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OUA Football Redesign (Guelph Added)


HenryJens

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Hi all, I'm here with my first concepts for these boards, a refresh of my current school, the University of Western Ontario (UWO). It is a school located in London, Ontario, and athletically they compete in something called Ontario University Athletics (OUA), a division of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). I may do a refresh of some other OUA schools if there's enough interest, but for now I'm starting with Western.

For a little background, here are their current logos and football uniforms.

Mustang_Purple.jpg275px-CIS_Western_Jersey.png

A decent identity (especially for canadian college football) but it could use some work.

Logos

My main challenge in creating these logos was that it's hard to make a silhouette of a horse running, have a team named "Mustangs", and not look like you're ripping off SMU. For the horse logo, I basically cleaned up the current one, removing superfluous details like the eye, mouth, mane and tails (seriously, six tails? WTF Western). For the full primary, I used Conrads FAU bold font to recreate the current primary. I liked that it had the traditional look and feel of a block font with some modern touches.

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Football Uniforms

I am mostly ok with the current Under Armour uniforms (hooray, no Nike!) but I still felt they could use some improvement. My most drastic change was in removing silver (or gray) from the identity completely. Although this color (and essentially these uniforms) were used when Western won 4 Vanier Cups (equivalent to a national championship) in the 1970's, I still think it is unnecessary. Although this is based purely on anecdotal evidence (mainly from me going to the school lol), Western students are fiercely proud of having purple as a primary color, and I think it's a really unique feature of their scheme. Therefore, I sought to focus the uniforms on purple.

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Western introduced purple helmets a couple years back and I really liked them. Since I was ditching silver and focusing on purple I decided to make these the full time helmets, albeit with the simplified horse logo and a white facemask. The uniforms use the bold two-stripe pattern from recent Mustangs uniforms, but obviously without silver. White pants would be used for both the primary home and away sets, with purple pants being worn for Homecoming and special games, like crushing playing Queens. With these, I hoped Western could create a really timeless look with some nice modern elements. I used lancealot's template from Page 19 of the Templates thread at the top of this board (sorry I can't give better attribution, not really sure where it's from other than that). I also used Conrad's UA Highlight font, as I wanted an Under Armor font and felt this was the one that fit best with the identity I was going for.

C&C is appreciated, and thanks for looking. I'd eventually like to get better at logo design, but I'd love some feedback on my uniform designs as well.

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I don't go to Western, but I have several family members and friends that go/went there, so I'm sort of a fan of them. Anyway, you did a pretty good job on these. I'm fine with you doing away with silver, because I find that they don't use it very well. The standalone mustang also looks great on the helmet.

I'd definitely be interested in seeing you tackle some other Canadian schools. There are plenty that could use an update ;)

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These are really nice! I like these a lot, and I agree that I would like to see more Canadian schools.

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Thanks for the responses guys! I'm officially turning this into an OUA football refresh thread. I might do some other conferences later if I have time, but I'll try and tackle Ontario first. I'm taking requests for what teams to do next, but for now I thought I'd round out the rivalry and try my hand at redesigning the Queen's (Golden) Gaels. Here are their current logos and uniforms.

261px-Queen%27s_Golden_Gaels_Logo.svg.pnCIS_QU_Jersey.png

As much as I hate to admit it, Queen's has a pretty good look. They only wear one uniform, a full yellow set, for home and away.

Logos

I used Conrad's Invader 2014 font to recreate the current Q logo and wordmark. I removed the bevel-thing on the Q and cleaned up the outline on the wordmark.

eiofNTC.png

Football Uniforms

I didn't do anything very drastic with the uniforms except for adding a blue "alternate" jersey, which is just the primary yellow with a blue body. It would only ever be used if the yellow jerseys clashed with their opponents (I don't think this ever happens in Ontario, but maybe if they went to the Vanier or something idk). I changed the yellow logo on the yellow helmet (which has always bugged me) to blue, matching the rest of the uniform. Striping consistency is the name of the game on these sets. I took their traditional thin red-blue-red stripes and applied them to the helmet and pants, and removed the blue side panels. The back of the collar has the word "OILTHIGH", which is gaelic for University, and is the fight song of Queen's. I used Conrads Golden Bear font for the numbers and nameplate.

BzJxFvf.jpg

C&C is once again appreciated, and thanks for looking.

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I like what you did with Queen's jerseys, a big improvement. Last year's jersey belonged in the CFL's signature series, and their colour scheme is tough to make work. I do think their current logo is stronger. Maybe try the current logo on a blue helmet or a blue version of the current logo.

