Cleaning Up The Cutting Room Floor: The Best Concepts That Never Were

[colinturner95]

I've been doing this for a while. On October 22nd, it'll make 11 full years of concepting, arguing, agreeing on the millions of things we concept, argue and agree on here. To that end, I've made it through 16 different concept series (that I personally recognize). What I wanted to do, plus I need to clean some of my own stuff up, but I wanted to go through all my files and papers stuffed here and there and try and find the best that never made it to the forum screen. the only rules I'm enforcing for myself are that I have to make the concepts as close to the original as I possibly can.

 

Starting us off is the oldest of my drawn concepts that I still have intact, a pro combat design for the Air Force Falcons

 

 

So this one is cheating a bit because I did use aspects of this in my Pro Combats: Take 2 series, but because the piece of paper has survived for 12 years now, it felt like a good place to begin. So keep in mind this was done when I was all of 12(ish) so consistency wasn't exactly something I was familiar with, hence the sublimated USAF logo on the chest and the blue wings of the same logo on the pants. And then we get to the helmet, which has no traces of the lightning bolt and a triple stripe that really comes out of nowhere. But like I said, I was 12. 

 

Things are gonna get a little weird, but I'm interested to know what y'all think!

[PERRIN]

Ooh, Interesting idea! It's always cool to look back on the stuff you've made years ago. Really excited to see into the mind of teenage Colin, what concepts he drew up and what his tastes were. Looking forward to seeing how this series goes! 

[Megildur]

Your concept at age 12-ish was much better than anything I was putting together at that age. Looks great and love the idea!

[colinturner95]

15 hours ago, PERRIN said:

Ooh, Interesting idea! It's always cool to look back on the stuff you've made years ago. Really excited to see into the mind of teenage Colin, what concepts he drew up and what his tastes were. Looking forward to seeing how this series goes! 

 

30 minutes ago, Megildur said:

Your concept at age 12-ish was much better than anything I was putting together at that age. Looks great and love the idea!

 

15-ish me apparently didn't get much better 

 

 

 

Because of course when you think of the legendary football program at Notre Dame, your first and immediate thought is ... a white helmet? 

 

I honestly have no fooking clue what I was doing here. Breaking it down 8 years later: 

 

The white shell is a head scratcher. I can't honestly place that one. The Shamrock on the side isn't. It was done on the 2011 Under The Lights uniforms and a few more after that. 

The jerseys are also from the 2011 UTL jerseys, and are the least offensive parts of this uniform. The font is from the 2012 Miami/2013 ASU Shamrock Series uniforms. I did use the modern Irish script, just because I felt it fit the vibes of the uniform. 

White pants. Less of a head scratcher than the helmet, but only seen on one other ND uniform, the '13 Shamrock uniform. 

My personal favorite, random black socks!  and white cleats just to round out the randomness. 

[mahnkej]

Solid concepts man! Minus the pants stripe, that all-grey Air Force look is money. I like the ND look as well, that could definitely work as a one-off look for them (sorta like their game against Wisconsin this year). 

[colinturner95]

So some context: I used to use Sharpies as my preferred marker, which worked well for vibrant colors but there was one glaring issue: lack of color range. As a result, teams that made use of a more khaki gold/old gold often got represented with a more vibrant athletic gold just due to lack of color. This was definitely the case with this next team: 

 

 

As it looks now, its a look that is more befitting of their Backyard Brawl rivals, WVU. But the long story short of it is that it's a pretty basic look, one that borrows from the 2010 Pro Combat identity, namely in the PITT on the helmet and the number font. Also I did notice that I didn't change the NOB font color on the white jersey. It would be there. Not to mention the all-white look that also would better fit their rivals in State College. 

 

But let's assume that 15YO me was going for the navy/old gold look Pitt would have been wearing at this time: 

 

 

Definitely feels much more Pitt on this one. Save for the all-white. That's just a bad idea on my part. 

