Copa América Hockey

[Raymie]

So I'm a Blackhawks fan. I was reading through Twitter after Game 4 last night and saw many tweets with the hashtag #CHI. However, as part of Twitter's "Tweetmojis" for the Copa América the little Mapuche star logo for the tournament was there as well!

That got me thinking: what if you put the Copa América and hockey in a blender? This is my attempt at a result and also my first full concept series in Adobe Illustrator. I probably need to put a little more thought into presentation than the default template gray background, but then again my focus is on the uniforms.

Where else can we start but with the host country, Chile?

The Chile set with the main red and white uniforms is based off that most classic of hockey sweater designs, the diagonal text. While the colors could easily veer into New York Rangers territory, the use of simpler striping and a red home uniform (much like the national team) help to keep it in check and give it some character.

The blue alternate uniform has to be among my personal favorites. The large star on the front is the 8-point Mapuche star, a motif from Chilean indigenous culture (and also the basis for the Copa América logo). The white-red striping pattern is designed to invoke the flag.

You'll see there are a lot of red uniforms in store given the countries we are dealing with, so the blue alternate would probably appear with some frequency.

[Jean17]

What oddly makes this thing work is the Chile is shaped sort of diagonally like the letters on sweater.

[officeglenn]

I think there's a lot more you could with the front of the jerseys than simply writing "CHILE" diagonally in a block font or using a one-colour Mapuche star. You could add some outlines to the star or elements inside. You could create a crest or a logo based on the national flag. It just seems like it's calling out for a bit more creativity.

[New York's Greatest]

I like it...

[jrcollis714]

I like the blue alt the best

[Ray Lankford]

I'd really love to see a penguin logo. It might be tough to come up with something unique that doesn't evoke the Pittsburgh Penguins but it just makes too much sense.

(Penguins aren't actually the national bird of Chile but if you've ever been to Chile you'll know that they've really adopted the penguins as a a symbol of how they want to portray themselves.)

[Raymie]

At this point some more complicated stuff is not going to turn out well. The pen tool...well it can be frustrating at times.

The second country I have here played to a draw today. Bolivia has two national flags, the traditional red-yellow-green affair and the Wiphala, an Incan flag that returned to national flag status in 2009. (This is Evo Morales's Bolivia, the one obsessed with getting rid of colonialism and imperialism, remember.)

The designs are kind of mid-tier but I kind of imagine that's how this team might look.

While both uniforms share the same stripe-through-the-middle motif, they could not be more different. The white uniform is unusually tame except for the six-color Wiphala rainbow, with large green numbers and a psychedelic repeating pattern made from the flag. The traditional flag is expanded into the red-and-green home set, which avoids being overly red but is otherwise rather basic and uncluttered.

Let me know what you think. I have about half the teams done but really would like ideas on where to improve before I do more of these.

[1insaneguy]

RAINBOWS! they look pretty good kinda like the nuggets old uniforms

[timberwolf]

Bolivia needs more of a logo, not just a script! And I would think making the Inca flag jersey into an alternate and keeping the other one as the full primary! Good start though!

[Raymie]

Bolivia needs more of a logo, not just a script! And I would think making the Inca flag jersey into an alternate and keeping the other one as the full primary! Good start though!

I agree, but I also know that a lot of countries have coats of arms that are very similar.

In honor of their stellar performance yesterday...here's another red-white-blue team, Paraguay. You'll see how I had to be careful about color balance in order to generate unique looks among the different teams. I wanted to avoid a full red-and-white Peru look, but I knew that the Albirroja needed a proper red and white look with some blue in it.

To distinguish Paraguay from Chile, the most notable features are a colored shoulder yoke on the red jersey, red-and-white alternating sleeve striping, and a different type treatment (particularly the blue with white stroke on the red jersey). The use of enough blue is to distinguish it from Peru (yet to be posted), which is...the Detroit Red Wings, Peru's soccer kits and the Calgary Flames podium jerseys had a baby. (You'll see.)

I considered using a coat of arms here, but I have so many on the other kits that it gets to be too much. With Colombia and Ecuador you are going to see that I had to be very, very careful to give the countries kits that looked different.

The teams I have not done yet are Uruguay, Jamaica, Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

[Raymie]

The series must go on, and given that I have not done Mexico, let's go with the team that had a good day yesterday, La Vinotinto from Venezuela:

The design is mostly self-explanatory. The 8-star arch is taken from the Venezuelan flag and represents the country's eight states. The HC shoulder patch is a permanent memorial patch to Hugo Chávez (this is Venezuela, after all). I'm trying to work with all the different template types available, and this is the result. I think it turned out really well.

