Music-inspired NBA City jerseys (Knicks × A Tribe Called Quest)

[fortunat1]

My newest jersey is inspired by Miami's Denzel Curry. He's been dominating the rap scene for years now, regularly releasing some of the best rap albums of the past decade. My favorite album of his is TA13OO, but the quality of the rest of his discography cannot be understated.

 

The jersey's colors are taken from the 90's Heat. I always though that the Heat could incorporate their orange a bit more, so I promoted it to a secondary color on the uniform. The double outline is also meant to call back to the 90's Heat, as one of the notable features from their home jersey was the double-outlined wordmark. I chose to put "Miami-Dade" on the front, as Denzel Curry makes reference to the county as a whole in a few of his songs. The script itself is meant to imitate the sign for Walt Frazier Park in Denzel Curry's home of Carol City. Both the trim and side panel are meant to bring more orange to a jersey that was dominated by a red-heavy script and numbers.

 

 

Milwaukee/Summerfest is up next with Chicago/Lupe Fiasco up next. Still not sure about who's gonna fill that third slot, so I'll keep looking over both your suggestions and my own ideas to see which concepts get off to a good start. Suggestions are always appreciated, as are C&C!

[Germanshepherd]

Looks really good for a city jersey, but as a fellow fan nothing about it says “Denzel Curry” to me. 
 

A black/white color scheme could work for a Ta13oo theme (maybe even with a M1AMI wordmark) or a splash of yellow to pay homage to Imperial. 
 

Zuu/Melt Your Eyez have some cool fonts in their covers/alt covers/merch that could also work. 

[fortunat1]

1 hour ago, Germanshepherd said:

Looks really good for a city jersey, but as a fellow fan nothing about it says “Denzel Curry” to me. 
 

A black/white color scheme could work for a Ta13oo theme (maybe even with a M1AMI wordmark) or a splash of yellow to pay homage to Imperial. 
 

Zuu/Melt Your Eyez have some cool fonts in their covers/alt covers/merch that could also work. 

Glad you liked the jersey's design and thanks for the feedback! This perspective makes total sense because it's something I faced when coming up with ideas for the jersey. Besides Ta13oo's distinct black and white color scheme, I felt like Denzel didn't really have much of a consistent visual identity across albums. Since he switches stuff up with every new release, I couldn't really pinpoint any recurring logos or fonts, making the jersey's two tie-ins a bit more indirect. With that said, this is great feedback that I'll keep in mind for an eventual revision. I'll dig a bit deeper into ideas that use Ta13oo's color scheme (it reminds me of their white heat/black hot jerseys from a while back) and explore some more stuff like single covers/merch/music videos to see what I missed the first time around.

 

On a separate note, Detroit/2000's hip hop will fill the third slot of upcoming jerseys with Milwaukee/Summerfest and Chicago/Lupe Fiasco still on the way.

[fortunat1]

My newest jersey isn't inspired by a specific musician, but inspired by Summerfest instead. Summerfest is a music festival that takes place on Milwaukee's lakefront every summer, donning the title of "The World's Largest Music Festival".

 

The red and green color scheme were chosen to resemble Summerfest's red-dominant branding, while also matching the colors that the Bucks wore in decades past. The Milwaukee script seen on the front is meant to imitate the sign seen upon entering Summerfest grounds. I chose to create a side-panel in the same shape as highway 794's supports, as they surround the parking outside the grounds and stick out as one of the most distinct things I remember from trips to Summerfest when I was younger. The number font is a basic block font, matching the one that they wore in the 1980s. Lastly, the striping pattern was meant to maintain the traditional look of the jersey, while also making sure that the red and green aspects of the jersey never touch.

 

 

I understand that this may not scream "Summerfest" at face value, as it looks much more like a traditional Bucks jersey from the past. Summerfest is almost entirely red and white in my eyes, but creating a red-heavy jersey with green accents proves to be a bit difficult, as shown by the muddy colors on this draft. It seems like there's a lot of local guys on the boards though, so I'd love to hear their thoughts on my approach.

