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NFL Concepts by mcrosby - Sep.26 updates


mcrosby

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Now that I'm aware of your angle, I must say I've grown very fond of your work.

 

Vikings: the elimination of black, making the stripes consistent, and the new striping motif are all fantastic! It makes a good set even better. The alternate could use white numbers for legibility, but the idea behind it is excellent and distinctive.

 

New York Football Giants: I do like the new logo and the whole "perspective" technique on the helmet and numbers (although, as @MJD7 said, it might be a logistical issue). The King Kong design I could give or take, as it is a tad unbalanced. Still, it'd work well as an alternate logo (far better than a "giant player towering over the stadium" design). My one suggestion would be to add a blue outline to the pants stripe, since you use a consistent blue/red/blue stripe throughout the set.

 

Patriots: Your Patriot Pat update is probably the best I've seen to date, while the inclusion of the New England Pine is an inspired touch. The stripes could use some mixing up, with a red/white/navy/white/red design on white backgrounds and navy/white/red/white/navy on navy backgrounds (a la the Patriot Pat jerseys). However, the way they are now certainly works for the team. The alternate is a fantastic vintage design. I wonder how that helmet would look with the primary set.

 

Saints: The new logo could use a tiny refinement to make the side plumes as thick as the football plume in the center. Aside from that, I've really got no complaints about the primary set. The tincture-following design really improves upon anything the Saints have had prior, with no white on gold backgrounds. Maybe adding a black key shape/line to the sleeve logo on the white jerseys would help. The new font is also fantastic, not feeling to gimmicky or crazy. The alternate is a fantastic take or the Mardi Gras colors, while the stripes look good on the uniform. I wonder how well they'd work on the primary set?

 

Jets: You've done good work in fully unlocking the potential of the latest redesign, going all-in on italics and modern striping. The alternate is also a fantastic take on the "military jets" angle that pops up on the boards every once in a while.

 

Steelers: The new logo is a fantastic and far more original design for the team. The new font and stripes are also good additions to the set. I'd maybe suggest having white as the color of the outer stripes on black and inverting the stripe colors on the white, but that's just personal preference. I love how the alternate incorporates bits of the Pittsburgh crest, which all teams in the city shoudl strive to do.

 

Eagles: It's a beautiful simplification of their current look with an inventive new striping pattern. I would suggest adding silver or white pants with a green/white/green/silver/green pattern, just to avoid monochrome while still preserving the stripe pattern. The vintage alternate is very tasteful and not too bright, like the Yellow Jackets throwbacks. 

 

49ers: This is probably my favorite concept you've done! It's an excellent update of the logo (eliminating the unneeded black), uses a modern font that doesn't stray too far away from the team's established look, restores the proper sleeve stripes, and does an inventive take on the orangey red shade/the helmet stripes. Well done indeed! The alternate is also a fun look, one that doesn't have that dingy aesthetic of the all-black garbage the squad tried to wear.

 

Seahawks: It's a fantastic simplification of their current design, one that really takes advantage of that beautiful lime green and uses silver in all the right places. The updated logo is a fantastic way to work the city initial into the design, while the throwback-like set really improves upon the original bird logo. 

 

Buccaneers: You've done well with the new number font and refinement of the logo (eliminating black in favor of pewter accents). The gold/creamsicle orange tooth is a lovely touch. That alternate might be one of my favorite "vintage" designs in this series, with the patterns and the jolly roger.

 

Redtails: This might be my favorite Washington NFL design I've seen in a long time. The logo is particularly beautiful (airmen's badge, DC flag stripes and stars, and Art Deco-like "W"), while the tincture-obeying stripes and lettering are fantastic. The font fits well for the "airmen" theme, while the little dashes of red are an excellent modern touch. The alternate is also a fantastic "city" design, with the expanded plane logo and the fighter-like striping. 

 

I think I've come around to it. You've got a fantastic eye for assembling identities and making them feel cohesive and distinctly "your own." Good work all around!

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24 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

I think I've come around to it. You've got a fantastic eye for assembling identities and making them feel cohesive and distinctly "your own." Good work all around!