[colinturner95]

Giving y'all a twofer on this next set: 

 

 

So this one obviously breaks the whole idea of "best that never were" because this was used in the 1972 Project for Ohio State. Well, sort of. And plus, as far as alternates go, these didn't completely break tradition and maybe I was naive in thinking that these could replace the current uniforms. Anyways. The only changes my 15yo self made was adding a number to the side of the helmets, adding a whole new white helmet and white pants to the uniforms. Not too offensive I think 

 

 

 

Now these on the other hand might get someone shot in Austin, TX. These had to have coincided with the release of those garish practice uniforms, remember these? So trying to remember back to what I was thinking when I was doing these (isn't it wild that I can remember drawing these out on my grandparents' counter but can't remember the why behind them?).  These had to be alternates that went along with the burnt orange and white jerseys. I definitely don't think these were meant to replace anything. But lets admire these a little closer shall we: 

 

Kept the helmet pretty much the same, save for the black numbers above the Longhorn, Not great but not terrible I guess. 

Jerseys also stay the same, but they just aren't B.Orange and White. 

Remember when Nike made pants where the stripe didn't go all the way up to the top? And then decided that stripes could just stop in the middle? 

 

Somedays I wish I could slap my younger self. 

[colinturner95]

This one is gonna break the rules, but I was planning on expanding this beyond just what I have hand-drawn and go into some of my earlier work. 

 

This one falls into neither of the established guidelines and was just something I wanted to see

 

 

I'll contend that the Generations of Greatness uniforms are better than the current Penn State uniforms. And so I wanted to see a white version of those jerseys along side the existing navy uniforms. So it was just a simple color swap on the jerseys. That's basically it. These just have more life than the actual home and aways in my opinion

[colinturner95]

 

This one came out of that time period between the Pro Combat series being unveiled and the rebrand for FSU. and we run into that gold issue again, so two different concepts this go round. 

 

 

 

This one definitely worked better on paper, as the spear motif's use fails IMO on the helmet and the sleeves. I also think, and I'm probably alone here, that the brighter, throwback gold works better here than the old gold does. But let's just break it down a little more: 

 

White helmet, a first for FSU on the field. Complete with the iconic spear as a stripe opposed to the "logo" if you will, with the baseball FS on the sides. 

White jersey, definitely not a first for FSU, with the spears on the sleeves, which looks good on the front and not on the back. I deviated from the og concept, with no collar designs or gold numbers. They've been down that road and it failed them. 

White pants with the more modern feather, presumably from the Pro Combat's pant.

 

Could be something with some refinement but not my personal favorite from these concepts so far. 

[heavybass]

Huh interesting...

[colinturner95]

This will probably be the last of the football concepts that come with a hand drawn concept

 

 

 

At the time of this concept, Michigan was still with Adidas so this fell into the very deep question of "What If?" And somehow I didn't get too far off of what UM actually ended up with. But let's break it down: 

 

Helmet remains pretty much untouched. I might have been young but I wasn't stupid

Jerseys aren't super dissimilar. Biggest thing is the navy jersey has double yellow stripes on the sleeves, which I'd say qualify as oversized. Pro Combat shield on the collar, because that was the rage at the time. White jersey stripe might look like the current white stripe, just bigger, but that is not completely true as this stripe, for some reason has small yellow stripes flanking the navy stripes. 

Pants aren't outrageous, but the block M moves to the hip

Socks are navy and striped. Again not outrageous. Yellow cleats? Completely outrageous 

 

Curious to know what y'all think!

[sparkychewbarky]

11 Years!!...Congrats Colin!

Enjoying this series and the old hand-drawn stuff.

Templates are great and all, but they sure lack the personality of of a hand-crafted piece.

Nice work!! 

[colinturner95]

So I'm a little embarrassed about this one. 

 

 

 

These came from my first real series here:

And looking back on it, holy :censored: it was bad. I mean I straight up stole a logo from Google Images, and got hostile when I got called out on it. I get it, though. It's about growth and things like that. But I was 16 at the time and I should have known better that to do what I did on these. 

 

Like these are legit things I said on these

 

" I was too lazy to mock up my logo, so I used a concept logo, courtesy of Google Images.", 

"Sorry, "tired", I was too tired to mock up my logo after coming from school and lacrosse practice."

