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American Football Worldwide - Georgia added 6/5


sc49erfan15

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Glad you are back!! I like the Uganda jerseys, I too feel the helmet is too detailed, especially for a Ugandan Int'l Team - although realism isn't much of the point in this thread. What if just the crane was on the helmets?

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To another "football has a snowball's chance" country... the Maldives!

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The Republic of the Maldives is a chain of 26 atolls (consisting of 1,192 islands, 192 of which are inhabited) in the Indian Ocean, about 250 miles southwest of India. You may have never heard of the Maldives, but I've already used a rather common English word of Dhivehi (Maldivian) origin - "atoll" is used in languages worldwide to describe "circular groups of coral islets." Owing largely to their rather isolated and scattered geographical position, the Maldives have been independent for most of their existence, despite being inhabited since at least 500 BC. However, the British being British in the 1800s, owned the Maldives from 1887 to their independence in 1965. The 853-year-old monarchy was abolished in favor of a republic in 1968, and president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ruled for 30 years despite (three major coup attempts in the 1980s) from 1978-2008. Currently, the most pressing issue in the Maldives relates to climate change. The average elevation is just under 5 feet and the highest point is only 7 feet, 10 inches - the world's lowest highest point. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the country (14 foot waves + 5 foot elevation = bad) - seriously damaging 57 islands, completely destroying 6, causing over US $400 million in damages (68% of the country's GDP), and killing 108. The threat of sea level rise caused by global climate change and completely inundation of the entire country is a very real possibility in the years ahead. As such, the Maldives are one of the world's most outspoken against the effects of climate change, and have pledged to become a completely carbon-neutral country by 2019.

Soccer is the Maldives' most popular sport. The population is only about 325,000, but the Maldivian national soccer team has had more success than most would expect. The Red Snappers won the 2008 South Asian Football Federation championship in 2008, beating Pakistan and Nepal to finish second in their group, beat Sri Lanka in the semis and then India (1.2 billion vs. 325,000, 2nd most populous vs. 180th) to win. It may come as no surprise that I can't find any evidence of American football being played in the Maldives. But, of course, that's not the point here...

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The Maldives football team wears red with little to no green accents, so I went with red as the primary color but added green for trim. The helmet logo is "Maldives" written in the national Dhivehi script. The wordmark "Maldives" in English is created from Dhivehi letters. A second, smaller nameplate with the player's surname in Dhivehi is above the English nameplate, and the stripe on the pants includes a map of the island chain.

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  • 1 year later...

Surprise! Everyone's favorite geography lesson-football concept duo is back... and here's our next country, Albania!

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The Republic of Albania is home to slightly less than 3 million people, located on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe, northwest of Greece and across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. The land that is currently Albania was formerly ruled by the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires since the Middle Ages, and gained independence from the Ottoman Empre in 1912 - only to be occupied by Italy and Nazi Germany during World War II. After the war, Albania became a communist state under the rule of Enver Hoxha, who eliminated illiteracy, industrialized the nation, and made Albania agriculturally self-sufficient. This came at the cost of many/most human rights, such as religion - Albania was declared the "world's first athiest state" in 1967, and disseminating religion carried a 3-10 year prison sentence. This eventually fell (Albania is about 59% Muslim, 17% Christian) with the end of communism in Albania in 1991. Today, Albania is a country with "high" (95th of 187) ratings on the Human Development Index (HDI), ranked "partly free" by Freedom in the World, and is an official candidate for European Union membership.
Soccer is Albania's most popular sport, and although the national team has never made the World Cup, Albania is currently ranked #57 of 209 by FIFA. Basketball is also popular, but unlike neighboring basketball hotbed Greece, Albania has not made significant progress on the global scale. Albania made its Olympic debut at the 1972 Munich Games, but Albania's 41 Olympians have all gone home medal-less - their best, a 5th in weightlifting in 2000. Most European countries have some evidence of American football being played... but Albania isn't one of them. But, of course, if there was...

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The concept is relatively straightforward. The federation logo is meant to look a little dated (like it was made in the '70s or so), I drew inspiration from the old CFL logo. Albania's two-headed eagle is featured prominently as on the flag, and I wanted a font that looked historic and matched the eagle - I'm really happy with it. I originally had no helmet stripes, but decided to go with short stripes mimicking the goat's horns from the helmet of Skanderbeg, viewed as Albania's national hero and whose helmet is featured on the country's coat of arms. The rest of the uniform is a little Atlanta Falcons-esque (I think it's the drop shadow) but this is unintentional.

I'd love come C&C on Albania, and expect a few more countries in the coming days!

BigStuffChamps3_zps00980734.png

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A little disappointing, but we're moving on... Kazakhstan is next!

