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OHL Redesign (14/20; Flint uniforms added June 13)


jwinters

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SAULT STE. MARIE GREYHOUNDS

 

Let me start by saying I hope the 'Hounds never change their logo. It's perfect as is, and so are their current uniforms. However, leaving everything unchanged isn't really in the spirit of this project. So, I designed my own greyhound, which is a little livelier than the existing one, and i put it in a shield instead of a roundel. My goal here was to keep a classic look without just copying the existing design.

 

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I'll either do the IceDogs logos or Greyhounds jerseys next, I haven't decided. Until then, I'd appreciate any feedback!

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OK, nothing too crazy with the Soo jerseys. I've pretty much kept the current Red Wings template, just with my logo swapped in. I tried out a grey alternate, but it didn't look quite right with the shade of red the 'Hounds use, so I went with the oversized dog on a white jersey.

 

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I realize I've kept to pretty traditional uniform design up until now as that is generally my preference, but I have more modern designs in mind for the next two teams, which will be Niagara and Sudbury.

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Thank you! Like I said, I tried doing something in grey first, but it didn't look right, and so I mocked this up in about 30 seconds just to see if it would look dumb, but I think it turned out alright. In general composition, I guess I was inspired by the Wild Wing jersey, but I believe the idea works better with a simpler design.

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NIAGARA ICEDOGS

 

Between Mississauga and Niagara, the IceDogs have never had a good logo, which perhaps shouldn't be too surprising, given that their name isn't very good either. The original robot dog was probably the worst, so I didn't take any inspiration from that except to use the beveling from the 'M' in the 'N' I've designed as a shoulder logo. The two newer logos depict a bull terrier with nothing especially icy about him, but I took that history as inspiration for my primary logo. I've replaced Niagara's current red with more of a wine red, representing the many vineyards in the Niagara region.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I hid an 'N' in the dog's right ear, for Niagara. If you feel like reading way too much into things, you can pretend the line in the left ear is an 'I' for IceDogs.

 

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SUDBURY WOLVES

 

I've tweaked the shades of colours used by some of the teams so far, but Sudbury is my first wholesale colour change. Their current blue and silver is fine, but not very distinct. When they first entered the OHL, they wore green and yellow, but that didn't seem quite right either. I've merged the two colour schemes, going with green and grey, but using more of a forest green than the original, to match the flag of Sudbury. (Stay tuned; my uniforms are going to use the evergreen pattern from the flag as well.) There are three blood drops on the left of the wolf and two on the right, in honour of the earlier incarnation of the Sudbury Wolves that won the 1932 Memorial Cup. The shoulder patch is based on the Big Nickel, for which Sudbury may be best known.

 

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I haven't decided on an alternate jersey design yet, but it may be something in throwback colours. If anyone has a better idea, please let me know, along with any other feedback you may have! After Sudbury's uniforms, I'll do the Hamilton Bulldogs, who are the final canine team, and then likely one of Ottawa, Oshawa, Peterborough, or Guelph, just to take a break from animal-based teams. If you'd like me to prioritize any of those, I'm open to suggestions.

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Before getting back to Sudbury uniforms, I wanted to post some updates to the work I've already shown.

 

First up, a fix to the Kingston Frontenacs primary logo, based on @cw20's feedback. They pointed out that the chin and nose seemed to be pointed at two different angles, so I've tried to resolve that here, making the chin look more natural. Thank you so much for the suggestion! I've adjusted the logos on Kingston's home and away jerseys accordingly.

 

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Next up, I've altered the away and alternate jerseys for the Kitchener Rangers. My favourite sport is baseball, and while not universally adhered to, the rule of thumb in baseball is that your home jersey should have your team name (e.g. Blue Jays) and your away jersey should have your city name (e.g. Toronto). I planned on taking that approach for the Rangers jerseys, but was worried that "KITCHENER" was too long a word to fit diagonally across the jersey. I was eventually convinced to try it by a previous Rangers alternate (the one hockey jersey I actually own; on a side note, it looks better in person) and the Charlottetown Islanders (QMJHL) jersey, since "KITCHENER" and "ISLANDERS" both have nine letters.

 

For Kitchener's alternate, I changed it to red, so that the team didn't just have another blue jersey option. It's not ideal that the alternate requires a different pair of pants, but I figure the Rangers current real life alternate does too, so it can't be that much of an issue.

 

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Finally, I switched Windsor's alternate jersey to be red as well, again so that it wasn't too close to the regular home jersey.

https://i.imgur.com/rIlPXxR.png

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Back to our regularly scheduled programming, here are my Sudbury Wolves uniform concepts. The focus is on forest green, with double grey accents. The tree pattern comes from the flag of Sudbury and the alternate pays tribute to the Big Nickel.