 

Appreciate it! That said, I do still appreciate your criticisms. I'm shocked you like the gold tooth, as it was even too gimmicky for me. 

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Guest darkpiranha

Giants: I'm curious what it would look like if Kong had a football in his free hand.  It just looks like it wants to be holding SOMEthing, lol. It might be one step too far, and too small to make out, but I'm tossing it out there.

 

Saints: Agreed with others about the thickness of the football fleur.  If they are all consistently the same thickness (either smaller to match the sides or thicker to match the top), it will feel better.  From a graphics standpoint, I really love how you pulled off the shiny gold effect.  I've seen it attempted (and done so myself), but none have ever come across as accurately shiny as your presentation here.  I think I/we were just overthinking it, lol

 

Seahawks: What you have now is a nice extension of the totem imagery, but as you said, you're looking to do something different.  What if you go the other way and lean into Seattle's futuristic/techy vibe?  Make the Seahawk logo more robotic or mechanized or metallic.  

 

Buccaneers: Agreed that the vintage set is brilliantly reverse-engineered. 

 

49ers: Great update.  Agreed with others about the puffy clouds/mist not working, but I like the grey itself.  What does that look like as either a solid grey or a greydient of some kind?  As an alternate alternate, I'd also love to see that red helmet with the super-shiny gold SF (no oval).   

 

Redtails: Great logical update.  A couple of ideas: What would the logo look like if it was a bit roughened up?   And for the alt helmet, the full plane logo gets a bit lost, especially the text.  What if you left the roundel and the text off and just increased the size of the plane a bit, and increased the size white starburst behind the plane to provide a bit more contrast against the helmet?

 

Patriots: Now would be a great time for a full shift to this restyled Patriot Pat. Maybe after Belichick leaves.  I've always hated the Patriot Pat logo, but I actually really like this one.  I think I was always thrown off by the cartoonishness of the original.  Only suggestion is wondering what the alt jersey would look like if it was a more close approximation of what Pat Patriot's uniform is, meaning blue, with the crossed grey stripes.  I know you're going for more of a look like they would have had in the 1920's, but they wore plenty of X designs back then too. and I think it could be pulled off without it looking like the players are just wearing Pat Patriot costumes.

 

Steelers:  Cleanest one of the whole bunch.  It pays homage to tradition while climbing outside of the very tiny Steelers box.  I like the P and the I-beam ITT elements separately, but when they are placed together in one word, I feel a disconnect.  The p is lowercase while the rest are uppercase and what looks like two different fonts (the P COULD be the I-beam font, but there's no areas on it where the I-beam effect could show up, so who knows?).  Not sure of a way around it, but it's something that jumped out at me.    

 

Nice stuff!

 

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28 minutes ago, darkpiranha said:

From a graphics standpoint, I really love how you pulled off the shiny gold effect.  I've seen it attempted (and done so myself), but none have ever come across as accurately shiny as your presentation here.  I think I/we were just overthinking it, lol

I just overlayed an image of a brass sphere I found on google, spheres work great for helmet metallics because they've mostly got the shine in the right spots. Images of metal sheets work well as well. Just search for gold sheet/silver sheet/nickel sheet/etc. 

 

 

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Boy am I late to this. Gonna quickly sum up my reactions for each team. 

 

-Arizona - love the simplicity, the desert theme all of it. Alternate is slick, but that shiny copper might have to grow on me. 

-Atlanta - not huge on the logo, and my opinion on their horrible alternate hasn't changed. But I do like your simplifications of the home and away. 

-Baltimore - I don't know. I love the idea of the iridescent design, so I'm glad that's there. I think what's throwing me off is the black & gold creeping into Steelers' territory. Maybe keep purple to balance things out? I know that could get messy, though. 

-Buffalo - love the home and away, not sure about the alternate. I enjoy the design of it, I just think it'd look better in blue to really match the city flag.

-Carolina - The Panthers' helmet stripes have always bothered me, but I love the color scheme, and the alternate is really well done.

-Chicago - Loving the font, and the alternate is sharp.

-Cincinnati - A sharp update that keeps things modern, and I'm beyond glad to see a concept where orange, the actual color of a tiger, is primary. 