Western to me looked better with the silver. Also the purple helmets with the school crest (worn on homecoming) is their best helmet, they should wear it full time.

Glad to see an OUA/CIS thread on here, make sure Guelph has 17 jerseys just like in real life!

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Thanks a ton for the comments guys. I've reverted back to the original Q for the standalone logo, but removed the bevel and made it blue on the helmet. I've also shrunk the wordmark a tad, but Queen's has a history of big, bold wordmarks so it's still decently large.

IOnnOWr.jpgi9d12yB.jpg

Let me know what you think of the changes. I'm just getting started on Guelph and don't worry, there will be tons of uniform combinations

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I'm back! Sorry about the delay, been pretty busy moving back to school. I'm finally finished with the Guelph Gryphons, sometimes referred to as "Oregon North", a dubious distinction that refers to their staggering variety of uniform options. Seriously, a couple years back they were able to wear a different jersey for each game. New OUA rules have since limited the number of jerseys teams could have, but the Gryphons still used six jerseys and helmets last year. Here are their current logos and uniforms (Wikipedia only shows four, there is an additional white and additional red jersey)

Guelph_Gryphons.pngCIS_Guelph_Jersey.png

My favorite part about the Gryphons is their colour scheme. Red, yellow and black is really unique and looks great (They also share colours with a certain NHL team, which can't hurt). However, their uniforms are a bit too inconsistent for my taste, and the logo is pretty horrible. It wouldn't be so bad without the weird, abstract wing on the back, but it has to go.

Logos

The first thing that comes to mind for me when I think of a Gryphon is it's appearance in heraldry. I traced the gryphon from this picture, a shield from somewhere in Poland. I tried to find an area in Europe with ties to the University or the city of Guelph, but in the end just went with one I liked the look of. I simplified and cleaned it up, then added a similar outline to their current logo. Conrad's Highlight Factory font is used for the wordmark.

UqOkxnV.jpg

Uniforms

Though I like an insane amount of jerseys as much as the next guy, having two jerseys of the same color is a bit overkill, IMO. I limited myself to four jerseys, one in each color. I took the striping of their current white and yellow jerseys, expanded it to cover the whole sleeve, then applied it to all of the jerseys. The real variation now comes in the helmets. The black and yellow helmets have the new Gryphon o them, while the white helmet has the same logo but silhouetted and with a bolder outline. I decided to continue with a throwback red helmet, but instead of the Packers/Georgia "G" it features an updated version of the logo used on Guelph's helmets starting in 1996 (the middle helmet here). 1996 happens to be the last time Guelph won the Yates Cup (conference championship), and with the 20th anniversary of that next year I thought it would be appropriate.

YLS6v8g.jpg

The Gryphons coaching staff has some cool rules regarding the combination of uniform they wear. For instance, the all black set is reserved for homecoming and if they make the Yates Cup. They are also reluctant to wear a uniform combo if the team has lost wearing it in the past. While I've presented the uniforms monochromatically, they are supposed to be mixed and matched freely, so while Guelph can't wear a different jersey for each game they can at least be unique with their uniforms.

C&C is appreciated, thanks for looking. I'll get to work on the Gee-Gees.

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Definitely a huge improvement over what Guelph is wearing now (seriously, they've used a chrome and a camouflage helmet and we're only two games in). The need a consistent font across all their looks, and I don't mind bringing back the "UG" script for the helmet. The red gryphon on red never worked. I like the idea of a heraldic style gryphon, as Guelph is nicknamed the Royal City, but i think the outline needs to be a lot thicker. Maybe try making the lines sharper/more modern?

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Western, I must say, looks beautiful. The text on the logo is a bit stretched out, but the cleaned-up logo is quite nice. I think that, if used properly, silver can look great, but the purple looks fine on its own.

Queen's current uniforms are atrocious, and that bevel is an abomination (seriously, how could light reflect that way off of an object?). Your update is very nice looking, and that helmet is a thing of beauty. The NOBs, however, would be rather illegible with three outlines -- I think single-layer numbers would work best. Also, it's "Oil Thigh". ;)

For Guelph, four uniforms is really superfluous. I'd remove the monochrome yellow, especially given how similar it is to Queen's. The Gargoyle is better, though you should remove the thin yellow stokes on the inside. And can you post a bigger pic of the "UG" helmet logo?

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Nobody cares about your humungous-big signature. 

PotD: 29/1/12

 

 

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