NHL: Defunct Franchise Redesigns

[aci]

I'm seeing the fleur-de-lis above the wordmark as a tribute to the Expos' wordmark. Intentional?

[Has2916]

I love the traditional look of these jerseys. I like the bulldog, he looks nice and surly like he isn't going to take any crap from nobody! I think that the secondary collar logo is really cool. Maybe it's a little to close looking to the Hamilton Bulldogs H in a collar, but I like this one better. Great colour choices too.

[north dakota]

Quebec Bulldogs concept has a great color combo.

[CJworks]

I like where you were going with this one, but the bulldog needs some work. Not sure about the color choice, the tan and white seem to be competing against each other in the face, which in turn mutes out the navy. You could certainly pack in some more detail around there, specifically there area from the nose up. The eye needs to be brought down, and add some wrinkles to the eyebrow area, and throw in the pupil in the eye. The shading could probably better fit the contour of the dog's face, with all those wrinkles and folds, like in this picture.

I know you were going for a regal and respectable look; why not put the bulldog in a shield? You could still give it some pride and dignity while adding detail.

Love the Q collar-bone by the way, GENIUS work.

[The Fixer]

I like it...for minor league. It doesn't say NHL to me at all. Color scheme and logo are a big part of that

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Quick thoughts:

aci: Yeah, the fleur de lis over the E was supposed to be a small nod to the Expos' treatment. I definitely wanted to use it without making it prominent, because there's another Quebec team to come where it will be.

Has2916: You know, I'd never seen that Hamilton logo. I had to look it up on the site to see it. Was it ever a shoulder patch? (Hopefully the resemblance isn't too much of a problem.)

CJ: You're right that I could have packed in more wrinkles and details, but I really didn't want to. I wanted simplicity here--only showing what I needed to show in order to convey the image--and I wanted the bulldog to look younger and trimmer, if that makes sense. I definitely didn't want it to turn out like the Hamilton Bulldogs primary logo, because that one just looks overly busy and almost caricature-ish and silly. And I didn't want a photorealistic representation, because that just doesn't make for a good logo.

Here's one of the images I used for reference. Notice how he doesn't look nearly as wrinkled as the one you posted. It just depends on the particular dog you choose to look at. (Because there are also some that are even more wrinkled and frumpy than the one you posted.) Also, you can't really see much (if any) of the white (or a highlight) in the bulldog's eye in either picture, which is one of the reasons I eliminated details in mine. I'm still struggling to understand this comment: "the tan and white seem to be competing against each other in the face, which in turn mutes out the navy". Do you mean that the two colors are too similar? Because to me, the copper color is almost too dark.

Anyone else have anything to add before I move on?

[scottyvoodoo]

It seems weird that you would use an english bulldog for a french area team, did you think about using a french bulldog at all?

[CJworks]

I'm still struggling to understand this comment: "the tan and white seem to be competing against each other in the face, which in turn mutes out the navy". Do you mean that the two colors are too similar? Because to me, the copper color is almost too dark.

Well, the colors seem to contrast almost too much in order for either one of the colors to serve as a highlight or shadow. It's almost destracting in a way, and I think you were correct on saying that the copper was a bit dark, as that looks to be part of the issue (and yes, you were right on with the reference, I see what you were going for now). Lightening the copper should do the trick.

Other than that, it's great to go for simplicity. But I was thinking, since the team would have been around for rougly a century by now (going off the relocation date you have posted), I would assume the dog would be elderly and aged, like a wise veteran. I see where you're coming from about the style you were going for, but I was thinking down the lines of something else. But that's just me, and yet the logo still looks great.

[BrianVlietDesign]

I'm digging Quebec's sweaters, especially the third uniform. Nice work so far.

[dgnmrwrw]

It seems weird that you would use an english bulldog for a french area team, did you think about using a french bulldog at all?

Holy crap. I never even thought of this. (Maybe a personal thing... I really love English bulldogs, while I've always thought of French ones as more terrier-like and yippy.) That would have probably been a great idea, and though it's a little late in the game to change it now, I think I'd love to go back later and try. The look of the dog may not be what I want, but it would be worth trying it to see. (Or maybe in this hypothetical future the Bulldogs could be the team for Anglophone Quebecers and the Nordiques could be for the Francophones, sort of like the old Maroons/Canadiens dynamic.)