"Does that mean I can't use it again? And where exactly did I say they were "probably" getting new uniforms?"

[redacted], I don't care if you are the Dallas Stars' biggest fan. I will not return to the drawing board with this, because I like the way it looks, and so did my friends at school. Have fun nailing other peoples concepts while the Stars get Yzermanized.

 

Like what the hell was I on?  I definitely needed it and I'd like to say I've grown up a lot since then. But let's take another stab at these. 

 

 

So I revisited probably the worst logo I've ever made AND thrown into cyberspace. I took the star out of the counterspace of the D, which was rightfully reworked and cleaned up. It's still not something I'd be tremendously proud of, but it takes a -10 to about a 4 or 5 in my opinion. I also moved the star up to the top of the D, which I do know was the original plan, but it didn't work out then but works so much better now. 

 

As for the uniforms, I believe these colors came from the pre-most recent rebrand for the stars, so the darker green and gold. The original concept made use of black and I thought it wasn't needed with the colors being used. But in doing that, I made the equipment green for these uniforms. But the black alternate gets totally reworked. It's a design that was reminiscent of the later MN North Stars uniforms. 

 

And of course I went ahead and put it in the current colors

 

 

And I gotta tell you, I much prefer the green and gold on this one. 

 

It's always fun to go back and see areas of growth in anything, but this does feel especially good. But I'm always curious to know what y'all think!

 

On 11/3/2021 at 6:07 PM, sparkychewbarky said:

11 Years!!...Congrats Colin!

Enjoying this series and the old hand-drawn stuff.

Templates are great and all, but they sure lack the personality of of a hand-crafted piece.

Nice work!! 

 

Thank you Sparky! The hand-drawn stuff just started because I didn't have the computer ability yet, but once the computer ability came in, I didn't want to stop drawing. Plus I can't start a full series without having drawn it all out first. Blessing and curse depending on how its looked at 

 

[the_grateful_ted]

I think we all have some old posts that sound like that takes a big man to air that old laundry out, another fun concept and really good update as usual!

[BengalErnst]

I’m not gonna lie, as a Buckeye fan.. I wouldn’t hate those as an alternate 

[colinturner95]

 

 

 

I only have a few more concepts after this one, and that's okay I think. It wasn't meant to be a long series, but this has been fun. Seeing concepts that never got a chance get a chance in a more professional setting and style.

 

For this one, I imagine it was the premise for a home/away set, but we will never know for sure, plus I never even finished the original concept. These somewhat bridge the inaugural uniforms and the uniforms that came out after the 2004 All Star Game. But the most jarring (or possibly jarring) thing about these uniforms is the collegiate style treatment on the chest, with the wordmark above the number. Other than that, the stripe style on the jerseys carries over most everywhere else you can fit a stripe. Plus a white version of the uniform, just for the hell of it. 

 

C&C welcome!

 

16 hours ago, BengalErnst said:

I’m not gonna lie, as a Buckeye fan.. I wouldn’t hate those as an alternate 

 

I always viewed the Rivalry uniforms those were inspired by as being similar to Oklahoma's Roughrider uniforms: different enough from the normal uniforms, but similar enough for a traditional team like tOSU that it wouldn't ignite the fanbase. 

 

[jaytavo305]

I actually kinda like that wild uniform... feels very close to their originals. I think the word mark is kinda cool and works for this specific design and team.

[colinturner95]

Our second to last entry comes way of Big Ten hockey, from East Lansing:

 

 

 

Two concepts, done within a year or so of each other, I think the white jersey was definitely the older of the two, just looking at helmet and glove models. But both are relatively inoffensive and are a lot better than the current Spartans hockey uniforms. 

 

 

So in digital format, no changes really to speak of. Only thing that I added to these was the Spartan head to the shoulders of the white jersey since the chest is occupied by the Block S with the wordmark over top of it. Plus I got rid of the stripe on the white jersey's pants, as it didn't add much at all to the look. 

 

Let me know what y'all think and I'll have the last concept up soon!