Friday: The Aftermath.

Hey HJC, Colin Here.

I am writing this on Christmas, during the aftermath of a turkey dinner. I will be away with my family on Friday, so this is sort of like a letter from the past. I will let you try to bend your minds around that.

My Christmas was great (as I hope your holidays were/are too!). The Best thing Mom and Dad Santa brought me was tickets to the Heritage Classic. It's official. I will be at the game. I am super excited.

I mentioned a week or two ago that I will be organizing a HJC meet-up (like the one Ryan is organizing for Winter Classic Weekend in Detroit) for Heritage Classic Weekend in Vancouver. Now that I have my tickets to the game confirmed, I am getting really excited about that weekend. If you are going to be in Vancouver for the Heritage Classic weekend, get in touch with me (Facebook is probably the easiest way... just creep me on the HJC page, and send me a message or add me as a friend. My name on Facebook is my real name Colin May).

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As much as I am looking forward to the Heritage Classic, Ryan looks for ward with equal anticipation to receiving your votes every week, SO get 'em in. Here are your reminders:

COTW Dec 16-22 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Pioneers Comp Friday, December 27, 2013 @ 11:59pm Eastern

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Toronto Maple Leafs - Matt Mc.

Like: I am a fan of just 2 northwestern stripes on these sweaters. It is a great look to have that look repeated, but 3 seems to be overkill for me. 2 looks great. Clean execution as always.

Change: The white sweater feels a bit blank to me. A full shoulder yoke might be overkill, but exploring the option of some sort of shoulder detailing could be really good.

Rating: 8/10

Los Angeles Kings - Stephen T.

Like: Good job creating 2 matching sweaters for the Kings. As much as I love their current set, it irks me a bit that the striping does not match on them. I also like the return of the LOS ANGELES on the Hem. Curving it to match the hem works well for me here.

Change: I would use a different logo if you are going to include the hem script. right now the jersey reads LA, LOS ANGELES... it just seems a bit superfluous to me... Same with the Kings script on the back.

Rating: 7/10

Detroit Red Wings - Phil B.

Like: For the most part, not a bad design, just no much that suits me in this one. As always, it is tough to make a good concept to replace a classic design, such as the Red Wings.

Change: Ditch the silver, it isn't in the Wings colour palate. Also, make sure that striping goes OVER the template stripes.

Rating: 6.5/10

Quebec Nordiques - Christian L.

Like: simple striping pattern and colour scheme work really well for me.

Change: The logo is too wordy, the collar doesn't match front and back, and the neck has loose pixels, and is not coloured in properly. also the socks striping is just plain out there.

Rating: 5/10

Tampa Bay Lightning - Ryan D.

Like: Ryan does a good job of including black and blue on the same sweater (a pretty tough thing to do IMO) here they compliment each other well. Also, improvement is being made on execution.

Change: executinon stuff. GET THOSE STRIPES MATCHING. don't forget to colour in the inside of the sweater we see inside the collar, and take care of those loose pixels.

Rating: 5/10

ECHL All-Star game 2015 - Anthony C.

Before we get to Anthony's concept, here is his artist profile card... which he has done an AWESOME job on, by the way:

Like: These are COLOURFUL, as an All-Star game jersey should be for a Florida based All-Star Game. I love the socks, they remind me of Ice-pops... in a great way.

Change: I would like to see some continuity between jersey, pants and socks. I would be inclined to play off the Ice-pop motif.

Rating: 7.5/10

Toronto Maple Leafs - Phil B.

Like: Phil has put a lot of thought into these sweaters, and included many eras of leafs logos in this sweater. I love seeing a designer include a bit of explanation on their work.

Change: All of these details and logos (as well thought out as they are) are overwhelming. There are a lot of stripes on these sweaters, so less is more in terms of logos on the sweaters (plus all these logos on one sweater is truly anachronistic). I would also get rid of the yoke on the white sweater for simplicity.

Rating: 6/10

Colorado Avalanche -  Ryan D.

Like: I like the colour combo here. It seems chilly and avalanche-y. the blue really pops here. Have always been a fan of the diagonal text for the Avs.

Change: getting closer on execution, still loose pixels and striping consistency issues. In terms of design, the black pants seem out of place for this uniform... blue or purple might look better here.

Rating: 5/10.

Detroit Red Wings - Wings98

Like: CLEAN execution here from Wings (on his name sake Wings effort). Classic simple design. I really like how these sweaters "match." the striping is the same, but the background is different, creating 2 different and distinct looks, very clever.

Change: I would get the Wings' classic font on there fore Numbers, NOB and Captaincy.

Rating: 7/10

Minnesota Wild - Stephen T.

Like: A great, clean, matching set here for the Wild. I like the return of the "wild" numbers. You really can't go wrong with keeping it simple with that colour scheme and fantastic logo.

Change: I really feel like a bit of accenting is necessary on these sweaters. a thin gold stripe on both sweaters between the upper arm and thin red stripe (instead of the green or white) could really add a bit of oomph. Also, make sure that the stripes are matched on the white sweater.

Rating: 7/10

Vancouver Canucks - Matt Mc.

Like: These are really cool modern updates on the original stick in the rink sweaters. I love the negative space V on the sleeves (my favourite element of any Canucks jersey ever). These jerseys look modern and fast, while still taking cues from Canucks tradition.

Change: I would make the yoke on the white sweater blue. As is, that sweater feels a bit empty.

Rating: 8/10, and I'll throw a COTW nom Matt's way for this effort.

That's it for today, don't forget to get those votes in, and try your hand at logo design for the Pioneers logo comp.  Until next week, stay classy HJC.