Football re-designs | Northwestern (3/n) | An occasional series (updated 11/29)

[OHK]

Starting what will be a (very) occassional football re-design series. I'm keeping it as football broadly since I'll likely combine NFL and NCAA concepts into this same thread. FWIW, I have no idea how often I'll update this, could be weeks or months in between, but wanted to get started nonetheless.

 

For first concept, I'm rolling with the New York Jets. My personal opinion is that the Jets have a pretty generic brand identity: this is somewhat understandable, as "jets" don't easily lend themselves to creative branding. To try and take it a new direction, I was primarily inspired by fighter jet nose art, in particular the kind associated with Warthogs and a few other fighters. For the helmets, you'll likely also notice a similarity to one-off helms worn by Air Force a few years ago.

 

 

With that in mind, here we go...

 

[Blindsay]

As a Jets fan. I hate to say this. This is extremely corny. While the helmets are kinda cool, this has little rep for the older unis or New York. And the J-E-T-S on the unis just are a no from me dawg. Good effort though.

[Blitz]

Ummm... The P-40 warhawk (pictured) which made this trend famous was not and is not a JET in any way, shape or form!!! 

 

They're the NY JETS not the NY PLANES.

 

Also as an aside, the nickname "Jets" is an homage to the passenger planes flying in and out of LaGuardia Airport in the early 60's... Not military aircraft.

[omnibus]

Yall crushing this dude.  I thought it was original at least.  Way to think outside the box.  Too much $#!t on this forum anymore is boooring.  Maybe more is needed in the striping on the jersey and pants for my taste, but I like the break from the norm.

[Blindsay]

7 hours ago, omnibus said:

Yall crushing this dude.  I thought it was original at least.  Way to think outside the box.  Too much $#!t on this forum anymore is boooring.  Maybe more is needed in the striping on the jersey and pants for my taste, but I like the break from the norm.

Yeah it was original, I’ll give him that, and the idea was there, but the execution was a bit dicey

[MJWalker45]

On 9/26/2020 at 10:14 PM, Blitz said:

Ummm... The P-40 warhawk (pictured) which made this trend famous was not and is not a JET in any way, shape or form!!! 

They're the NY JETS not the NY PLANES.

 

Also as an aside, the nickname "Jets" is an homage to the passenger planes flying in and out of LaGuardia Airport in the early 60's... Not military aircraft.

 

On 9/26/2020 at 3:01 PM, Blindsay said:

As a Jets fan. I hate to say this. This is extremely corny. While the helmets are kinda cool, this has little rep for the older unis or New York. And the J-E-T-S on the unis just are a no from me dawg. Good effort though.

Though the Warhawk is what he's shown, the flying tiger design was still used on the A-10 Warthog. We know the intention of the Jets name change was in relation to civil aviation but the aggressive look on the helmet is better than the 1966 look in my opinion. J-E-T-S would be better suited inside the collar though.

[OHK]

 

On 9/26/2020 at 2:01 PM, Blindsay said:

As a Jets fan. I hate to say this. This is extremely corny. While the helmets are kinda cool, this has little rep for the older unis or New York. And the J-E-T-S on the unis just are a no from me dawg. Good effort though.

 

I can appreciate this - you're correct that there isn't a connection to the city or prior designs in my version, and I can understand that both of those have meaning for Jets fans.

 

I'm not personally interested in just small tweaks to existing / prior unis, but I'll revisit this design to see if I can better embrace the city and brand.

 

On 9/30/2020 at 5:44 AM, MJWalker45 said:

 

Though the Warhawk is what he's shown, the flying tiger design was still used on the A-10 Warthog. We know the intention of the Jets name change was in relation to civil aviation but the aggressive look on the helmet is better than the 1966 look in my opinion. J-E-T-S would be better suited inside the collar though.

 

This is correct, the Warthog was the actual inspiration (see the nickname for the alt unis), I just posted that plane because of the green paint scheme better aligned to the Jets color scheme. I also did forget the internet values the semtanic difference between planes and jets, rookie mistake. As for the commercial aviation connection, I think the Jets own marketing dept already is embracing fighter jets given their naming their alts "Stealth Black".

[OHK]

Next up - Coastal Carolina!

 

Why?

• They've recently become a trending team in CFB, jumping out to a 4-0 start and reaching the AP Top 25 for the first time ever
• Their current logo / uniforms seemed to be ripe for a redesign opportunity

Now, to summarize the changes:

• I based the concept around the crescent moon from the South Carolina state flag
  • Using this visual framing gives the logo both a unique, easily identifiable visual, while also creating a strong tie to the state itself
• I adjusted the colors currently used by the CCU athletic department
  • CCU's official school colors are teal and bronze; I left the teal as is, but lightened the bronze to create a better contrast with the teal
  • Black is not an official CCU school color unless I'm missing something, but it's currently heavily used by the athletic department
    • To balance this, I added a black alternate uniform (which does work thematically with the moon visual), but otherwise dropped black from the logo / unis

 

[jbird669]

Go Chanticleers! Love this set. 

[Seadragon76]

You are missing something there: black IS an official color for Coastal Carolina.

[the_grateful_ted]

This is a very cool concept! I’ve always liked the name/idea of CCU, but their execution has always been lacking (sneering animal logos should be a relic of the past). Regardless if you use black or not, you got a really good set here.