And CJ, I see what you meant now about the colors. I'll probably go back and lighten it up.

[NYCdog]

Does this include the possibility of WHA franchises?!?

[Buster]

It seems weird that you would use an english bulldog for a french area team, did you think about using a french bulldog at all?

WOW...great thinking.

I love that Bulldogs concept he did but you brought up a good point.

Problem is...French Bulldogs are too cute. If you try to make it look fierce, it will look like the BU Boston Terrier...they're very close in appearance. (BT owner myself)

[dgnmrwrw]

Quebec has been updated. I lightened up the copper color slightly; hopefully this makes things a bit brighter. I think I'd still like to go back and rework the alternate, but right now I'm burned out on sketching changes. So I'll put it on the back burner and revisit it later.

Next team coming up.

[dgnmrwrw]

#4: Brooklyn Americans

Brooklyn, NY // Folded 1942

First up, the name. I went with "Brooklyn" instead of "New York" for a few reasons: Firstly, this was the name they ended with (albeit for one season, and they didn't actually play in Brooklyn); Secondly, I didn't want a third team with the "New York" moniker; Thirdly, with the new Nets (or whatever) arena to come, it seemed like a good fit and would help balance the other three NY metro area teams (one in Manhattan, one on Long Island, on in Brooklyn, and one across the river in NJ). Next up, the colors. I used the closest RGB approximations for the official US flag colors that I could. In the conversion from Illustrator to .png, the blue got a little purply. My apologies, it shouldn't look like that. For the primary, I wanted to do a play off of the US Great Seal, with the eagle clutching hockey sticks instead of arrows and an olive branch. The six stars represent the six players on the ice and are also a nod to the old logo.

The uniforms are somewhat inspired by the old uniforms. The inspiration here was the big, heavy, blue shoulder area, and lots and lots of stripes. In addition, since they have colors similar to the Rangers, I wanted the general uniform to be nearly the opposite of the Rangers--thus the blue pants with red sweaters. The logo on the shoulders is a stylized A in the wordmark style, with a minimal US flag acting as the cross stroke.

Blue was the natural choice for the alternate, and I wanted a text-based logo of some kind since the Americans used one for their entire existence. But I went a slightly different route, starting with the Brooklyn Dodgers' old wordmark, tweaking it in several areas and adding the eagle wings and the six stars. On the shoulders, there's a circular patch with type and wings in the style of the primary.

[Has2916]

Top notch work again!

I love the shoulder patch on the home and away. I think if this were a real franchise (again) that simple merchandise with that logo would sell extraordinarily well. I thought I would really like the wordmark on the alternate, but it looks too much like a cheesy 70's script IMO. I'm no artist so my thoughts are to be taken with a grain of salt but what if the word was all red with the white accents where they are and also in the wings?

Fantastic work.

[bohob]

Very classy. I really like the rendering of the eagle and the color scheme. There are two things that bug me a little though. 1) The hockey sticks make the emphasis of the logo slightly too vertical. If they were fanned out more more made wider somehow, I think it would help. 2) The stroke on "AMERICANS". It doesn't match the B in the crest or the line quality of the eagle. I think it would look better left off. The uniforms look great though.

EDIT: I gotta give you major props on the custom script. I understand how challenging they can be.

[Lights Out]

What, no stars and stripes sweater?

Not a big fan of the alternate because I feel like a modernized version of this sweater I posted would work better. I love the logos, the home, and the road though. Great job overall.

[SenatorJake]

This is pretty much my favourite series of all time.

[Phitin]

Another great concept, only one thing bugs me though: When I look at the stars on the side, I keep seeing 6 Dallas Cowboys stars. It's not a huge deal, but I keep thinking red stars might look better.

[skier14]

I really like this. Nice job...again!

It has similarities to a concept that I had been working on, but scratched for a baseball team (yours is much better though).