-Cleveland - No complaints here. If you revisit this, though, the alternate should get its own helmet, the orange looks really out-of-place.

-Dallas - Jerseys are great, and so is the alternate. I just can't bring myself to enjoy that green-blue-grey mess of a color, I think a true silver would work much better. 

-Denver - I actually really love that logo here. Uniforms are great as well. 

-Detroit - Logo and alternate are perfect. Not huge on the stripes coming through to the chest, I think they'd work fine being restricted to just the sleeves.

-Green Bay - The logo feels a bit goofy but everything else looks good. 

-Houston - Liking this color scheme a lot, and that HT logo is very clever. I also really like the alternate, it's one of those places that "gimmicky" works.  A burnt orange alternate in the same color scheme as the home and away would be great.

-Indianapolis - Uniform "grommets" don't really do it for me. Clean design besides that, though not really sold on the alternate either. 

-Kansas City - I love the logo. The jagged edges design works better on the numbers than the stripes, I think, and it doesn't need to be everywhere for this set to work. 

-LAC - Perfect. I'd love to see the alternate pants' lighting pattern on the yellow and white pants, rhino included. 

-Vegas - Home, great. Away, great. Alternate? ...sure. I like the direction, but for a classic team like the Raiders I think it might need to be toned down a bit, which I think can be done while still representing Vegas. 

-Miami - Loving the color scheme. Loving the alternate. Why? I don't know why, I hate gradient in most cases. But it just works.

-Minnesota - Logo is incredible. Home and away are incredible. I'm floored by the alternate. It's just so cool. 

-NYG - I've always been a fan of incorporating a tower into the identity (both literally and figuratively, with those imposing numbers, which are very nicely done). King Kong is a bit silly, and perhaps too outlandish for the Giants, but hey I dig it. 

-New England - Admittedly I'm probably being extra-critical here as this is my home team. I don't dislike the stripes but they're not my favorite either, they might have to grow on me. I think if you're going this route, a block font would be preferable for the numbers. I'm also iffy on the alternate (numbers especially), but the tricorn-fronted helmet is really clever. 

-New Orleans - Another concept where the logo is a bit goofy but here it's easier to overlook. The alternate is a lot, too, I like purple but the mono purple look might be too much. 

-NYJ - Really solid update of a set I've actually come to like. Alternate is nice too. 

-Pittsburgh - No complaints here. Only thing I'd like to see is the helmet logo just being the gold circle instead of the P, I think that'd balance things out a bit more. 

-Philadelphia - I really like these but I can't explain why. They're very sleek. I think the number font could be updated to reflect that, too.

-San Francisco - Really well done, the pants stripes are very clever - they're desperately needed on the alternate to avoid the yoga pants look. 

-Seattle - Really like the number font. The logo works, but I can't get myself to love action green in large doses. Alternate is a beauty. 

-Tampa - Gorgeous all around. That alternate is so perfectly old-school, the red and creamsicle make that pattern work without becoming overwhelming. 

-Washington - Loving it, especially the little bits of cherry red. Alternate pays homage in a really neat way. 

 

Phew. That was a lot more typing than I expected.

 

I think the overall pattern I'm gathering is that a lot of your alternates would work really well in a "City Edition" type of promotion, and while they may work in that sense I'd rather see a true third option for some teams that matches the home and road (i.e. Red for New England, Orange for Cleveland, etc.). That being said, though some fixes do need to be made I do find myself liking a lot of the gimmicky-ness here, and likewise for most of the designs in this series as a whole. Really great work!

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Okay so, some of these last few are really great! Outside of their alternates, Tampa Bay, New England, the Jets and Philadelphia are all a few tweaks from being possibly better than their current sets.

Tampa Bay, i like the updated logo and surprisingly like the more out there font. The removal of black is nicer than i would've expected as well. I'd drop the gold tooth in the logo, as many others have said, and i'd add a logo to the sleeve caps like they have currently. Otherwise, the rest are pretty good updates to a top ten nfl uniform.

