Friday: Birds of a Feather

Welcome to the end of another week, and the beginning of another weekend. For many, this is the last weekend of summer before returning to school (or forcing your children to return to school). So, lets keep it short and sweet today. Also, since this is the last weekend of summer, and I want to give you a break (but mostly because COTW voting ended last night) you have nothing to vote on, and you can just sit back relax and enjoy these concepts. Ryan should have the results of the voting for you on sunday, unless of course, his child arrives...

On a side note, lets hope that the NHL owners and NHLPA aren't taking a break like we are, and that they make a deal soon, so that my Canucks can loose at in an untimely manner in the playoffs again this year (THN predicted they would win the Stanley cup, but this isn't the first time they have done that...). Maybe a lockout could save me some heartache...

Also, let's hope the owners and players reach a deal soon so that an extended work stoppage does not happen so that this year's winter classic is not affected. The event logo was unveiled today on the Detroit Red Wings Instagram account. The logo, unlike other Winter Classic logos does not feature a year... which suggests to me that everyone, including players and owners realizes the likelihood of a lockout.

Image from detroitredwings on Instagram (http://instagram.com/p/O_165Px43T/)

The logo itself is sharp, and includes the mandatory snowflakes and icicles which all the Winter Classic logos seem to have. I also like the tie-ins to the team colours of both the Wings and Leafs. For me the most intriguing thing about this logo is the shape of it. These logos have all had some tie in to the venue or to a historic landmark in the host city, but a shield seems pretty generic. Perhaps we will see some other way that this shape ties in to the logos or uniforms.

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Movin' right along.  Let's get into the concepts.

Buffalo Sabres concepts (by D3troit1388)

A good clean set of Buffalo concepts here from D3troit. I am very happy to see some more consistency between the piping-free home and road sweaters, and a simplified version of the 40th anniversary sweater brought back. I like the simplifications made to this sweater, and I also really like the inclusion of more vintage white. It really looks sharp. 8/10

New York Islanders concepts (by Brady S.)

Brady takes us back to the mid 90's with these islanders sweaters. I like the treatment of the wavy stripe on all these sweaters, it is clean, and understated, unlike the wavy stripes on the Fishsticks uniforms. The shoulder yoke feels a bit off to me, though. I feel like the striping pattern which is very strong on the socks, sleeves, and hem is lost when it comes to the yoke. I might simply leave the yoke off, or play with yoke striping to maintain this pattern throughout the entire sweater. I really like the orange alternate, but the tiny hints of teal really ruin it for me. get rid of the teal on the gloves and in the logo, and it would be a lot better. Good execution: the full body templates give a great sense of the uniform as a whole, but they lack TV numbers. 6/10


Merritton Athletic Association concept (by Troy H.)

Troy has sent along a concept for the Merritton Athletic Assosiciation Youth Hockey team. Troy is just starting out making concepts, and as much as there are a lot of mistakes on this submission, I want to encourage him to keep making concepts and sending them in and learning, ann getting better. I would strongly encourage you to check out the TUTORIALS page to learn about putting numbers on jerseys and a bunch of other pointers. Here are a couple pointers from me on how to make better concepts.

1) start from a base, then add stripes. This jersey looks like you just went crazy with the fill tool. Generally, if you make the background of the entire jersey a single colour to begin with, then add arm stripes, chest stripes, hem stripes, etc. over your background colour, the sweater looks a lot better.

2) Check and double check. There are many small errors made on here that could be avoided if you check your work. The hem, cuffs, and shoulder outlines are all different colours on the front and back. Also check that there aren't loose pixels around the logo, or uncoloured pixels in the reebok logo on the back.

Overall, good for just starting out, but lots of room for improvement. 3/10

Calgary Flames concept (by Daniel J.)

I really like this sweater, probably because I really liked the old black fire-horse alternate that the flames had. I think the simple, understated striping works well on this sweater, but would like to see matching stripes on the socks. This would work really well along with the Flames' current home and road sweaters. 8/10

Pittsburgh Penguins concept (by Steven T.)

I like the overall look of this concept, but am left wanting when it comes to consistant execution. the stripe below the shoulder yoke is presented 3 different ways on these 3 different templates. I assume that the stripe on the player model and the top right concept is how it was intended to look, and I like how that looks. The only problem I could foresee with these sweaters is some backlash from the Bruins. I know vegas gold does not equal gold (yellow), but the bruins have already butted heads with the penguins in their history over colour choice. To use the a very similar striping pattern would be a major faux-pas. I do like these sweaters, but don't understand the extra, and incorrect templates in the presentation.  The logo needs to be sized properly on the jersey (it looks a bit big to me) and sized and rotated properly on the player model. I would also move the C to the viewer's righthand side (players left) over the players heart, as it has traditionally been place, unless the log gets in the way (it shouldn't be in the way here if sized properly). 7/10

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins concept (by

I like where this concept is going. The striping on these sweaters touch on a lot of different eras from Penguins jersey history. I like the yoke from the robo-penguin days, and the diagonals at the bottom of the sweater from the vegas gold pre-edge jerseys. I would add some diagonal cuff stripes to make this sweater better. Also, all the stripes need to go OVER the stripes on the template, check out the tutorials page to see how to do that. For me the wordmark does not work on this sweater, it seems crowded and off centre with the jersey striping. I would go with a regular crest logo on this one. good job on using authentic jersey markings fir the AHL. 6/10

Anaheim Ducks concept (by Kyle C.)

An orange alternate seem like a natural choice in Anaheim. This sweater from Kyle has all the marks of a classic jersey and all the traits one would expect from a Ducks jersey. These look awesome, really well done. 8/10