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The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, the ninth-largest country (and largest landlocked country) in the world, home to about 18 million people. Kazakhstan's vast steppe has been inhabited for thousands of years - controlled at one time by Genghis Khan in the 1200s, then by Russia in the 1700s, under which Kazakhstan would remain until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kazakhstan was the last former Soviet republic to declare independence, and maintains close relations with Russia. Today, Kazakhstan is characterized by a "high" (70th of 187) Human Development Index (HDI) but very low on human rights and freedom indices such as Freedom in the World. Kazakhstan is not, contrary to popular belief, the #1 exporter of potassium.
There are many popular sports in Kazakhstan, most notably soccer, boxing, cycling, and ice hockey. Kazakhstan's soccer team is ranked #134 of 209 by FIFA, and has never made the World Cup. The national ice hockey team, however, is currently ranked 17th (of 50) in the world, and has generally been one of the best hockey teams in Asia. At the Olympics, Kazakhstan has won a total of 52 medals, mostly in boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling. The former Kazakh capital of Almaty lost a bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics - but is one of two candidates left (the other being Beijing) to host the 2022 Winter Games, which will be decided in July 2015. Is there American football in Kazakhstan? ...yes! 3 amateur teams, but no national team that I can find.
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Obviously, when you get unique colors and patterns like this, you use them. Many of Kazakhstan's sports teams have done similar using the ornamental pattern (called the koshkar-muiz) on the jerseys, basketball in particular. Kazakh teams tend to use navy trim between the light blue and yellow, but I kept it to just the numbers. I'm a little unsure on the pants, as I didn't want to overuse the pattern, but just kept them plain.
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The most famous (fictional) Kazakh in the world gives it a thumbs up... do you?

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On Albania, I'm not feeling the wing pattern from the eagle on the sleeves of the jerseys. It just doesn't really read as wings to me.

On Kazakhstan, I don't think adding the striping pattern to the pants would be overkill. I would push for a little more navy as well, because the sky blue and yellow need a dark colour to contrast them and really set them off.

On both, though, I feel like the numbers are a bit too ornate and might not be the easiest to reproduce or to read from far away.

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Very happy to see your back in action. Albania is really good. With Kazakhstan, I'm not really feeling the number font. It just doesn't fit for me. And maybe use the shoulder pattern on the pants?

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Thanks for the C&C, much appreciated.

Albania: edited the number font a little to help with clarity.

AlbaniaFootball2_zpsz2wnhzpc.png

Kazakhstan: I was worried about the numbers being too ornate on that one. I wanted to play off the flag pattern, but yeah, it was too much. I changed to a geometric sans-serif font that still, to me, fits in with the geometric curves of the pattern. Also, I added the pattern to the pants, and a bit more navy trim.

KazakhstanFootball1_zpsfxmfod0b.png

BigStuffChamps3_zps00980734.png

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We move from Central Asia to the Caribbean for... Saint Vincent and the Grenadines!

geography-of-st-vincent-and-grenadines0.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines consists of 32 islands in the southern Caribbean, of which 9 are inhabited by a total population of just over 100,000. Over the centuries since European arrival, the island was passed back and forth from the French to the British, eventually settling as a British Crown Colony. The country has had a rather quiet history, apart from two volcanic eruptions in 1902 and 1979 (just a few months before independence), destroying the country's agricultural backbone. The Vincentian economy remains dependent on agriculture and tourism, two things that can easily be destroyed by hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, which are always a threat. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has "high" human development (91st of 187) and ranks very high on Freedom in the World's human rights index.

Like most Caribbean nations, the most popular sports are soccer and cricket. The Vincentian national soccer team is ranked 110th of 209 by FIFA, and has never participated in the World Cup. Cricketers play on the West Indies cricket team. Basketball is a fringe sport, but Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has produced one NBA player: Adonal Foyle, a center who played 12 seasons, mostly with the Golden State Warriors. At the Olympics, Vincentians have participated in every Summer Games since Seoul 1988, but have never won a medal. Given the small population, no American football teams play in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, although rugby union is somewhat popular, so it's not the biggest longshot in the world...

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This is, I think, the first concept that the home and away jerseys have different designs - just felt like doing something different. The gems on the flag make a great logo, I just didn't want to overuse it. I'm not sold on the "SVG" logo, but trying to intertwine them or stack them felt forced. I'm certainly open to suggestions on that. The federation logo contains a breadfruit leaf, similar to one that used to be featured on the country's flag. Other than that, I think it's pretty straightforward. Thoughts?

BigStuffChamps3_zps00980734.png

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I think you did well incorporating the gems on the away uniform. S V G would look better on the helmet if it was like vertical instead of horizontal.

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