Alaska State Lights

[n312rb]

I was reading the "Hardest places to name a team" thread and Alaska came to mind as a tough place to put a college, let alone name it. 

 

Here is my shot: The Alaska State Lights. The formula on the neck tape is the formula to calculate the speed of light.

As the 49th State, they also have a special statehood set.

 

This is my first set, but this is addicting, I'm sure I'll come up with others.

 

What say ye?

[Dan O'Mac]

I really feel the helmet is lacking. A logo on the helmet will help with that.

I don't like the way the two teal/aqua/green colors look together without the gradient effect. 

What would the white set look like?

And, finally, that NOB is just too small, and I feel should be with the traditional nameplate look, so remove the arching.

[n312rb]

Oh my word... these colors are horrendous on my home computer, I did these on a laptop and they look completely different.

 

Fixes incoming.

[vtgco]

Yeah, the colors are super gowdy, and there's too many of them.

 

Honestly, I think that if you're going to go florescent at all, use only the seafoam and dark purple. No light purple or turquoise. Maybe a white jersey instead of seafoam, and perhaps use the first purple helmet only? The concept is too complex (not bad, just complex) to use so many loud colors.

 

The blue & yellow state flag one is really pretty, and the design works really well there.

 

This design motif clearly works, it just needs to be cleaned up! I look forward to seeing your edits.

[appleclock]

I’m digging this. It’s totally outrageous but kind of works for a northern lights team. The Big Dipper on the alt jersey helmet is pretty sweet too.

[n312rb]

Sorry, it took so long, but here it is again, lots of little tiny tweaks and changes. I also used the majority of suggestions, good design doesn't happen in a vacuum.

 

 

[bucknut42]

I like the update, simplified things a little bit more yet still maintained the character of the original concept.

 

One thing I would change is to remove the stripe from the helmet. I think it clutters up the mountains and personally I would like the helmet more if the stripe didn't cover the mountains up. If you want a stripe, maybe have it stop at the mountains so it's not blocking it.

 

Other than that, nice work! 

[n312rb]

Good call.

[Bomba Tomba]

Trippy.

[n312rb]

And a field concept, tear it apart.

 

[bucknut42]

You've got a good start here, although there are a few things I would change to make this better.

 

Since the wolf is so big and not at midfield, I would try making it look sublimated. As for the end zones, the northern lights pattern shouldn't go outside the end zone onto the field or out the back of the end zone. I like the idea, I just think that those two things would take this concept up a notch.  

[n312rb]

1 hour ago, bucknut42 said:

You've got a good start here, although there are a few things I would change to make this better.

 

Since the wolf is so big and not at midfield, I would try making it look sublimated. As for the end zones, the northern lights pattern shouldn't go outside the end zone onto the field or out the back of the end zone. I like the idea, I just think that those two things would take this concept up a notch.  

 

I'll try that, the endzone pattern was an illustrator bug, its fixed now.

[n312rb]

A team based around the idea of snow and cold should be the only one allowed to do a whiteout uniform.

 

[pianoknight]

Aside from the design, why is this team in the Big Ten?  That's not a criticism, I'm just genuinely curious to the backstory. 

[_DietDrPepper_]

21 hours ago, n312rb said:

Good call.

That’s last one Is really pretty, but I know it would be impossible to tell what it is but and would look a lot worse the further you get away from it, it’s just a psychedelic trip.

[sparkychewbarky]

Nice work here, n....I like concepts that are a little outside of the box, and this is pretty adventurous. Some great imagination!

I notice that your Big Dipper/ North Star graphic is very "anatomically correct"... in that you've presented the stars pretty much exactly how you see them in the northern sky. The alignment of Polaris in relation to the 2 end stars of the Big Dipper is accurate as is the distance between the stars. I wonder though, for design sake, if the accuracy could be fudged a bit. On the midnight blue helmet, I'd like to see a big chunky oversized Big Dipper with the "handle" trailing off to the rear of the helmet filling the entire side of the brain-bucket. Perhaps a big oversized North Star could be all the way over on the other side of the helmet. 

The white-out unis are great! I usually don't like gradients on a uniform, but they work well with this theme.

Good stuff!

[n312rb]

11 hours ago, pianoknight said:

Aside from the design, why is this team in the Big Ten?  That's not a criticism, I'm just genuinely curious to the backstory. 

Truthfully?  I think the B10 logo is one of the best logos that has come out in the past few years.  Realistically, they would probably be better in the PAC10 or Mountain West.  What say ye?

