Korean Ice Hockey circa 1996

[JCRGraphix]

I'm having some creative block with some of the other projects I have going, so I decided to try something different. In 1996, hockey jerseys were really starting to get ridiculous. I'm sure we all remember the Burger King, Wildwing, and that monstrosity that the Blues almost wore. Well, I grew up in a minor-league town (Kalamazoo Wings IHL), and the minor league teams ended up looking pretty wild around that time period. I decided to take some Korean places I've visited since I've been living here, and give them ice hockey teams designed for 1996...

Up first are the Jeju Islanders. Jeju Island is a beautiful volcanic island south of the Korean peninsula. It's a great place to vacation with several touristy spots as well as some off the beaten road adventures. It's also amazingly cheap to travel everywhere other than North America in my experience, so I was able to experience a lot without shelling out too much dough.

On Jeju Island, there are thousands of little statues with phallic/mushroom hats called dol hareubangs. They were considered by the people of Jeju to be gods that offered fertility and protection from bad spirits. Since they are everywhere on the island, I decided to use it as the basis for the teams logo.

(The photo is me with one of the statues. I had to really look hard for a CCSLC-appropriate picture, and luckily I found one. For some reason, me and my traveling companions thought it was just hilarious to pose with the statues where our knobs were. We're quite classy.)

The colors represent the sea and the sand in Jeju. They are bright and obnoxious just like you'd expect from a team in 1996. I also used a volcanic rock-inspired font to really tie it all together. It would work perfectly in 1996.

For the uniform designs, I went with something moderately traditional with a non-traditional font. The alternate uniforms are something i could definitely see on the ice in 1996.

[Word02]

That's a really nice design! I've been to jeju and I remember seeing those all around. It's cool to see someone be that inventive with just a vacation and make a team design!

[jaha32]

As someone who has been to Jeju and has a (recently misplaced) dol hareubang keychain, this is the perfect theme for a Jeju based team. Not that this is a good idea, but have you thought about cluttering these with advertisements like Samsung, LG, SK, Kia, Hyundai, etc... to make them look more authentically Korean?

As far as the design goes, I'd consider changing the turquoise to black. It would simplify the color palette.