JoeDGemma's NFL Uni Cleanup

[JoeDGemma]

I've been meaning to do a series like this, exploring every uniform in the league and seeing what can be done to keep it feeling fresh in 2017 without getting too far away from the existing brand most of these teams have established. Before I kick this off, I want to explain a few of the guidelines I'll be following in order to make sure the concepts I'm creating are as realistic and feasible as possible.

1. The one helmet rule is staying in-tact as it would in the NFL. Decals can change but shell must remain.

2. No complete rebrands. Reasonable color changes allowed but no name changes, new logo marks, or colors that have not been used before.

3. No throwbacks will be included. Assume any throwbacks that are currently in rotation for teams are still at their disposal.

 

Expect no drastic changes to many teams, this is simply an league-wide cleanup to remove some of the clutter and unnecessary elements of existing uniforms to extend their life expectancy. For certain teams who's uniforms would be better off starting from scratch, I'll be adopting some of their more favorable looks from the past, and bringing them to 2017.

 

With that said, let's get started.

 

Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Oakland Raiders
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
St. Louis Rams
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Redskins

[JoeDGemma]

Up first is the Arizona Cardinals. For this uniform, I decided to combine the look of the late 90s–Mid 2000s uni with current day elements. I've removed the outline from the numbers, while maintaining the existing typeface for numbers and name. The sleeves remain plain red as they did in the 2000's with the TV numbers being placed on the shoulders. Underneath, a subtle rubber texture of cardinal wings that is seen when hit by the light. Think Jacksonville's shoulder texture. Facemask updated to be Cardinal red and pants have been given a classic two stripe treatment. Atlanta Falcons are up next.

 

 

[JoeDGemma]

Atlanta is up next. As one of the few who love the falcons current set, I didn't want to do much to overhaul their system, but adapt it to current Nike templates and remove some of the 2000's clutter. For this concept I removed the drop shadow from the numbers while maintaining the same typeface. The Falcons word mark has been removed from the chest, and the shoulder piping has been completely eliminated. The grey outline on the helmet logo has been eliminated. New pants striping to be thicker to match the shapes seen in the logo. Away numbers changed from Red/Black to Black/Red to make up for the contrast lost when removing the shadow. All black alternate has returned only to be worn once or twice a season. Matte helmet.

 

 

 

[JoeDGemma]

Baltimore is next on the list. For the Ravens, much like Atlanta, the unnecessary drop shadow has been removed from all numbers. Primary away uniform is all white as opposed to the black yoga pants. Replacing the Maryland shield that used to take up the sleeves is a subtle pattern based off the Maryland state flag. This pattern has also been adopted to created a stripe running down the side of the pants, eliminating the legging look that has plagued these unis from their inception. All black alternate remains, updated to match the rest of the set. Satin black helmet with deep purple reflections when hit by light, in the same way the Jaguars old helmet reacted to light.

 

 

 

[StrongXStyle]

good start with your concepts. the Cardinals looks the best so far.

 

with the Ravens' pants stripe, its hard to tell flag pattern at first glance.

  

[8BW14]

I like these so far. They're nice, clean, simple designs. I do have some nitpicks though.

 

Cardinals: I'd move the numbers to the sleeves since you don't have any sleeve stripes.

 

Falcons: your front numbers are too low and I think red numbers on the white jersey would work better,otherwise, they're really solid.

 

Ravens: you need either a hip logo or real stripe on the pants. Also, I think baltimore's shield logo is a really nice mark. I'd either consider putting it on the helmet or sleeve.

[fouhy12]

Cardinals: A little too plain for my taste. I'd put stripes somewhere on the socks, especially the white ones, and on either the jersey or helmet,

 

Falcons: I love what you did here, especially with the pants stripe. Numbers should be higher and could use a thicker stroke, but that's all the negative I have about these.

 

Ravens: This is a great start, but they need more. The flag motif is not enough to carry through the uniform; the pants need an actual stripe of some kind, and purple needs to be incorporated in the alt more. 

[ahowe6464]

Cardinals: I actally love the simplicity. Wordmark would greatly help though.

Falcons: Really great, especially the pants stripe. Ditto on needing a wordmark.

Ravens: Sublimated pattern looks good on the jerseys, but not so much on the pants. Looks too muddled. (Also really glad you got rid of those helmet stripes.)

[luketheduke03]

I think the Falcons have always looked best with the black helmet, black jersey, and white pants at home, if only to distinguish themselves from the other red and black teams, but these look so good I don't really care. The only concern I have with this series is that since you're focusing on simplicity, a couple of the teams will end up looking similar. Great job so far!

[TMac4807]

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this thread.  Though I don't totally agree with everything you've done so far, I do like where your head's at and I believe that simplicity in uniforms is HIGHLY underrated.

