Uniform Elements

[dmsanders2344]

I'm a HS basketball coach in TX and we're getting new uniforms next season, and I wanted to get your opinion on a couple of design elements. For information details:

 

School Name: New Summerfield

School Mascot: Hornets

School Colors: Royal Blue, Gold Yellow, White (think GS Warriors color scheme basically)

 

Help with:

1. Home Jersey White - Lettering color (outlined or not), # color (outlined or not, contrasting to lettering or not? Same color as jersey, and outlined, etc.?)

 

2. Away Jersey Blue - Lettering color (outlined or not), # color (outlined or not, contrasting to lettering or not? Same color as jersey, and outlined, etc.?)

 

3. Alternate Jersey Gold Yellow or Light Grey - Lettering color (outlined or not), # color (outlined or not, contrasting to lettering or not? Same color as jersey, and outlined, etc.?)

 

 

As for the lettering New Summerfield, how do you think that would best look on a jersey front for the Blue Away's? It's a very unbalanced name!

 

Any input from you guys would be awesome. Certainly not asking for a jersey design...just what your take on the contrast of colors, what looks best in your opinion.

[Natechiro]

Highly suggest using Nike's teambuilder website: https://niketeam.nike.com/en/en_US/?l=shop  . Let's you customize and get a feel for how the jersey looks. Also personally I like outlined lettering on the names and numbers and I think a gold yellow would look pretty filthy.

[CDunn]

I think a lot would have to do with the design of the jersey itself.  For example, if the white jersey has a lot of blue and yellow stripes or areas of color, going with 2-color letters and numbers could make the whole uniform look cluttered or busy while single color letters and numbers could balance it out visually.  Conversely, if the jersey itself is pretty plain, single color letters and numbers could make it look cheap, and two-color numbers could also be a way to bring in more color.

 

Without considering the jersey design, I would lean towards single color letters and numbers given the school colors.  Royal blue, yellow, and white are all fairly bright colors without a lot of contrast compared to some other color palettes.  If you see white numbers with a yellow outline, for example, it can make the numbers look fat and almost out of focus because there isn't enough contrast between the two colors.  Conversely, plain royal letters and numbers on a white jersey, yellow (or white) letters and numbers on a royal jersey, and royal letters and numbers on a yellow jersey will be clear and pop.

 

I wouldn't do the letters and numbers the same color as the jersey and use a different color outline.  Go with letter and numbers that stand out.

 

"New Summerfield" does present a problem as you said.  Your going to have to split the words onto two lines to get it onto the front of a jersey.  Sometimes you'll see words split where one word is above the number on the front and the other is below.  I would avoid this given how imbalanced the words are.  I would keep both words above the numbers.  You could space out "NEW" a bit so it covered a little more area on the line above "SUMMERFIELD". Maybe a little like this:

 

 

   N     E     W

SUMMERFIELD

  23

[leopard88]

My thoughts --

 

Home -- Gold letters/numbers outlined in blue

Blue -- White letters/numbers outlined in gold (though gold outlined in white would also look good).

Gold Alt -- White letters/numbers outlined in blue (like old school Wake Forest (below), but with the blue replacing the black).

 

 

I think one-color letters and numbers will look too plain, particularly if the design is fairly simple as someone said above.

 

I understand the idea that white numbers outlined in gold could look distorted, but I don't see that as a major problem.  The letters are going to have to be thin anyway to fit "New Summerfield" on the jersey.

 

In terms of the lettering, I think the best option is a think vertically arched wordmark with "New Summerfield" on one line/level.  That said, it might be hard to mark that work with 14 letters and a space.  I've always loved the North Carolina style (below), but "New" is probably a little to short to make it work.

 

[dmsanders2344]

I appreciate the feedback. I've used the Nike Creator a lot. Just like to get thoughts from people who do this on a more regular basis.

 

As for general design, the jersey template will be fairly simple, not so busy. Stripes are likely at a minimum, but I like designs that lean towards more timeless and classic, with a touch of modern.

 

I too have thought having NEW on top of SUMMERFIELD, both above the number, is the best option...above/below number just doesn't work unfortunately. I've even thought about using NSHS instead, for the aways. For Home, it'll have HORNETS across.

 

Probably the biggest question to answer for me is, do you contrast the Letters and Numbers? For example, on white, do HORNETS in blue, outlined yellow and the number yellow, outlined in blue? Or vice versa? Or both letters/numbers same fill/same outline? Let's say the jersey is plain jane.

[leopard88]

It seems to me that the more timeless designs have the letters and numbers match.  However, that's certainly not a hard and fast rule (and I'm sure I'm forgetting an obvious exception).

[CDunn]

I would have the letters and numbers match, too.  Flipping fill color and outline color between name and number is done a lot, but it's not my favorite.

 

The only other thing I would consider would be possibly doing the name in two colors, say yellow outlined in blue, and then the number in single color blue.  I would think about doing this if having a lot of text like "NEW SUMMERFIELD" and a number all with outlines looked visually busy and full. The Charlotte Hornets do this and I think it looks nice.

 

 

If you did that, the single color should match the outline color of the two-color element.  Otherwise it'd look like a mistake if for example the name were yellow outlined in blue and the number was just yellow. 

[dmsanders2344]

I like this a lot. Thanks for the advice!