Champions Hockey League Redesign (Europe) *ZSC Lions and EV Zug*

[1clkgtramg]

Hey guys, some of you may remember my British Elite Ice Hockey League cleanup thread and I mentioned I wanted to tackle most of Europe, well, here it is. I will keep the British league thread separate and will use this one for the rest of Europe. Now I don't have a final set goal as of yet, however, I will approach the top teams of each league and give them a clean up or even a redesign. The teams are mostly those involved with the Champions Hockey League that is about to finish its first season. Basically its a soccer style tournament where the top teams or certain leagues get to play in that league so I'm taking the teams involved in the CHL as well as other teams floating at the top that may alternate in their respective national league and the CHL.

The first league I started working on is the National League A in Switzerland. The format of my posts will be a little different. I will show a collage with pictures of what the team looks like or has looked like for some reference, with the refreshed/new logo in the centre followed by the jerseys.

I have made some rules for myself: No sponsors will be present on my designs, however realistically speaking, the sponsors will only be present on the pants as well as one sponsor on the helmet and 2 on the socks. Home and Away Helmets and Pants will be the same to reduce on money spent on equipment. Teams are allowed to have another helmet and/or pants for their Alternate and/or Throwback as the team is financially responsible. Each team is allowed one Alternate and one Throwback, in other words a team can have 2-4 jerseys. Fauxbacks are considered Alternates. Home must be a solid colour - preferably dark - away jerseys may be white, cream, tan, yellow or gray. The flag of the country the player represents in International Hockey is worn over the heart of each jersey, instead of the back - yes these are real players - and the Captaincy patch will be worn on the right side instead of traditional left. Jerseys are made by CCM because Canada.... yep, no other real reason for that haha. The national league logo if present in the collar of each jersey similar to NHL.


National League A:
SC Bern
HC Davos
ZSC Lions
EV Zug
HC Lugano
Geneve-Servette
Lausanne HC
Others tbd



Most Fonts were from Conrad at http://fontsbyconrad.wordpress.com/

[1clkgtramg]

Up first is probably the most famous team from Switzerland as well as the most succesful, HC Davos. They also have one of the most bada$$ arenas ever!

Founding: 1921
Location: Davos, Switzerland
Championships: 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1958, 1960, 1984, 1985, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011

Arena/Capacity: Vaillant Arena (7,100)



So even though this is the most popular team, I decided to do them first because there isn't a whole lot changed. I gave the Home a yellow yoke and a solid yellow stripe. I used the antelope thing as a shoulder patch instead of the few times it has been mirrored on the front crest.

The Away keeps its traditional yellow look. I used the frequently used double striping on this one to change it up, as well as no yoke to show off more of the "light" colouring when facing other coloured teams.

[mamiller99]

I like the classic look of this set a lot! I'm just not a fan of the mismatched stripes, I'd prefer using the away stripe style for both jerseys.

[jaker52]

I agree on matching the stripes. Great job otherwise.

[1clkgtramg]

hmm, surprised that you guys want matching stripes - i just figured due to the white jersey actually being yellow, more needed to be done to show off that colour. I'll leave it for now because I like it, but if more people prefer it, then I will consider changing it.


Anyway, onto Geneve-Servette HC

Founding: 1905

Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Championships: None
Arena/Capacity: Patinoire des Vernets (7,300)


This team has gone through many identity crises. Is it Maroon and White, Maroon and Cream, throw in some Gold, it just looks a mess. Now I'm not too happy the way these turned out simply because I wanted to do a Home and Away similar to the alternate, but since most of the designs were "traditional" looking, I felt this would be an interesting team to try out my salvaged Buffalo template. Anyway, the Home is Maroon and Cream and I removed all Yellow.

The Away is mostly an inverted version of the Home with white accents added to include the Maroon arms/shoulder, similar to what their Away's used to look like.

Now this is what I wanted to do initially. The 5 stripes on the arm represent the 5 different championships the team has won - 2 Swiss Cups, 2 Spengler Cups, and 1 NLB Championship.
The 4 stripes devided into pairs of 2's in the middle represent the Swiss and Spengler Cup wins since winning the second tier league isn't really an accomplishment for a team that is usually in the top tier. Anyway, interested to hear your thought on this Alternate, I honestly like it better - and yes, inspiration is from the lovely Vancouver Millionaire Jerseys, diaper pants and all haha.