New England, I like the updated Pat logo, it's much better than the Elvis logo imo. The removal of silver is nice and the addition of a grey facemask is great. The consistent striping is wonderful, the pattern itself is different from the rest of the league which is great. But the best part is the tree in the shield logo that ties it all together really nicely for me. My only complaint is that it's missing a standard block font, i personally hate their old font, i like their updated one they just came out with much more.

Jets, I got no real complaints, maybe a block font would work better than the italized font you have now, but everything else is really nice, from the colors (the removal of black is all i would honestly do to the current set) to the striping.

Philadelphia, this one is a bit more out there. I'm not quite sure whether i like the font or the shoulder yokes, and i would be really interested in silver pants at home, just to break up the monochrome, but i don't hate the green over green either way. I love the color scheme, a great update of their current, outdated look. The striping is interesting and different, which isn't always bad. But yeah if i had to change one thing, it'd be changing the font and dropping the shoulder yokes. The font change doesn't even need to be to a block, i feel like reusing their current one is just a bit of a misfit with the rest of the set.

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I love seeing the directions you would take these identities.. so much of that is your own vision that it's tough to criticize.. the one criticism I have is just to get rid of the colored numbers on colored jerseys.. sticking with white, yellow/gold, and silver/grey on colored jerseys would make them much more viable in real-life application (the Bengals for example)

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3 hours ago, mcrosby said:

I can't take credit for coming up with it, that goes to @MDGP, who had an amazing fauxback series that I'd love to see finished. It's been 6 years...maybe that series will come back. Please @MDGP, it's one of my all-time faves. 

 

Oh man, it's hard to believe it's been that long since that series. I remember I ended it because I was planning a much more ambitious series that ultimately was too big for me to do on my own and it all fell by the wayside.

 

I definitely think I'll have to start these back up, thanks for the reminder!

 

6 hours ago, mcrosby said:

I just overlayed an image of a brass sphere I found on google, spheres work great for helmet metallics because they've mostly got the shine in the right spots. Images of metal sheets work well as well. Just search for gold sheet/silver sheet/nickel sheet/etc.

 

One of the things that helped me improve the most as a designer was realizing how many difficult and artistic looking techniques are just overlaying an image and cropping. In this case the technique works extremely well.

 

This is an impressive series, and there's a lot to digest and discuss. I'll definitely make sure to get some C+C for you once I'm in a position to leave a massive wall of text.

I've got a dribbble, check it out if you like my stuff; alternatively, if you hate my stuff, send it to your enemies to punish their insolence!

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Two more, and only one remaining. The dreaded Rams. 

 

Jacksonville Jaguars: 

I updated the nose of the logo, my last iteration had a nose that didn't agree with the perspective of the rest of the logo. I struggled with this one because I wanted to avoid going too kitsch with a ton of jaguar print. I've sublimated that print on the sleeves and pant stripe of the home and away and used a simple striping to accent. The alternate goes a little more full leopard with a high shine - not chrome - helmet. 

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Tennessee Titans: 

I knew I wanted shoulder stripes or a shoulder yoke from the start, but I wanted to try something new as well, so here's a flame-on shoulder yoke. The alternate is another fauxback. I was going to go with an Oilers throwback, but it's been done, so instead you get to see a Parthenon based fauxback. I used the winged helmet because I think it has a similar feel to the flaming primary helmet and I could see an evolution from one to the other.

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Alright, two more!

 

Jacksonville - I adore your logo for the Jags. It's a perfect update of their classic and modern logo (and that should've been the direction you took with the Panthers, in my opinion) and works perfectly. I actually really like the striping here, the sublimated leopard print looks surprisingly good and fits well in the design. The shoulder loops are encroaching on Panthers territory, but I think you separate them well enough with the colored sleeves. The one thing I'd do for the primaries is switch the pants, I don't think monochrome is the way to go here. The alt is also pretty good, definitely a unique concept that ties into the team and shows consistency with the rest of the set. Good stuff!

 

Tennessee - I really like the "flaming titan" approach to the logo, it looks a ton better than what have now and fits really nicely in the pantheon (heh) of NFL logos. I also like the yoke, it somehow works really well. I'd suggest adding some powder blue to the white set, it doesn't have much until the pants, which are completely powder and it creates a bit of a disconnect between the jersey and the pants. Maybe making the numbers powder instead of navy would work? The fauxback alt is also really nice, but I think the numbers could use a bit of work. Either making them larger or maybe blue with a thick white outline would make it better, right now they're a bit tough to read.