 

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Hamilton will be next, but I'm still open to suggestions for which team to do after that. As always, I welcome any feedback on the concepts I've posted so far!

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9 hours ago, jwinters said:

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, here are my Sudbury Wolves uniform concepts. The focus is on forest green, with double grey accents. The tree pattern comes from the flag of Sudbury and the alternate pays tribute to the Big Nickel.

 

nEnew8o.png

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Hamilton will be next, but I'm still open to suggestions for which team to do after that. As always, I welcome any feedback on the concepts I've posted so far!

I'm not feeling Sudbury that much. A lot of your other concepts have been professional-ish while this has a majorly amateurish feel. I think that you could use red as an accent to tie it in more with the logo. Personally, I would be more in favour of a sublimated version of the trees (green on green and white on white). I think the alternate could work if you swapped out the primary with the secondary logo and then removed the grey dots while retaining the outline. 

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5 hours ago, Karnage84 said:

I'm not feeling Sudbury that much. A lot of your other concepts have been professional-ish while this has a majorly amateurish feel. I think that you could use red as an accent to tie it in more with the logo. Personally, I would be more in favour of a sublimated version of the trees (green on green and white on white). I think the alternate could work if you swapped out the primary with the secondary logo and then removed the grey dots while retaining the outline. 

agreed 

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I did a mock up of my thoughts on your Home (?) Sudbury design. Does have a bit of a Seattle Kraken feel with the muted colours and the bright red accent. I am just an amateur and use Pixlr. Essentially, I used the picker tool to select your green and then found a slightly darker version. I coloured the bottom in the darker green and replaced the dark grey with the dark green. It looked great in the trees but wasn't enough of a contrast in some ways with the principal green colour. I replaced white with the red accents. I coloured the numbers with the dark green replacing the dark grey and red replacing the light silver. Overall I got a Minnesota Wild meets the Seattle Kraken vibe. 

 

I was just curious to see how it might look with my suggestions. At the end of the day, these are your concepts.This has been an interesting series to watch from afar. Keep up the great work. 

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On 9/6/2020 at 7:45 PM, jwinters said:

SUDBURY WOLVES

 

I've tweaked the shades of colours used by some of the teams so far, but Sudbury is my first wholesale colour change. Their current blue and silver is fine, but not very distinct. When they first entered the OHL, they wore green and yellow, but that didn't seem quite right either. I've merged the two colour schemes, going with green and grey, but using more of a forest green than the original, to match the flag of Sudbury. (Stay tuned; my uniforms are going to use the evergreen pattern from the flag as well.) There are three blood drops on the left of the wolf and two on the right, in honour of the earlier incarnation of the Sudbury Wolves that won the 1932 Memorial Cup. The shoulder patch is based on the Big Nickel, for which Sudbury may be best known.

 

Xxxmenk.png

viqWljH.png

 

I haven't decided on an alternate jersey design yet, but it may be something in throwback colours. If anyone has a better idea, please let me know, along with any other feedback you may have! After Sudbury's uniforms, I'll do the Hamilton Bulldogs, who are the final canine team, and then likely one of Ottawa, Oshawa, Peterborough, or Guelph, just to take a break from animal-based teams. If you'd like me to prioritize any of those, I'm open to suggestions.

100,000% better than the current look. Send this to Dario Zulich. He's angling for a new arena anyway.
office@sudburywolves.com

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As a native Sudburian myself, I actually like the updated logo set; it's a good update to an rather old logo, and it's a lot better than most Wolves concept logos I see floating around which tend to either lean too detailed or veer way too far from the original look; one of the better ones I've seen is Luke Merlini's update, and this feels pretty close to that for me in terms of polish.

 

I'm maybe not as sold on the jerseys, since I'd probably prefer them to have a more classically-styled jersey, with the alternate being the more experimental and interesting one. I'd like to see how the home and away look with the arm striping copied to the hem, personally.

 

On 9/11/2020 at 9:54 AM, Karnage84 said:

I'm not feeling Sudbury that much. A lot of your other concepts have been professional-ish while this has a majorly amateurish feel. I think that you could use red as an accent to tie it in more with the logo.

The thing is that the Wolves have never used red as a jersey color; they've been green/white/yellow and blue/white/silver (with black and gray alternates), but the red has always just been a logo color. And considering how old the franchise is at this point, I think keeping to the history with colors would be the best angle.

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On 9/11/2020 at 9:54 AM, Karnage84 said:

I'm not feeling Sudbury that much. A lot of your other concepts have been professional-ish while this has a majorly amateurish feel. I think that you could use red as an accent to tie it in more with the logo. Personally, I would be more in favour of a sublimated version of the trees (green on green and white on white). I think the alternate could work if you swapped out the primary with the secondary logo and then removed the grey dots while retaining the outline. 

