Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Jerseys For Your Tuesday

I've had a few jersey concepts sitting around that I thought I'd share this afternoon. I wanted to start with the Montreal Canadiens — who, according to a few sources will have a number of vintage sweaters throughout the season to celebrate their centennial. Using some past looks, one designer came up with this three.



Solid if not a bit boring.



Notice the name on the back of that one.



And those stripes are making me hallucinate.

Moving to the west now, we've got a cool concept for the Stars.



Seems that Bruins jersey would work for just about any team with a little recoloring. And while we're on new colors, when Matt did his Dallas rebrand, a couple of people brought up the idea of using Cowboys colors. Here's how that might manifest itself.



It's not bad but a little to close to my Lightning, you know?

And speaking of the Lightning, they're currently facing the Flames in the Center Ice Tournament — last day to vote on that poll, by the way! Here's a Flames concept jersey with their original colors and an interesting new alternate logo on the shoulders.



It's not the outline of Alberta I'm impressed by, but the small flame within it. Anyway, keep the concept art coming. We've also got a Wallpaper Wednesday tomorrow. Get excited!

Project: IHA Pacific

First, if you have no idea what the Icethetics IHA Project is then click here to get caught up.

You've seen the Atlantic, West and Northeast Divisions. Now we're headed to the Pacific. Remember, your job is to take the name and colors and create an identity for a hockey team from scratch. You can do it!

As I said last week, the response from artists has been phenomenal. You guys have come up with some great logos as you've seen with the first two divisions. This week we're voting on West Division logos. The week after will be this division so that gives you about two weeks to work on your concept designs.

Now here are the new teams!

IHA: PACIFIC DIVISION


LOS ANGELES SAINTS / Los Angeles, California
gold (C3AD49), green (388C38) and black (202020)


PORTLAND REBELS / Portland, Oregon
green (066641), orange (EE780E) and white (F0F0F0)


SAN JOSE EXPRESS / San Jose, California
red (BE1B1B), yellow (E5CF17) and black (202020)


SEATTLE METROPOLITANS / Seattle, Washington
purple (65009A), blue (135791) and white (F0F0F0)


VANCOUVER DYNAMO / Vancouver, British Columbia
blue (7093DB), grey (999999) and black (202020)

I've supplied colors in hexadecimal format. Should you need RGB conversion, here's a decent resource. By the way, you aren't tied to the exact colors here. Feel free to alter them a little if need be. But please shy away from the standard colors like total black or total white or total red. Remember, be different! As similar as it might be to the NHL, it's not the NHL!

GUIDELINES
Once again, follow these guidelines when submitting your original IHA artwork:
  • Don't steal artwork. I'm still surprised I have to say this but a number of people submitted logos from professional teams. This is supposed to be where you let your own creativity shine through. Send in something original!

  • Submit three (3) logos: primary, secondary and wordmark. Use a white background. If your logo requires a white outline (think Lightning or Capitals), then use a gray background with the white outline included.

  • Submit vector art if possible. I will accept .ai, .psd and .pdf files. If you cannot submit vector art, you must be able to provide high quality raster art in .jpg or .png files. No .bmp files, please.

  • Try to stick to the assigned colors. Change them only if you deem it necessary and then explain why you made the change. Remember, the "fans" chose these colors and they're who you're working for in the end.

  • Email them to nhllogos@gmail.com with IHA in the subject line. Please include your first and last name (it will not be posted). Please also submit your nickname which will be public if you don't want your real first name used.

  • By submitting your own original artwork to the email address above, you agree to grant permission of its use for online or print publication by Icethetics. Do not watermark your logos or they will not be considered.

  • And finally, be prepared to accept feedback and criticism of all kinds!

As always, you can email me questions directly or post them in the comments area. Start designing your logos! I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

IHA Poll: Dallas Patriots


Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. If you chose a non-finalist, tell us which one. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Tue Aug 5
Ends Fri Aug 8



As promised, below are a handful of the logos that were submitted but not selected as a finalist. If you think one of these should be the Dallas Patriots logo, select "non-finalist" in the poll and tell us your pick in the comments.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Ducks Confirm No Third

You know, with all the talk about which teams are getting third jerseys this season, I guess it makes sense to mention confirmation of those that aren't.