[jujubeans]

Actually the stars represent the original provinces to declare independence from Spain. There are 23 modern states.

I think it's lackluster overall. The coat of arms is too complicated to be a chest logo and the arced stars are going to look weird hanging over players' groins and butts. The white collar on the maroon jersey looks out of place as well. I think a simplified or abstracted version of the coat of arms might work well as a chest logo, or moving the stars up and building something around that.

I also don't agree with having a permanent HC patch. It seems overly political (which, granted, is very up the government's alley), Chavez is a deeply divisive figure in Venezuela, and on a personal level my family is in the Opposition so I have very little desire to memorialize that son of a bitch.

[Raymie]

I also don't agree with having a permanent HC patch. It seems overly political (which, granted, is very up the government's alley), Chavez is a deeply divisive figure in Venezuela, and on a personal level my family is in the Opposition so I have very little desire to memorialize that son of a bitch.

Thanks for the other criticism. This isn't something I would do either, but hey, this is VENEZUELA where the government is intent on memorializing Chávez in pretty much everything.

I actually decided to make some changes based on your critique, including a new crest design:

Let's move on to a country that has one win and one tie so far in this Copa América, Argentina. I went for a coat of arms here but had a bit of a time deciding how to make the dark colored jersey. I went for a cerulean blue-type color, which they have used on some of their clash kits at times.

[Raymie]

...Well, I am going to continue this series with two teams that recently made some pretty big wins.

Colombia defeated Brazil 1-0 to kind of keep their tournament hopes alive, and in this three-jersey set we see what Colombia would look like on the ice. It's a simple, restrained look with a red clash kit, a white alternate and a beautiful golden primary jersey. The coat of arms graces the front, while the non-yellow jerseys have yellow yokes and yellow-heavy striping.

The intent with the striping on the gold jersey is to mimic the flag from top to bottom. It works because the body of the jersey is yellow (the stripe ratio is 2:1:1 on the actual flag).

And their opponent in their final group stage match is Peru, who themselves came up with a big win over the Vinotinto:

This set does what Peru does best: red and white, all alone. The front references the classic sash kit design but turns it into a partial podium-esque stripe. The red sleeves on the white jersey create a red-white-red vertical stripe effect (on a player's body) to mimic the flag. The coat of arms, placed in the sash, tops off the jersey.

[jujubeans]

I like the new Venezuela jerseys and the ones after it! Bolivia and Colombia are my favorites so far.

[New York's Greatest]

I like Columbia, Venezuela, and Bolivia they're all nice.

[Raymie]

Someone posted!

Given that I did some other countries, I'm going to post them:

The Reggae Boyz from Jamaica, in their first invite to the CA, did not do too well, but their uniforms shine with a wild treatment of that flag. The white uniform also says Jamaica on it!

The defending champions from Uruguay were bounced out by hosts Chile. The uniforms are inspired by the flag of Uruguay, though dealing with their characteristic light blue kit color is a bit odd with the flag...

Mexico enters with a series of uniforms inspired by their 1998 World Cup "Aztec calendar" set. It works well for El Tri, as does the nod to those striped late-60s logos in the shoulder patch. I tried doing the logo myself referencing an old Aztec drawing...it's a mixed bag.

[Stampman]

Some interesting ideas eventually--once the text ideas kind of gave way to some flag & other ideas.

The colours that work on a flag don't always work on a jersey--btu some interesting colour combos really work for these--especially considering which countries these are for.

[Raymie]

The last country in the Copa América is Brazil.

The jerseys are plain but simple:

The jerseys are very similar, with the gold kit being at home. Each sleeve has a diamond shape that mirrors the diamond shape of the flag of Brazil, while the large crest is adapted from the coat of arms (with many elements removed). The blue third jersey uses a lighter shade of blue than the others.

...I'm wondering if I should go on and do the Copa Oro, which'd probably add 8 more teams (I'd avoid the US and Canada) to the mix.

[Stampman]

I'd like to see some blue stripes on the Brazil ones other than the alternate--the amount of Blue int he logo (From the flag) is just begging for some blue on the rest of the jersey.

(Maybe they'd have blue shorts/pants)

Other than that--I like it,