Saturday: Jersey Debut

Hello everyone! In today's post we alternates for the Panthers, Kings, Blue Jackets, and Islanders. We've got the return of the "Fishsticks" logo, and a concept for a high school team! Also, I've got an update on the jerseys I designed for the Mississippi RiverKings of the SPHL.

You may remember a post a did a few months back about how I worked with the Mississippi RiverKings this summer to design a new set for the team to wear during the 2014-2015 season. This weekend I headed down to Southaven, Mississippi (just south of Memphis) to see the jersey on ice at the RiverKings home opener against the Pensacola Ice Flyers. I must say that I am immensely proud of how the jerseys look on the ice, and how they compare to the rest of the SPHL. The RiverKings may have lost the game by a goal, but they looked like the more professional team on the ice, which is what my goal was from the start. Here are a few pictures:

(Image Credit: RiverKings.com)

 Here are the jerseys side-by-side hanging up in their pro shop. I saw several people wearing them on opening night, so I'm glad the fan reaction is favorable.

This is about as good as I could do with an iPhone at warmups. They really do look natural on the ice, and against the Ice Flyers messy, ad-covered jerseys, looked like a real professional team.

The RiverKings and I may have more work coming out in the future. That's all I'll say for now, but I'm excited to see that some of my work is becoming a reality.

Also, this past week marked one full year as HJC's Saturday writer! It's been a great, fulfilling experience, and I think writing fits me more naturally than designing. Which, speaking of HJC anniversaries, Ryan is offering you all a chance to design HJC's Fifth-Year Anniversary logo! The logo will appear on the website during the entire month of November, so get your concepts in to Ryan very soon!

Let's move on to today's concepts!

Florida Panthers Concept - Willie W.

Positives: No sandy gold on the logo, just traditional athletic gold, the way it should be! The Panthers could use a jersey that feels more unique to Florida than the Reebok template that they wear today. The overall jersey design is pretty clean and detailed. I believe the striping pattern and colors compliment the red well, but..

Negatives: ...the Panthers' ownership made it pretty clear that hated the old two-tone blue, born of their shaky partnership with airline company JetBlue. I actually like it, but maybe not with that logo. The inside of the collar area needs to be colored red instead of white.

Overall: This is a step in the right direction. (7.25/10)

Weld Central High School - Mario A.

Positives: The jerseys have a nice, traditional feel to them. The design is simple, and wouldn't look amateur-ish on the ice.

Negatives: It's essentially just a recolored Bruins set with a new logo. Just not much creativity here. The newer Reebok wordmark should be used instead of the old logo that hasn't appeared on hockey jerseys for about three years now.

Overall: We've never had a concept for Weld Central High, but I feel like I've seen this concept many times. (6/10)

Los Angeles Kings Concept - RBowling

Positives: I wasn't a fan of the Kings' jerseys prior to their rebrand in 2011, but they went the opposite direction from what I was hoping they would go. Instead of owning purple, a history color of royalty, and making it central to their brand, they went with a boring black/silver/white design that doesn't make much of an impression. This concept aims to bring some of the purple back.

Negatives: If you're going with purple, go full purple. Make the jersey itself purple. Go crazy. This concept, like the one I reviewed from RBowling last week suffers terribly from been extremely pixlated. It makes it difficult to discern details in a design when that's distracting you. This is likely due to RBowling recoloring his concepts from images taken off of nhluniforms.com. The logo used her is not one of the Kings better logos, but they don't have many. It's over-wrought. Also, the design is just too similar to the Wild's red jersey.

Overall: Work at creating concepts without recoloring an existing concept. Even if it looks rough at first, it will help you get better. (4/10)

Columbus Blue Jackets Concept - Zach W.

Positives: Columbus's main logo doesn't look bad recolored in their alternate palette. The Blue Jackets have one of my favorite alternates in the league right now. Shadow effect behind the concept helps it stand out.

Negatives: Contrasting cuffs rarely ever works, and this is another case of that. the hem and arm striping is too much. Take it down a stripe or two. The concept needs sleeve numbers. I consider that a necessity, and wouldn't send a concept in without them. The non-traditional yoke, although a good design, doesn't seem to fit well with a concept so heave in traditional striping and vintage white. 

Overall: There's some potential here, but right now I don't see this as an upgrade over Columbus's current third. (7.25/10)

Boston Bruins Soccer Crossover Concept - Brady S.

Positives: We've seen a few hockey/soccer crossover series lately, and I think the most difficult hockey designs to translate over to soccer are the traditional, "Original Six" teams' designs. I like how Brady used the Stadium Series-style pants striping on the shorts here. That white kit is proof that hockey-style horizontal striping can work on a soccer kit.

Negatives: I don't like the chest striping on the dark jersey. It just awkwardly ends just before it meets the numbers. I would like to see some more daring liberties taken here. This is an opportunity to go avant-garde.

Overall: Not bad, but just not different and modern enough. (7.5/10)

New York Islanders Alternate Concept - Dylan N.

Positives: I have to give Dylan N. credit here. He's not afraid to dance with the devils of hockey design sometimes and do something different, or work with something "taboo." This logo, along with the jerseys that accompanied it in the 90s, were almost universally hated. I love them, but only in the same way I love bad sci-fi movies and the Atlanta Thrashers: they're so bad that they are cool.  This concept is executed perfectly (helmet numbers, people), and brilliantly presented. Take notice of the detail on the back of the collar. I also love that Dylan embraces some of the modern design cues of the Stadium Series jerseys from last year: the striping, the elongated numbers (which I like), the collar design, the pants striping, and the slanted numbers. I think it fits the vibe of this logo and color scheme personally.

Negatives: Of course, you will either love this or hate this. There is no other way to feel about it.

Overall: I however, love it. (9/10) COTW nomination from me!

We had a really big vote this week with not only our usual Concept of the Week, but also a vote for the 3rd Quarter vote to choose a semifinalist for Concept of the year! So it was especially important for you to vote. If you were responsible enough to do that simple thing, here is your reward. If you failed to even take 20 seconds of the time you waste everyday to send a simple vote in, take this in shame. 

Also, just want to remind you to send in your logo concepts for our Fifth Year Anniversary! HJC doesn't turn five everyday, so it's a big deal!

That's all for today's post. See you all tomorrow. Same time. Same place.