. For some reason, although it looks odd in comparison to the rest of the jersey, as well as the away jersey, I'm digging the chest stripe. Arguably one of your best pieces of work to date. Maybe fix the collar a bit by making the faux polo style a solid color, like red on the blue jersey.

Rating: 94%


Dan H: New York Rangers Concept

A decent idea, but this just looks like a blue Adidas version of their 2012 Winter Classic jerseys. Combine that with oversized numbers and a spaced out nameplate, I think you may want to try something new. Mainly because one of my biggest problems with the Winter Classic jerseys was the lack of consistency among the striping.

Rating: 50%


Jay S: Las Vegas, errr... Oakland Raiders (NFL) Concept

Oakland is given something that you don't see on their actual jerseys: stripes. And not just any stripes, but curved stripes, almost mimicking the idea of the blade of a sword, a design element prevalent in the Raiders logo. The Raiders are very plain and traditional in their NFL jerseys, so I think maybe a simpler look would fit them better as an AFL original, with a logo unchanged since joining the NFL in 1970, despite a move to Los Angeles.

Rating: 85%


Matt G: Sarnia Sting (OHL) Concept

The CHL is a breeding ground for creativity, so we head to Sarnia, Ontario with arguably the best brand to be creative with, the Sarnia Sting. Of course, with a bee/wasp logo and motif for branding, black and yellow stripes are a must, however Matt goes above and beyond by adding a honeycomb pattern on the shoulders. Only thing is that I would have made the CCM logo on the yoke white to stand out better. The alternate is where it gets even more creative, by replacing stripes with hexagons, found in honeycombs, with an old time bee design centering one of them on the front. Combined with the elimination of white, this is probably the most out-of-the-box designs I have ever seen on this website. This has concept of the year potential.

Rating: 99%


The WINNER of my Concept of the Week nomination is:

 MATT G 

 SARNIA STING CONCEPT 

And that does it for me. Once again it's good to be back writing here after a nice vacation. Don't forget to keep sending your stuff in. It's how you learn to improve and it's how we run. Mutual dependency like a bee and a flower. See you next week!