 

This set is great, really looking forward to the Rams!

the user formerly known as cdclt

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Last set, then I'll work through some edits so get that C&C in!

 

Los Angeles Rams: 

It's obvious what the Rams should do for their uniform: Horns on the shoulders. I almost went a different direction because you've seen this, but it's a great uniform and I had to do it. The number font is updated to match the monogram, and the home/away pants are simplified. I didn't want white in this set, simplicity was key to getting the taste of the gradient, shadowed, mess of a logo out of my mouth. Instead of going throwback for the alternate I went with Art Deco. As much as I hate black alts for teams without black in their logo, this just says Hollywood to me. I considered a navy/gold alt but didn't want to get too close to the Chargers. 

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Los Angeles Rams - The home and away is pure perfection. This is literally not a single thing wrong with it, it's incredible. I even like the logo on the pants. Speaking of the logo, I think it could use some work, specifically where the "A" meets the horn and where the "L" and "A" intersect on the left side of the "A". I think the curve there doesn't look right and could use some work. The alt looks good as well, although it looks more like an LAFC kit than a Rams one but that's ok for an alt. I also think if you get rid the small bit between the horns and head on the ram head logo it'll look better, I'm not sure what that's supposed to be. Great set!

the user formerly known as cdclt

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Jags - Love the gold. Glad the teal is made primary. 

Tennessee - Really liking this look, maybe white numbers (or at least outlines) to balance the set a bit? The fauxback is very fun. 

Rams - Alright, I can get behind the crescent-horn-thing-(?) here. I always wondered if there was a possibility of them wearing yellow on the road, and it looks fantastic here. Alternate is really sweet as well. 

 

Baltimore update - The iridescence-in-purple looks really solid. I think it could work on the home and away if translated in a similar fashion, where the pattern is kept within the traditional colors. 

-Buffalo update - Yeahhhh, that alternate looks beautiful in blue!

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I actually really like Buffalo's set, the nickel color works great, the chest striping is one of the rare occurrences where it works really well, and I'm not going to lie, if the bills were to ever move away from the Buffalo on the helmet, that helmet logo is fantastic, still not big on the rest of the jersey but the helmet is great. 

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Guest darkpiranha

Jags:  Love it.  I'm someone who doesn't mind tastefully done leopard print or tiger stripes or other sublimated elements.  Love the boldness of your take on the logo.  I had to put this one side by side with the previous logos to really see what you did to it, and every decision you made on yours makes me actually like the Jags logo.  It's always been one of those logos that just felt too realistic to be iconic.  And I love how the whiskers form the shoulder stripes on the alt.

 

Titans: I really like the Zeus head.  Something about the perspective of it still feels a tad off. Maybe it's because it's a disembodied head that it feels strange to see movement (hair blowing as if it's falling at an angle), but no rest of the body to give context to.  A nitty nitpick, but it's there.  For the alt, I like the dark blue and white, but as someone stated, it feels like it could really use some lighter blue.  I think you have a great opportunity to make the area above the roof of the Parthenon a nice sky blue, while leaving the blue between the pillars the dark blue you have now.  For the alt helmet, there are just so many options for either Greek wings (like on Mercury/Hermes' helmet) or approximating actual Greek helmets that defaulting to the old-school horns feels like a missed opportunity.  Or if you want to use that same old horns look, how would that look if done in a Greek style?

 

Rams:  Brilliant alt.  Art deco Hollywood is a great out-of-the-box direction for it and one that SOME L.A. team needs to embrace for an alt.

 

Bills: The more I see this one, the more I like it.  The only thing that strikes me as just off is the placement of the horns on the alt.  Buffalo horns are farther up on its face than like a bull's horns.  As shown in the logo, they are right next to the eyes.  As such, it feels like the horns should be closer to the facemask.  Right now they feel more like bulls horns.  A minor nit, to be sure.  

 

Love all the tweaks you made, some minor, some major.  Great examples that something can always be better.  

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