[mamiller99]

These look really great! I love the Millionaires reference.

[Dynamo Moscow]

hmm, surprised that you guys want matching stripes - i just figured due to the white jersey actually being yellow, more needed to be done to show off that colour. I'll leave it for now because I like it, but if more people prefer it, then I will consider changing it.

Anyway, onto Geneve-Servette HC

Founding: 1905

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Championships: None

Arena/Capacity: Patinoire des Vernets (7,300)

This team has gone through many identity crises. Is it Maroon and White, Maroon and Cream, throw in some Gold, it just looks a mess. Now I'm not too happy the way these turned out simply because I wanted to do a Home and Away similar to the alternate, but since most of the designs were "traditional" looking, I felt this would be an interesting team to try out my salvaged Buffalo template. Anyway, the Home is Maroon and Cream and I removed all Yellow.

The Away is mostly an inverted version of the Home with white accents added to include the Maroon arms/shoulder, similar to what their Away's used to look like.

Now this is what I wanted to do initially. The 5 stripes on the arm represent the 5 different championships the team has won - 2 Swiss Cups, 2 Spengler Cups, and 1 NLB Championship.

The 4 stripes devided into pairs of 2's in the middle represent the Swiss and Spengler Cup wins since winning the second tier league isn't really an accomplishment for a team that is usually in the top tier. Anyway, interested to hear your thought on this Alternate, I honestly like it better - and yes, inspiration is from the lovely Vancouver Millionaire Jerseys, diaper pants and all haha.

I'm a bit unsure why a Swiss team has a Canada flag on the chest, and why the socks look a little off, but overall, good design.

Up first is probably the most famous team from Switzerland as well as the most succesful, HC Davos. They also have one of the most bada$$ arenas ever!

Founding: 1921

Location: Davos, Switzerland

Championships: 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1958, 1960, 1984, 1985, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011

Arena/Capacity: Vaillant Arena (7,100)

So even though this is the most popular team, I decided to do them first because there isn't a whole lot changed. I gave the Home a yellow yoke and a solid yellow stripe. I used the antelope thing as a shoulder patch instead of the few times it has been mirrored on the front crest.

The Away keeps its traditional yellow look. I used the frequently used double striping on this one to change it up, as well as no yoke to show off more of the "light" colouring when facing other coloured teams.

This one is much more intresting. The home looks a bit like an older throwback jersey, and I do like that a lot. The away reminds me of the Swedish national team main jersey for some reason.

[1clkgtramg]

Thanks. The flags on the heart is the Nationality of the player (I mentioned in the original post)

And yes Davos has looked a lot like Sweden all its life, or possibly Sweden has looked like them. The yellow is more bright and less gold but there definitely are similarities. However, Sweden and Davos will never play eachother so I'm not too worried.

[mamiller99]

I like these a lot because they have room for ads, which makes it more believable. Excited for when you start SM-Liiga

[1clkgtramg]

Moving onto SC Bern.

Founding: 1931
Location: Bern, Switzerland

Championships: 1959, 1965, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2004, 2010, 2013

Arena/Capacity: PostFinance-Arena (17,150)


With a colour scheme like this, I just did my own thing. Bern's patterns and jerseys have varied constantly so there was no set stripping pattern to go by, so I made a random one that I feel showcases all colours pretty good while still focusing on the black. They have occasionally used just the Pacman style bear logo without the "roundel" part of it so I used that as a shoulder patch. I used the old Minnesota number font because I think it works well for a fuzy bear lol

Again, pretty basic stuff, except decided to keep the hem and forearms black to again focus on black being the main colour.

This Alternate i made just last minute, I was browsing through pictures for the collage at the top and saw one identical to this - yes it had no sponsors - and thought it was pretty clean, albeit basic. I try to stay away from Alternates of the same colour but every time I make an alt, its a repeating colour. Oh well, it's black. I may make a yellow or red throwback if I feel like it late on... Well I guess this could actually be considered a throwback to 2008 haha.

[Philsphan]

Great series so far! I like the use of the eagle on the sweaters for Geneve-Servette and you gave SC Bern a really strong identity. It comes together very nicely. The only downside is the furry number font. It looks very amateur. Especially because the bear in the logo doesn't look fuzzy. The bear in the logo is made with smooth, curved lines and the numbers should be too.

