Tuesday: Crunch, Color Rush, and Catholics

Hi folks, welcome back to HJC for the Tuesday post. Let's jump right into concepts today, but of course, make sure you've voted in COTW first!

COTW October 12-18 vote (ends Friday @ 12pm EST)

90's NHLReDesign Competition (entries due by November 2nd @ 12pm EST)

Jersey Nerds podcast (new episode every Tuesday)

Ben S. (me!)- Syracuse Crunch

Honestly, this is probably the worst of my AHL series. I'm not a fan of Syracuse's branding; the main logo looks like a rejected South Park character. I did the best I could to work around it, bringing in a collegiate feel with script text and helmet stripes. The alternate is out there, but desperate logos call for desperate measures. What do you think? You're the judge on this one today.

Burkus C.- Color Rush, Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Buffalo Sabres

The first of two Color Rush concepts from Burkus, here Columbus plays Buffalo. Starting with Columbus, I like how the light blue is used to contrast Buffalo. The Cannon broken free from the roundel feels a bit out of place, and feels like it needs something more to belong on the crest. The large amount of darker blue with the yoke and high cuffs, it feels like the hem is missing out. On Buffalo, the emphasis on yellow makes sense as a true, alternate look. The logo selection also works much better, with the running bison feeling at home on the chest stripe, with the roundel on the shoulders. My only complaint would be the chest stripe not continuing on to the back.

Grade: B-

Burkus C.- Color Rush, Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars

Next up, Dallas plays against Colorado. The Avs' jersey has a problematic hem; the jagged pattern rises up way to far up the body. The logo and numbers look to be choked. The color balance is also strange, with the jersey being almost evenly split, with the rest of the uniform almost all blue. The lighter pants would make the darker maroon look unbalance and top-heavy. The Stars jersey introduces a new gold color, a move I don't understand. This doesn't fit into any of the Stars' branding, except for possibly the North Stars. Even then, the shade is wrong, not to mention, doesn't look good with the green and black. The design is a classic hockey pattern, and is hard to find fault with.

Grade: D

Chris W.- Franciscan University of Steubenville Barons

Our last concept of the day is for the hockey-less Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. The home and road designs aren't the most creative, being Blackhawk copies with a yoke, but it does work well with the colors. The lone place this doesn't work is the road, where the white yoke sticks out awkwardly; there's no other balancing white element. The alternate is the strong on its own, dropping white entirely and selling the green, accented with gold. All of the logo selections work on each jersey, making good use of Franciscan's identity. On execution, it doesn't make much sense for the ACHA logo to be recolored on the alternate, but not the primary. It should be either all Franciscan colors, or the ACHA default colors. 

Grade: B-

That's it for today, see you next week, and keep your stick on the ice.