Seattle Suncatchers | Seattle NHL Concept by Scheuer

[Scheuer]

 

Now that Las Vegas has an NHL team, it is hard to see the NHL adding an expansion team to the Western Conference. Therefore, it seems pretty unlikely that Seattle will get an NHL team in the future. However, that doesn't stop me from taking a shot at it. Seattle has a really old hockey history and identity which would be fun to build on. I made this concept to see what a team in Seattle would look like.

 

First, for the team name. I chose to name the team the Seattle Suncatchers. The name is in reference to the Pacific Northwestern Native American myth of the Raven stealing the sun. I took the colors from the Seattle Metropolitans, the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. I took a lot of influence from the Art Deco architechture and art associated with Seattle. I wanted to make a team that mixed a lot of the complex Native American art with a more stripped down, Art Deco style. 

 

Next, for logos. I wanted all of the logos to mix the two elements to create a strong identity that was different than a lot of the other NHL teams. An image seen in a lot of Pacific Northwestern Native American art is the image of the Raven with the sun in its beak. This was originally my idea for the main logo of the team. This is what I came up with.

 

 

I liked the stylizing of the logo, but parts of the logo bothered me. I thought it looked too much like a dinosaur for some reason, and at the same time it looked too similar to the Seahawks' logo. In addition, It didn't look very good on the uniforms, so I decided to scrap it. However, I still wanted to keep the mix of simplicity and the Native American elements. These are the marks I settled on for the Suncatchers. 

 

 

The primary logo is centerd around the red roundel, which represents the sun from the Native American myth. Surrounding it in art deco script is "Suncatchers Seattle". Inside the sun are three Northwestern Native American styled feathers, joined together by a smaller roundel. The secondary mark is drawn from the Seattle Metropolitans' "S" logo. The S and the smaller letters spelling out Seattle are in the updated script and are aligned to fit inside of the S better. Both of the logos mix history, Art deco, and Native American elements.

 

For the jerseys, I wanted to do something classic. Looking at what Adidas has done for the World Cup of Hockey uniforms, they seem to like to walk the line between modern and minimalist. I tried to walk the same line while still being old school. Here are the jerseys.

 

 

The home jerseys are a dark green with predominantly cream highlights. Red accents highlight the cream portions of the uniform, on the yoke, sleeves, pants, and socks. The away jerseys follow a different design, with a cream base and green upper sleeves. The same red accents are found on the sleeves. For both of the uniforms, Art Deco numbers are used, with the nameplates and captain patches in an old school collegiate font. The Seattle S logo serves as both jersey's patches and are found on both pants. The same helmet is used with both uniforms. 

 

Any C&C is much appreciated! Tell me what you think of the concept down below.

[jujubeans]

The colors are lifted straight from the Wild but the design is good.

[coco1997]

This is a very original idea for a new NHL team. I love the name and logo, but as the above poster pointed out, the color scheme is too similar to Minnesota.

[NoE38_Concepts]

This is all really well thought out and executed, just a couple errors and thoughts on what could change:

the sock stripes are WAY too high up, they should be near the bottom.

White or lighter-coloured pants never work in hockey. They should be changed to green, just like the away.

I also don't mind that the colour scheme is the same as Minnesota's. The NHL needs more green, the colours are historic, and several teams have the same colour scheme.

Great Concept!

[Bruins]

really original concept, and executed to near perfection, great work. One change i would make is to erase any wording from the chest emblem. I think it'll simplify the jersey in a good way and make the logo stand out a bit more. Again fantastic concept though

[Scheuer]

Thanks for all of the feedback! Let me address some of the comments.

 

I know a lot of the comments were talking about how the color scheme was too similar to the Wild's. I think that the similarity isn't a bad thing. There are plenty of teams in the NHL with the same colors. The colors are historic to Seattle, so I decided to stick to it.

 

20 hours ago, NoE38 said:

This is all really well thought out and executed, just a couple errors and thoughts on what could change:

the sock stripes are WAY too high up, they should be near the bottom.

White or lighter-coloured pants never work in hockey. They should be changed to green, just like the away.

I also don't mind that the colour scheme is the same as Minnesota's. The NHL needs more green, the colours are historic, and several teams have the same colour scheme.

Great Concept!

 

For the socks, I followed the template that I had, but I think that you're right there. As far as the colors for pants, I think that the green would look weird but I should try that out.

 

16 hours ago, Bruins said:

really original concept, and executed to near perfection, great work. One change i would make is to erase any wording from the chest emblem. I think it'll simplify the jersey in a good way and make the logo stand out a bit more. Again fantastic concept though

 

I think that my concept kinda walks the line between too minimal and just crisp enough. I think that if I took out the writing on the chest emblem, it would look a little too minimalist.

 

Thanks again for everyone's feedback!