 

10 hours ago, sparky chewbarky said:

Nice work here, n....I like concepts that are a little outside of the box, and this is pretty adventurous. Some great imagination!

I notice that your Big Dipper/ North Star graphic is very "anatomically correct"... in that you've presented the stars pretty much exactly how you see them in the northern sky. The alignment of Polaris in relation to the 2 end stars of the Big Dipper is accurate as is the distance between the stars. I wonder though, for design sake, if the accuracy could be fudged a bit. On the midnight blue helmet, I'd like to see a big chunky oversized Big Dipper with the "handle" trailing off to the rear of the helmet filling the entire side of the brain-bucket. Perhaps a big oversized North Star could be all the way over on the other side of the helmet. 

The white-out unis are great! I usually don't like gradients on a uniform, but they work well with this theme.

Good stuff!

 

Appreciate it, I was trying to stay correct to the flag.  Something like this?

 

[n312rb]

Sorry for the double post but here they are "in situ"

 

Until I can figure out how to wrap text around a 3D object in a 2D program, there is no AK State stripe on the helmets.

 

[pianoknight]

13 hours ago, n312rb said:

Truthfully?  I think the B10 logo is one of the best logos that has come out in the past few years.  Realistically, they would probably be better in the PAC10 or Mountain West.  What say ye?

 

 

Appreciate it, I was trying to stay correct to the flag.  Something like this?

 

 

Most college conferences are still largely geographic (looking at you, West Virginia).  The real trick is to have a back story to explain how/why/when a school in Alaska joined the B1G.

 

From a geographic perspective, it makes more sense to place an Alaskan school in the PAC or Mountain West.  And if they are a "start up" college, you'd probably put them into the MTW as the Pac-12 prefers major public research institutions with a strong athletic caliber across multiple sports.  So with this example, it's a bit more of a stretch than say, the SEC stealing Virginia Tech.  You've got a bit more ground (literally and figuratively) to cover.

 

A plausible back story will absolutely SELL the idea to your audience.

 

So here's an example.

 

15 years ago, Alaska State was part of FCS-Big Sky, but decided to move up to FBS to have better control of their schedule as an independent.  Over the first ten years of their FBS existence, they gained a reputation as a giant-slayer, filling their schedule with any "big boy" Power 5 school they could get.  With some signature wins over schools like Ohio State, Texas, Colorado and Virginia Tech, the Lights saw an opportunity to try for Pac-12 membership as the conference wanted to expand to 14 teams to match the B1G, ACC and SEC.  Ultimately, though, the Pac-14 snatched up BYU and Boise State, leaving the Mountain West as the only geographic option for Alaska State.

 

They migrated to the Mountain West for 3 seasons before TV money went supernova and the B1G/SEC expanded yet again, this time to 20 teams.  The Big Ten drove westward, in an attempt to cover the Northern US from Rutgers & Maryland all the way to the Pacific Northwest.  The SEC expanded similarly, growing to cover the Southern half of the nation.  This move ultimately collapsed the Pac-14, giving Alaska State a small moral victory for the previous snub.

 

The Big Ten ultimately stole Washington, Oregon and Colorado from the Pac-14, plus added Alaska State and Hawaii to get to fifteen.  Kansas was eager to leave the Big 12 after the SEC made a play for Oklahoma and Texas.  Following the Sooner-Horn-Jayhawk exit, the Big XII largely folded and the SEC scooped up Arizona, Arizona State, USC and UCLA from the Pac-14.  The remaining Pac/XII teams have all gone independent and are exploring options to beef up the MTW, re-invent the WAC or pray that the ACC can somehow reach over miles and miles of B1G/SEC land and create a two-coast conference.

 

Also, Notre Dame is still independent and nobody cares.

 

The new Big Ten consists of ten teams in each division:

West: Alaska State, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin

East: Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers

 

The new SEC consists of ten teams in each division:

West: USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri, LSU and Arkansas

East: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

 

 

[slapshot]

On 9/27/2018 at 12:11 PM, n312rb said:

A team based around the idea of snow and cold should be the only one allowed to do a whiteout uniform.

 

 

Technically, this is illegal per NCAA, and most levels. You'd never be able to read the numbers from the press box, and maybe not even on field either. The rule is numbers must clearly contrast with the jersey, and must be legible without an outline. Take away the outline, you can't read the numbers at all.