 

21 hours ago, Black Dragon said:

agreed 

 

Thank you so much for the honest feedback! I really appreciate your input. Looking back, the Sudbury jerseys do seem pretty minor league-ish or almost like lacrosse jerseys, which isn't what I was going for.

 

18 hours ago, Karnage84 said:

I did a mock up of my thoughts on your Home (?) Sudbury design. Does have a bit of a Seattle Kraken feel with the muted colours and the bright red accent. I am just an amateur and use Pixlr. Essentially, I used the picker tool to select your green and then found a slightly darker version. I coloured the bottom in the darker green and replaced the dark grey with the dark green. It looked great in the trees but wasn't enough of a contrast in some ways with the principal green colour. I replaced white with the red accents. I coloured the numbers with the dark green replacing the dark grey and red replacing the light silver. Overall I got a Minnesota Wild meets the Seattle Kraken vibe. 

 

I was just curious to see how it might look with my suggestions. At the end of the day, these are your concepts.This has been an interesting series to watch from afar. Keep up the great work. 

 

I mocked up new versions before getting this message, but I'll try it out as well!

 

2 hours ago, Magnus said:

100,000% better than the current look. Send this to Dario Zulich. He's angling for a new arena anyway.
office@sudburywolves.com

 

Thanks so much!

 

39 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

As a native Sudburian myself, I actually like the updated logo set; it's a good update to an rather old logo, and it's a lot better than most Wolves concept logos I see floating around which tend to either lean too detailed or veer way too far from the original look; one of the better ones I've seen is Luke Merlini's update, and this feels pretty close to that for me in terms of polish.

 

I'm maybe not as sold on the jerseys, since I'd probably prefer them to have a more classically-styled jersey, with the alternate being the more experimental and interesting one. I'd like to see how the home and away look with the arm striping copied to the hem, personally.

 

The thing is that the Wolves have never used red as a jersey color; they've been green/white/yellow and blue/white/silver (with black and gray alternates), but the red has always just been a logo color. And considering how old the franchise is at this point, I think keeping to the history with colors would be the best angle.

 

Thank you for your perspective! It's good to have someone from Sudbury here to talk about the design. I can consider a more classic design as well, but I do really like the evergreen pattern, and I'd like to use it in some way.

 

Here are my updates, which tone down the trees a bit and add a red accent. I took the Vegas Golden Knights jerseys as inspiration for how to include a red accent without going overboard. Let me know you think!

 

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This series is fantastic and I'm not just saying that because you gave me great feedback :P.  Here are my thoughts on the series, team for team...

KINGSTON FRONTENACS
I think you've made a big improvement over what the actual team uses. The colour balance on the logo is perfect and it really looks like it belongs on the classically inspired jerseys.  Going with the more muted gold offsets the Bruins vibe and gives them a more distinct identity.  The black Cannon really stands out on the middle stripe of the alternate.  Can't really think of anything I would change.

KITCHENER RANGERS
Getting a serious Lady Liberty vibe from this set and that's a good thing.  The updated K-shield looks great on the shoulders and you just can't go wrong with a diagonal script on that classic Rangers template.  If I were to nitpick I could say that the alternate striping could be a little different from the primary but I don't think it's a huge issue.

WINDSOR SPITFIRES
The primary logo is brilliant in it's simplicity and is far and away the best of the series.  The colours, the stroke weights and the fantastic contrail element come together for a beautiful, classically inspired logo.  While I also like the Propeller 'W' I don't think it should replace your original logo as the primary.  As for the jerseys themselves, I think you've achieved the perfect colour balance on the main set and I especially like the shape of the shoulder yokes & the decision to keep the navy outlines thin.  I think if you used your original logo, you'd have something really special.

SAULT STE. MARIE GREYHOUNDS
This is best overall package of the series and a testament to how effective a two colour palette can be.  While you went with a Red Wings template, there are enough interesting elements on the jersey to offset any Detroit-vibe and that's a good thing.  The logo's my second favorite after the Spitfires and the star placement is perfect.  Overall, there's nothing I would change.

NIAGARA ICEDOGS
This concept has kind of a 90's vibe with the diagonal striping and kind of reminds of what the Dallas Stars had in the late 90's to mid aughts.  The jerseys split the difference between classic and outlandish and compliment the colour scheme nicely.  I think the logo could use a little bit of refinement but am unsure of how to go about it.  Maybe some more black shading of the body of the dog would break up the white and make it fit with the jersey a little more effectively.  The hidden "N" in the dogs ear is a nice touch as well.

