Cole Tweaks the NHL: One Team at a Time.

[ColeJ]

I think that the home should stay bright blue. Other than that fantastic. What program do you use?

i've used GIMP 2 for every concept in this thread.

[ColeJ]

tonight i tweaked the anaheim ducks uniforms... i was never a fan of the name "mighty ducks" as i thought it was a little too cutesy for grown men playing sports, so i used to pray one day they'd change their name to the anaheim ducks... they finally did, but i feel they went a little too far in rebranding, and made some bad choices along the way. i really like the way gold and orange look next to each other, especially with black and the little bit of silver they use. but something always seemed off about it, and they didn't look or feel like the ducks to me. also, they ditched one of the most iconic and visually interesting logos in the league. i understand why they did, but i wish they hadn't. since they recently brought it back in the form of a shoulder patch on their alternate jersey, i've decided to use it in my concept and try to tie both eras together into one cohesive identity.

my original plan was to make them purple, gold, orange, and black... but the more i played around with it, the more it annoyed me that i'd be making the ducks and kings wear very similar colors. (hint hint, my kings won't be black and silver... they'll be purple like they should be). without eggplant, if i wanted to incorporate what i consider "duck colors" into this concept, i had to go with jade. the original shade of jade looked a little too jarring to be the primary uniform color, so i decided to darken the jade slightly. i paired it with the current shade of ducks metallic gold (thanks to ssur.org) and a modified (warmer) version of the yellow anaheim used on their original uniforms.

let me know what you think.

[wildwing64]

Very nice tweak to the Ducks uniforms. I'm especially loving that third

Although I will say this: the colour scheme, in general, looks a bit too much like a hybrid of the Stars and Sharks. Maybe replacing the orangey yellow with the reddish orange that the Ducks use today would help in that regard.

If the Ducks ever go in this sort of direction with their uniforms, I will be a very happy fan.

[Morgan33]

The Ducks Primary and Away uniforms look spectacular. You've given them something they haven't had since 2006. An original visual identity. The Duck's current threads look like and awful amalgamation of the Penguins and Flyers. Not sold on third. Maybe some Hem Stripes would improve the look.

[HawkeyHouse]

I really like the colors you used, but it reminds me of San Jose to much.

[colinturner95]

my latest scribblings are for the pittsburgh penguins.

my goal with this concept was to find any way possible to ditch the bland reebok sweaters and give them a uniform that would be instantly recognizable as pittsburgh hockey, without simply putting a full throwback design onto a reebok uniform cut.

my biggest pet peeve with the penguins current uniforms is vegas gold. it's such a bland and ugly color, and it makes them look like the washed out cousins of the black-and-yellow pittsburgh sports franchises. apparently the gold is popular with the fan base, and it's been well documented that mario lemieux hates athletic yellow, so i figured i'd try to come up with a compromise.

i chose a shade that isn't vegas gold by any stretch, but is still distinctly "black and gold" instead of yellow. if i had to name it some arbitrary sports color name, i'd call it old gold.

the home and road are a nod to the lemieux/jagr era and the alternate is based on the template from the senators current alternate. call me crazy, but i thought that template looked like an abstract rendition of penguin wings, and in black/white with a tad of gold, i think it's a perfect fit. i also brought back the "robo-pigeon" that everyone seems to hate... i think it's a fantastic logo, and a perfect alternate mark.

digging the pens alternate!! (**) (**)

[ColeJ]

this one is probably going to be a little controversial, but i give you the ottawa senators. i hope you like barber-pole.

not much to say here... simple uniforms with a modern twist, used the barely-used alternate logo as the primary. wanted to do something barber-pole with the alternate, but knew that a straight representation of the original senators onto a modern template would be absolutely hideous and illegible. i thought a simple front-panel of barber-pole pattern on a black sweater would make it a little easier to watch a game. if the third jersey proposal gets absolutely reamed and shot down due to forumer feedback, i've got a backup plan in place... but i figured i'd go for it all and do my original idea first.

[HawkeyHouse]

Very interesting concept for the Sens. Somethings bugging me from the Alt. Maybe its the gold boarder that seperates the stripes and the black.