Also, just a small mistake, you have Canadian flags on the Geneve-Servette alternate and home and the SC Bern aways and a German flag on the SC Bern alternate.

[1clkgtramg]

Great series so far! I like the use of the eagle on the sweaters for Geneve-Servette and you gave SC Bern a really strong identity. It comes together very nicely. The only downside is the furry number font. It looks very amateur. Especially because the bear in the logo doesn't look fuzzy. The bear in the logo is made with smooth, curved lines and the numbers should be too.

Also, just a small mistake, you have Canadian flags on the Geneve-Servette alternate and home and the SC Bern aways and a German flag on the SC Bern alternate.

Thanks, I appreciate it. And yes the numbers may look amateur, however it's been used in the NHL, the highest pro hockey league and NLA is probably ranked about the 10th highest in pro leagues so I don't want it to take itself too seriously. I have a habit of using traditional jerseys and traditional block numbers so whenever I can, I try to relate the number font to the mascot as much as possible.

And the flags are not a mistake.

For SC Bern:

Martin Pluss is from Switzerland.

Byron Ritchie is from Canada.

Justin Kreuger is from Germany.

For Servette:

Alexandre Picard is Canadian.

Goran Bezina is Croatian but is now a Swiss citizen and represents the Swiss National Team

Matt D'Agostini is Canadian

All of the jerseys have the flag of the players nationality (or whatever Country he represents in Int'l play) it isn't all random, hopefully that clears things up

[mamiller99]

I love that you used red going next to yellow on the away set. Nothing is more visually jarring than white next to yellow.

[1clkgtramg]

I love that you used red going next to yellow on the away set. Nothing is more visually jarring than white next to yellow.

.

those are exactly my thoughts too - unless its a nice gold colour - and you will see this evident on my next post later tonight.

[1clkgtramg]

HC Lugano

Founding: 1941
Location: Lugano, Switzerland

Championships: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1999, 2003, 2006

Arena/Capacity: Pista La Resega (8,000)


So I tried my best to avoid looking like the Penguins and Bruins so I screwed around with older looks. Their newest logo features a Panther and has quite a bit of silver in it. I figured that I should add silver as a very minimal trim to help separate the yellow and white because it can be a little hard on the eyes, especially on a 2D concept. I put emphasis on the white because with a similar colour scheme to SC Bern, I wanted to farther differentiate them. I guess the closest you could compare this jersey to is that Throwback Penguins jersey... anyway.

As mentioned before, there is a bit of a clash with Bern especially on a white jersey. So instead of black forearms, I used yellow and changed the striping up a bit.

This Alternate is mostly based off a recent look they had. Silver isn't evident here but I prefer when the alternate strays away from the H/A looks - as stated before.

Here's the Throwback and its what I like to call a "Disasterpiece". The real jersey - it can be seen in the collage at the top - was an obnoxious, mismatched patterned, logo-fuses-with-striping abomination but I tried to salvage it by using their strange logo from that era - which is also the shoulder patch on the H/A. I hate it, but I love it.

[VictoriaGooner]

I am loving this series...the jerseys are crisp and refined compared to the current ones in use by those teams. I find them believable because of the room you have to place sponsorship logos on the shirts, pants and helmets. I love the touch of the national flag above the heart for the players who represent their national teams...beautiful touch!

[mamiller99]

I like this concept, I just think you should thicken the silver striping. It's still a little hard on the eyes.

[1clkgtramg]

Thanks guys. I'll think about it, but no promises. To be honest, the silver was a late addition to it because I noticed how bright the yellow was. I'd rather make the yellow a more golden colour and remove the silver before making the silver more prevalent. Here is EV Zug in the meantime.

Founding: 1967

Location: Zug, Switzerland
Championships: 1998
Arena/Capacity: Bossard Arena (7,000)

I absolutely hated the shield logo they have been using so I decided crop out the Bull and recolour it a slight bit. The old logo is now the shoulder patch. They had 2 tones of blue, black and gold but never could settle with a brand so I used gold as a trim and focused on the double blue.

I'm really feeling that gold is a bad outline on the name and number, I prefer the dark blue outlines so I might switch it around later, we shall see.

[mamiller99]

Oh, this is really good! I wish more teams used blue and gold, it's a great scheme.

[VictoriaGooner]

That EV Zug updated logo is such a dramatic improvement to their current shield logo. And have to agree, navy and gold look really good together.