SUDBURY WOLVES
While I don't agree with the comment that said it was amateurish, I do think the logos could benefit from some refinement and thicker stroke weights.  They are almost but not quite there.  On the positive end, I absolutely love the colour scheme and striping configurations you went with.  The forest hemline has a Minnesota Wild feel but it works well as a counterpoint to the more restrained sleeve-stripes.  As for the Nickel plated striping on the alternate?  That's a stroke of genius.  It's one those things you see and immediately kick yourself for not thinking of it first.

 

 

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Thanks @Black Dragon!

 

And thank you @Morgan33 for all of your feedback! I'm glad you're enjoying the series!

 

For the Rangers alternate, I agree that my first take was too close to the regular home jersey (just with a logo instead of the team name). I hope that my update above addresses that issue: even though I swapped red and blue, I think keeping the same striping pattern and using the 3D style numbers keeps it identifiable as a Rangers jersey in a way that the current alternate, much as I love it, doesn't.

 

I agree that the plane-in-rink logo for Windsor is probably a better logo than the 'W'-propeller, but besides the feedback I received here, I shied away from making it the primary in part because it's not as original, seeing as it's closely based on the Spits' previous logo. I am making a note of your suggestion though! My plan is to go through every team again at the end of this project before declaring it "final", so that I can make any changes like that.

 

The Greyhounds current real life set is one of my favourite uniform sets ever (the original San Jose Sharks kit is the only one I can think of off the top of my head that's better), so it was really hard to make changes to it. As you can see, I didn't do much.

 

It sounds like the vibe I was targeting for the IceDogs came through! They don't have the same kind of history as the Fronts/Rangers/Spits/Hounds, so I felt like I could experiment more and do something more outside the box. I wasn't thinking of those early '00s Stars jerseys when I did that design, but I was always a fan of them, so perhaps that was my subconscious influence. I agree that the full-body version of the dog could use some shading, or something else; I'll keep thinking about how to do that.

 

I agree that the Sudbury wolf could benefit from thicker outlines. I went the way I did with it to more closely mirror the current logo, but seeing as I am designing new logos, there's no reason for that. I'll be doing some more wolf sketches so I can refine it down to the essence of what I want to show. I'm glad you like the Big Nickel jersey! It seems some others felt it was over the top, so I'm going to think about how I can execute the same idea in a way that feels less like polka dots. That might just mean using smaller circles around the edge.

 

I already have initial sketches for new logos for all OHL teams, plus all QMJHL teams. The bottleneck for me is getting time to sit at my computer and actually put together the designs. Before moving on to WHL sketches, I'll be thinking more about the wolf for Sudbury, and then I'll go back through the rest of the teams I have yet to do as well. Hopefully I can shift more of the work into my "pencil on paper" stage, which is easier to fit into random little gaps of time throughout my day.

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Nobody has commented on my latest update to the Sudbury home/away jerseys, so I'm going to take that as a positive. They're not perfect, but I think they're closer to where I want them to be, so thank you all for your feedback! To go with them, I've updated the alternate jersey. It still uses trim based on the nickel, but the dots are subtler now, which is hopefully a little more palatable. I also swapped the primary and secondary logos, to further emphasize the nickel theme.

 

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The black outlines in the logos, especially the nickel/paw, are jarring to me in the context of the jersey. I could remove them from the nickel/paw, but then it would look out of place next to the wolf logo. I'll keep thinking about how to improve the wolf, hopefully to the point of removing the black outline. Of course I could add black to the uniform designs to even it out, but I'd rather not. Keeping four colours in balance is already a lot. Until I've determined how to improve the wolf, I'll carry on with other teams. Hamilton is next and then, like I said, I can do any of Ottawa, Oshawa, Peterborough, or Guelph---let me know which you'd like to see.

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On 9/12/2020 at 12:00 PM, Ridleylash said:

As a native Sudburian myself, I actually like the updated logo set; it's a good update to an rather old logo, and it's a lot better than most Wolves concept logos I see floating around which tend to either lean too detailed or veer way too far from the original look; one of the better ones I've seen is Luke Merlini's update, and this feels pretty close to that for me in terms of polish.

 

I'm maybe not as sold on the jerseys, since I'd probably prefer them to have a more classically-styled jersey, with the alternate being the more experimental and interesting one. I'd like to see how the home and away look with the arm striping copied to the hem, personally.

 

The thing is that the Wolves have never used red as a jersey color; they've been green/white/yellow and blue/white/silver (with black and gray alternates), but the red has always just been a logo color. And considering how old the franchise is at this point, I think keeping to the history with colors would be the best angle.

Very fair points. Those were my thoughts in a vacuum without incorporating the longstanding history. 

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