[neo_prankster]

this one is probably going to be a little controversial, but i give you the ottawa senators. i hope you like barber-pole.

not much to say here... simple uniforms with a modern twist, used the barely-used alternate logo as the primary. wanted to do something barber-pole with the alternate, but knew that a straight representation of the original senators onto a modern template would be absolutely hideous and illegible. i thought a simple front-panel of barber-pole pattern on a black sweater would make it a little easier to watch a game. if the third jersey proposal gets absolutely reamed and shot down due to forumer feedback, i've got a backup plan in place... but i figured i'd go for it all and do my original idea first.

I approve of these.

[ColeJ]

Finally up, after weeks of trying to fix one of the most broken identities in hockey (in my opinion), I present the Minnesota Wild.

Tackling this team required a strategy. First off, the color scheme of red and green clashes so horribly in my eyes. It can work, in some places, but I just don't think it works at all in the Wild's identity, so that had to go. I actually like the logo the team has, and find it very clever... but the colors had to change. The other big issue that stands between the Wild and a good identity has to do with chronology. A team whose name and logo are so ultra modern that it's hardly even a noun (let alone a plural noun) should NOT try to dress like an Original 6 franchise. Nor should a team that never saw the 1990's, let alone the 1950's.

With this in mind, I gave the Wild some sleek modern threads and a color scheme that while and dreary has a very "Wilderness at night" vibe to it.

The original plan was to give Minnesota a green version of the home jersey as an alternate, but my fiance stepped in the way and said that it was too boring to do that, and helped me put pencil-to-paper on some ideas for an alternate jersey. I settled on a simplistic contrast to the ultra-modern home and road, meant to make subtle reference to the Minnesota North Stars, while still respecting that one team's legacy has nothing at all to do with the other.

I hope you don't hate it, because I put way way WAY too much work into this concept. It just further underscored how much I hate everything about the Wild's identity.

[CoolHand]

While I like Vegas Gold (but then, I'm a Pens fan), the gold you used for the Pens jerseys looks really good. Also, to echo the sentiment of others, I love the alternate.

I like your color scheme for the Wild jerseys, too.

[GMW79]

Well, the Wild concept is pretty interesting. I think it lacks a bit of contrast, but I do really like the design you came up with. It is modern enough for the team without being horribly outlandish. I can't say I like the third--looks too much like the BJ's thirds. BUT. I *really* like what you did with the alternate logo. We all know how tired circle logos are, but this one is clever and creative. It's, by far, my favorite part of your concept (And the stars on the shoulders of the main sweaters are pretty cool too).

[Bayne]

Not hating the Wild redesign....interesting colours.

[charger77]

I like the Wild uniforms but not the colors. It just screams Seahawks to me. I do like what you did on the shoulders however. That is a unique uniform element that we have not seen on an NHL jersey yet. The shoulders remind me of a football jersey. Good Work.

[dgnmrwrw]

I really like what you've done with the Wild uniforms. It's unique and a style that works well within the identity. But you definitely need to work with the colors. There's no contrast at all, and those colors would run together into a dark blob on the ice.

[Morgan33]

The Wild concept is interesting and I certainly applaud your creativity. Unfortunately there is not nearly enough contrast between the shades of green and blue. Both colours a dark, dull and tend to bleed into eachother to the point where you can barely make out the details of the logo. Perhaps if you replaced that dark shade of green with Kelly? Two things I do like however are the Star's on the shoulders and that spectacular alternate logo.

[aci]

Those Wild jerseys would be epic with just slight changes.

The two things I can think of are a bit more contrast, and making the stars on the shoulder face the right way... right now, they look upside-down when compared to the star (eye) of the logo. The curve is headed in the right direction, but the two points of the star should face the cuff, and the single point should face the collar.

[sabres14]

what template did you use on gimp?

[mbannon92]

I absolutely LOVE the design of these. The shoulder stripes with the streaking star are great...reminds me of the Chargers.

As the others have said, though, you need to work on the color scheme. I would lighten both colors some, especially the green. Initially I thought the green was black. Also, I would put the primary logo on the shoulders of the alt.

[HawkeyHouse]

I really like the design you used for the Wild. I really really like their current home jersey, if it was more similar to that I'd be sold on the design. But I wish you kept their colors, not this blue. The red and green are awesome. The alternative is pretty sweet, this one is alright.