IHA Poll: Montréal Rouge

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 Wed Aug 13
Ends Sat Aug 16



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

Habs To Wear Shoulder Patches?

The guys over at Hockey Bums wrote up a bit about possible uniform alterations for the Canadiens to celebrate their 100th year. They included this image from NHL 09.



It shows two different 100th anniversary shoulder patches. No word on whether this was created for the game or is an official design for the Habs. It was noted that these screen shots were taken while the game was in a special mode that allows the user to choose the players' equipment.

It's also been reported that the Habs will have a number of the special vintage sweaters throughout the season to mark the centennial event. I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

UPDATE (8/14 12:40 AM): Here's a funny irony that just hit me. This post about the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens... is my 100th post at Icethetics! Things like that just crack me up.

Project: IHA Great Lakes

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, Northeast and Pacific Divisions. Now the one you've all been waiting for — the Great Lakes! Yes, that includes Buffalo, Toronto and even Detroit. Remember, your job is to take the name and colors and create an identity for a hockey team from scratch. Have fun with it!

You guys have been coming up with some great logos as you've seen with the first few divisions. This week we're voting on Northeast 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: GREAT LAKES DIVISION


BUFFALO BISON / Buffalo, New York
white (F0F0F0), red (A70303) and black (202020)


COLUMBUS BRIGADE / Columbus, Ohio
orange (F26F03), blue (202272) and white (F0F0F0)


DETROIT LEGIONS / Detroit, Michigan
grey (B8C8C6), blue (1F83F3) and black (202020)


HAMILTON GENERALS / Hamilton, Ontario
tan (CDBE70), gold (907C20) and black (202020)


TORONTO KNIGHTS / Toronto, Ontario
red (D91313), grey (CECFB9) 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: Hartford Bears

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 12
Ends Fri Aug 15



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

IHA Poll: Boston Royals

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 11
Ends Thu Aug 14



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

Design Curtis Sanford's Mask!

Since there are a lot of Vancouver Canucks fans out there, by now I'm sure many if not most of you have seen the new contest on the team's official web site.



That's right, even you can design Curtis Sanford's mask! As you know, his teammate Roberto Luongo won the Tournament of Goalie Masks at NHLToL. Sanford, however, didn't fare as well being eliminated in the second round by Mathieu Garon. Now you guys have the chance to make it the best!

But obviously this isn't just for Canucks fans. I encourage artists of every stripe to take a shot at this. And as a bonus, feel free to submit your mask design to me at the same time as you submit it to the team. If you do an awesome job, I'll post it for everyone at Icethetics to see.

Have fun with it!

From The Ground Up

The IHA Project is going superbly as evidenced by the logo designs we've seen coming in for the fictional hockey league. But despite that, I still read comments and emails almost daily asking why nobody got any input on team names, colors, locations, etc. As I've said more times than I can count, that's not what the project is about.

However, it's made me realize that you guys would like a project where you get to exercise your creativity more — or at least your own opinion. A project where you build an entire fantasy hockey league from the ground up. Despite the time it will take to do this, I'm on board.

I'm adding a new element to the pollbar. It's called Fantasy and for the next few weeks it will feature polls that will allow you to guide the direction of this new league. Here is the question: Would you like to participate in the creation and branding of a fictional hockey league at Icethetics? If the response is positive, we'll move forward. If it isn't, I'll drop it.

The other question is about the geography. Two answers. North America or the globe? That's it for now. We'll see where we are next weekend when both polls have closed.

I hope this project doesn't prove to be a bad idea. I think this is something most of you want and I'm willing to facilitate it. So have fun with it. And if anybody's asking "what's the point?" The point is it's a hobby for logo designers and marketing wannabes. It gives you a chance to express yourself creatively if you want. And if you don't, it's something fun to look at every now and then.

Let me explain a little more about how this will work if we do go forward. Everything will be voted on. We'll start by choosing the number of teams in the league. Then which cities get teams. Then what names those teams will get. Then what colors they'll have. Then we'll go into logo and uniform design. I won't lie. It'll be a long process but everybody's voice will be heard. And I'll try to keep it as simple as possible while still making your vote the determining factor in every aspect.

And if you've got any suggestions for this process, don't hesitate to email me. I've got a lot of this already figured out but I'm always open to better ideas.

By the way, here's my plan for the IHA. We still have two divisions left. I'm going to see this through to the end. We'll get logos for all 30 teams and then it will be finished with it. No jerseys or anything like that. This project was always about the logos only. They'll all be turned over to Nicolas for use with his fantasy league — the International Hockey Association.

The one exception may be an IHA Logo Tournament just like all the other logo tournaments we've done. I'll gauge interest after we have all 30 and move on from there. But for anyone who's interested in following up with him about this fantasy league when the project at Icethetics comes to an end, I will find a way to get you in touch with him — likely via email.

IHA Northeast 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.

BOSTON ROYALS


HARTFORD BEARS


MONTRÉAL ROUGE


OTTAWA CAPITALS


QUEBEC GLACIER


I'm leaving off credits here as usual. However, if your logo is featured here and you would like a credit, drop me a line via email and I'll be happy to add it. Otherwise, I plan to wait and credit the logos that win for each team.

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 unusable in some way.

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. Speaking of backups, there's one more logo I have to post because of it's homage to the Whalers.



I'm not sure it would be a good idea for this competition for obvious reasons, but how cool would it be for this alternate universe league to share a logo trait with the NHL's best like that? It would be like a destiny thing for the city of Hartford.

Seriously though, the Whalers had one of the best logos ever (even you guys agree as evidenced by your voting in the Vintage Logo Tournament). Anyway, I just wanted you guys to see it, but it probably won't be up for a vote in the poll this week.

Post your comments and critiques below!