According to Curtis Zupke from the OC Register, Ducks management says they will be one of handful without one. It's funny because, 1) they could use one, and 2) history shows Anaheim has been one of the most prolific clubs in terms of thirds. A quick look back at the last 12 years turns up four different alternate sweaters for the Ducks alone.





credit: Andrew @ NHL Uniforms.com

It's worth noting the gradual increase in quality here over the years from something that should never have been worn in an NHL game to something that I wish was still around.

IHA Poll: Calgary Mavericks


Cast your vote and leave a comment about your decision. If you chose a non-finalist, tell us which one. Then tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results!

Starts Mon Aug 4
Ends Thu Aug 7



As promised, below are a handful of the logos that were submitted but not selected as a finalist. If you think one of these should be the Calgary Mavericks logo, select "non-finalist" in the poll and tell us your pick in the comments.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Inspiring Concepts

It's been a while since I've done a concept post. But as you know I've been busy redesigning the blog this weekend (again). Before I get into today's artwork — and there's a lot of it — I wanted to share my inspiration for this latest round of design upgrades.

A reader and graphic artist named Guillaume Bellemare emailed me a couple of weeks ago about the design of Icethetics. He said he had some ideas for improving it and I asked him to send me whatever he came up with. I just wanted to show you guys what he sent.



First of all, Guillaume obviously does really great work. You can check out his web site for more like it. You can click on the images above to enlarge them. On the left is the logo he created. I don't plan on using it (not a big fan of the font) but I do like the concept a lot. And on the right you can see the site design he came up with. So I have to credit Guillaume with putting the idea of a pollbar in my head. It wasn't until I saw his design that it really clicked with me.

One of the main focuses of this site is the polls. Why am I letting them get buried in pages of posts? It didn't make any sense. Now you have a quick at-a-glance way of seeing what you can vote on — and how long you have left to do so. That was the main element I took away from his demo here.

As for the rest of it, like I told him, the majority of the people who visit Icethetics are designers or otherwise artsy people who tend to use higher resolution monitors. Tiny text is difficult to read so I prefer large text and lots of spacing. I also widened the page for the same reason. Anyway, there's no need to beat this to death, so I'm not going to go into anymore details unless specifically asked.

If you have any questions, email me or comment. Now for today's concept art...

We're beginning with the Ducks because I have two great logo designs for them.



This one I like a lot but it's funny to me that, like the Canucks, the uniform would feature a prominent color not in the actual logo itself. The designer created orange uniforms for this concept. Still a great logo. The next one, I don't know.



It is quite duck-like, but I'm not sure that's winning it points. A little detailed perhaps, it makes great use of Anaheim's new colors. Moving on now to the Coyotes.



I think this logo would be improved by filling in the moon with a color. And while I like Phoenix's actual logo better, in this one, the coyote actually appears to be howling.

Another interesting Sabres design to add to the pile.



Simple, straightforward, traditional. Nothing wrong with that.

The next piece is based off an Islanders concept logo I posted here about a month ago.



Those are some nice jerseys and I can't see how the club from Long Island could go wrong with a logo like that.

We'll finish things off with a little something for the Quebecois population out there still missing the Nordiques. Here's what the old club might've looked like in today's Rbk EDGE sweaters.



Not bad at all.

IHA West Finalists Unveiled!

Last week you saw the logo finalists for the IHA Atlantic. This week, I've narrowed down three finalists for each team in the West Division for the logos I received. You'll begin voting on them tomorrow but for right now, have a look. I think we've got a good batch for this division.

CALGARY MAVERICKS


DALLAS PATRIOTS


DENVER MOUNTAINEERS


EDMONTON SEAHAWKS


HOUSTON COMETS


Like last time, I've left off credits here for a couple of reasons which I won't get into. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and let me know and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.

Also like the last division, polls will be posted throughout the week to decide which logo should be used for each team. Along with each poll, I'll show some of the logos that were submitted but didn't make the final cut for one reason or another. So if you sent in a logo that wasn't selected as a finalist, it should be there. If it's not, the image you sent was probably somehow unusable.

By the way, I've tried to weed out any logos with elements stolen from actual professional sports team logos, but if I've missed anything be sure to let me know. I've got backups to put in for most teams as far as the polls go.

Post your comments and critiques below!

New Polls Now In Pollbar

Just wanted to point out that the next poll in the Center Ice Tournament is up! You can now find all the polls for this tournament in the pollbar to the left. It's Phoenix and Carolina. Go vote!

If you want to comment, you'll now find a Comments link in the poll box after you've voted.

For more about the changes being made to the blog, click here.