[Skycast]

Sorry, just one dude's opinion, but neither of these do anything for me. I get they're your concepts and I love seeing out of the box stuff, but I think they're a downgrade for sure.

[jwinters]

I don't love the direction you picked for the Jets, but that Chanticleers logo is awesome.

[MR. 3G]

On 10/21/2020 at 9:54 AM, OHK said:

Next up - Coastal Carolina!

 

Why?

• They've recently become a trending team in CFB, jumping out to a 4-0 start and reaching the AP Top 25 for the first time ever
• Their current logo / uniforms seemed to be ripe for a redesign opportunity

Now, to summarize the changes:

• I based the concept around the crescent moon from the South Carolina state flag
  • Using this visual framing gives the logo both a unique, easily identifiable visual, while also creating a strong tie to the state itself
• I adjusted the colors currently used by the CCU athletic department
  • CCU's official school colors are teal and bronze; I left the teal as is, but lightened the bronze to create a better contrast with the teal
  • Black is not an official CCU school color unless I'm missing something, but it's currently heavily used by the athletic department
    • To balance this, I added a black alternate uniform (which does work thematically with the moon visual), but otherwise dropped black from the logo / unis

 

As a graduate of CCU I love this logo! I absolutely hate the overly cartoonish nature and look of our current athletic logo.

 

However, as someone previously stated black is an official color of Coastal.

 

Teal= Represents the ocean being a Coastal school right next to Myrtle Beach, SC

 

Bronze= The beach sand

 

Black= Is from our affiliation with the University of South Carolina. We were once a part of the SCar system and their colors are garnet and of course black. Our mascot is also derivative of that same system. Students and administrators wanted to something close to the Gamecock... Unfortunately! I’m glad we’re coming into our own though.

 

I’d maybe outline the logo in black and incorporate black into the uniforms somehow.

You’ve done something that we’ve yet to been able to do; actually incorporate brine’s into the uniform (it hasn’t been attempted these past few years). Actually incorporate brine’s into the uniform in a aesthetically pleasing way.

 

Good work!

 

 

[OHK]

I just want to say I appreciate the feedback, both positive and other! Concerning the Jets, I'm still ideating on what form my V2 would take.

 

On 10/24/2020 at 9:58 AM, MR. 3G said:

As a graduate of CCU I love this logo! I absolutely hate the overly cartoonish nature and look of our current athletic logo.

 

However, as someone previously stated black is an official color of Coastal.

 

Teal= Represents the ocean being a Coastal school right next to Myrtle Beach, SC

 

Bronze= The beach sand

 

Black= Is from our affiliation with the University of South Carolina. We were once a part of the SCar system and their colors are garnet and of course black. Our mascot is also derivative of that same system. Students and administrators wanted to something close to the Gamecock... Unfortunately! I’m glad we’re coming into our own though.

 

I’d maybe outline the logo in black and incorporate black into the uniforms somehow.

You’ve done something that we’ve yet to been able to do; actually incorporate brine’s into the uniform (it hasn’t been attempted these past few years). Actually incorporate brine’s into the uniform in a aesthetically pleasing way.

 

Good work!

 

 

 

You're right, I flat missed the black being official - I remember coming across the fight song which only referenced teal and bronze, and then afterwards I apparently misremembered whether or not I actually confirmed if black was or was not an official color

[CaliforniaGlowin]

As a Coastal fan, this is great!  The sand color is a good change.  I love the colors together.  The only thing I would like is more teal in the black helmet and uniform.

[MR. 3G]

On 11/1/2020 at 12:00 PM, CaliforniaGlowin said:

As a Coastal fan, this is great!  The sand color is a good change.  I love the colors together.  The only thing I would like is more teal in the black helmet and uniform.

I second this! I hope you don’t mind @OHK, but I shared this on our fan message board. The link can be found below. You have some nice reviews over there.

 

https://www.coastalfans.com/forum/index.php?topic=15.0

[CaliforniaGlowin]

CCU needs standardized uniforms across their sports like Baylor did.

[OHK]

6 hours ago, MR. 3G said:

I second this! I hope you don’t mind @OHK, but I shared this on our fan message board. The link can be found below. You have some nice reviews over there.

 

https://www.coastalfans.com/forum/index.php?topic=15.0

 

I don't mind at all, in fact, I'll always appreciate something like that!

 

And yeah, I clearly need to improve my research - someone there pointed out Tolbert wore #40 in college; I'm a Panthers fan and (incorrectly) assumed he wore #35 since that is what he wore with us.

[OHK]

Here's another one, this time the Northwestern Wildcats.

 

I started on this one because their current logo looks like a relic of the time it was created (1980s) and I felt that it could use updating. I liked Under Armour's faux-Gothic wordmark for Northwestern, and thought the 'N' could make a great starting point for an updated logo. To make it stand out a little more as a standalone letter logo, I thickened the 'N' and added a drop shadow.

 

Regarding Northwestern stripes, it seems like it'd be blasphemy to create a Northwestern uni concept without them, but I was surprised to learn that the current chest striping was only introduced by UA in the 2010s - historically, those stripes have primarily lived on the outside shoulders of the jersey. Thus, I placed them to the shoulder rather than replicating UA's new pattern. I also struggled again with the usage of black. This time it genuinely is not an official school, but it has also been used heavily by the athletic department since at least the 1990s. I left it out here, for no good reason other than a preference for the simplicity of using only purple and white. I won't make any claims that using only purple and white is the 'right' choice.