[Tanny81]

That Cardinals concept is probably the best I've seen in a long time. Nice template also! 

[Ray Lankford]

Love the Falcons pants stripes. 

[H11K]

Those are the only uniforms the cardinals should wear, maybe a sleeve stripe, maybe.

[TMac4807]

I'm curious to see what he does with a few of the more traditionally styled teams that are already pretty simple.  Houston, Green Bay, Oakland, and Chicago come to mind...

[WavePunter]

I think the drop shadows actually work well for the teams you removed them from, but either way, I'd go back to red numbers on the Falcons white jersey.. Also, I'd do the flag motif in purple on all pants if you're stuck on keeping the flag motif instead of stripes

[JoeDGemma]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I want to go back and adjust some of these concepts from the critiques you all provided, but in the interest of time and to keep this series alive, I'll share my concept for the Buffalo Bills. Obviously, the Bills are one of those cornerstone old-school franchises with a very solid uniform package. So for this, I just made small tweaks that would go a long way to improve their current identity. I removed the black from the uniform because it's the only place black exists in their brand, and serves no purpose. The double stripes have been taken down to single stripes to adjust for the smaller sleeves of current templates. Worldmark removed from the uniform in an effort to keep it looking traditional. This is the same reason I maintained the gray facemask which I typically don't care much for. In this instance, I believe it's appropriate. I also removed the logos from the hips as I think it's unnecessary with the pants stripe. Red uniform is new, and exists outside of the current color rush set which in an ideal world would be removed from rotation. 

 

[Turtle Pilgrim]

On 2/12/2017 at 2:27 PM, JoeDGemma said:

Up first is the Arizona Cardinals. For this uniform, I decided to combine the look of the late 90s–Mid 2000s uni with current day elements. I've removed the outline from the numbers, while maintaining the existing typeface for numbers and name. The sleeves remain plain red as they did in the 2000's with the TV numbers being placed on the shoulders. Underneath, a subtle rubber texture of cardinal wings that is seen when hit by the light. Think Jacksonville's shoulder texture. Facemask updated to be Cardinal red and pants have been given a classic two stripe treatment. Atlanta Falcons are up next.

 

 

 

Not really a fan of their current helmet logo and the related other logos, I don't mind the wordmark, as long as it doesn't have the current Cardinal head, but I still like the St. Louis-era Cardinal head logo.  How would these uniforms look with the different helmet logo, especially if the Cardinals had never left St. Louis in the first place, at least?  Or with St. Louis-themed touches for their uniforms in the place of Arizona-themed ones, for instance.  As a long-time Cardinal fan, I wonder this sometimes.  Turtle Pilgrim out.

 

P.S.  I can't actually see the subliminated wings for these uniforms, for some reason or reasons I probably don't know.  Maybe they're just too subliminated for me to see them against the surrounding areas.  I've also tried seeing subliminated designs in other threads where they might be mentioned or present, but still generally can't, it seems.  Turtle Pilgrim out.

 

[ahowe6464]

Glad you matched helmet striping with jersey striping pattern on away (color-wise), that always bugged me.

 

My one gripe is the pants stripe though, I think it would look much better if the outer blue parts were thinner like they are on the helmet/away jersey.

[Turtle Pilgrim]

Also, thankfully, the Rams have ended their invasion of what I still consider Cardinal home turf, that being the St. Louis area, returning back to LA where they should have been all along after their earlier move from Cleveland.  But unfortunately, my Cardinals are still not back there, and probably won't be back there anytime soon, if ever, being stuck in Arizona now, when they might truly belong back in the STL area, in my view.  Nothing against Arizona, of course, but the NFL Cardinals do belong back in STL where they were for many years.  Turtle Pilgrim out.

 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

22 hours ago, JoeDGemma said:

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I want to go back and adjust some of these concepts from the critiques you all provided, but in the interest of time and to keep this series alive, I'll share my concept for the Buffalo Bills. Obviously, the Bills are one of those cornerstone old-school franchises with a very solid uniform package. So for this, I just made small tweaks that would go a long way to improve their current identity. I removed the black from the uniform because it's the only place black exists in their brand, and serves no purpose. The double stripes have been taken down to single stripes to adjust for the smaller sleeves of current templates. Worldmark removed from the uniform in an effort to keep it looking traditional. This is the same reason I maintained the gray facemask which I typically don't care much for. In this instance, I believe it's appropriate. I also removed the logos from the hips as I think it's unnecessary with the pants stripe. Red uniform is new, and exists outside of the current color rush set which in an ideal world would be removed from rotation. 

 

 

Maybe one idea would be to switch the stripes on the blue jersey? This way the center stripe is red on both home and away.