 

Lupe Fiasco/Chicago and Detroit/2000's hip hop are still up next, with the third slot remaining empty until further notice. Suggestions still appreciated, as are C&C!

[fortunat1]

I revisited a handful of concepts from earlier in the thread and tweaked some stuff that was bugging me. These are mostly minor changes.

 

Atlanta Hawks: Thicker outline on wordmark

 

Golden State Warriors: Made bridge lines more uniform, fixed jersey outline

 

New York Knicks: Edges of the trim previously featured a slightly incomplete piece of the pattern, which is now fixed

 

Los Angeles Lakers: Scaled wordmark and numbers to be a realistic size, fixed jersey outline, various minor tweaks to side panel

 

In other news, Spurs/Selena will fill the third slot of upcoming jerseys.

[fortunat1]

This jersey is inspired by J Dilla, aka Jay Dee. He is one of my favorite producers, and artists, of all time - important enough to inspire my Tigers hat profile picture. Between Slum Village, solo endeavors, and collaborations, I can't praise his music enough, so I highly recommend you check out his work.

 

The jersey's distinct wordmark is modeled after Delicious Vinyl, one of the labels that Dilla was signed to, also found on a later compilation album. The trim and side panel use a 3 stripe design meant to imitate the stripes found on his hat on the cover of Donuts. The base color of red was chosen since the Pistons desperately need a red jersey in their rotation and the basic block numbers were chosen to maintain the jersey's traditional feel.

 

 

I tweaked the jersey a lot while creating it, with two notable changes being a side panel with the three-stripe pattern duplicated and a version that used ghost-like pinstripes, meant to only really be seen up-close. I liked the pinstripe idea for making the stripe motif from Dilla's hat more apparent, but it seemed to be treading in Hornets territory given their distinct dual-pins, so I let it go. I'd love to here what y'all think about it.

 

Lupe Fiasco/Chicago is still on the way, with Selena/San Antonio to follow. New York gets another entry, paired with 90s hip hop again. C&C appreciated, as are suggestions!

[fortunat1]

This jersey takes inspiration from Lupe Fiasco and his 2006 album "Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor". Lupe is a stunning lyricist, making this album one of my favorite releases of the 2000's, courtesy of strong lyrics, themes, and production. Thanks to @Burmy for the suggestion.

 

The colors are meant to evoke that of a classic Bulls jersey, but also lend themselves well to the imagery of a food and liquor store. The jersey's trim is meant to play on this idea, with the center being white, then light-red, then red to emulate the glow of the illuminated signs typically found on these stores. This idea works well with the black base, tying together the "neon sign at night" look. The edge of the side panel features the same pattern. Additionally, the side panel features a set of 4 dots at both the top and bottom, meant to imitate the screws that attach trucks to the deck of a skateboard. This decision was made to reference one of the album's most popular songs, "Kick, Push", which is known for its distinct focus on skateboarding. The jersey's script is a recreation of that found on the lower-right corner of the album cover, which is English stylized to look like and Arabic script.

 

 

Selena/San Antonio and New York/90's hip hop are both up next. Those two will be the only ones scheduled for the time being. C&C appreciated, as are suggestions!

[fortunat1]

My newest jersey is inspired by the very talented Selena! Her impact on music cannot be understated thanks to her role in launching Tejano music into mainstream popularity all while being showered in critical acclaim.

 

The jersey utilizes the San Antonio Spurs' famous "fiesta colors", originally used throughout the 1990's. The color scheme is fitting, as Selena rose to fame during this era. I refrained from using orange in this jersey as I couldn't seem to include it in a way that created good balance between each of the jersey's colors. The wordmark is a handwritten "San Antonio" done in the style of Selena's iconic signature, known for adorning her album covers and endless pieces of merchandise. While the side panel and trim look plain, I assure you that my vision for them is anything but. I struggled to create a metallic/sparkly pattern on my 2D rendering of the jersey, but the trim and side panel are meant to appear as this Golden Knights jersey does; sparkly up close, but normal looking from afar. This idea stems from the fashion of Selena, as I loved the sparkly design of many of her outfits and believed it to be a unique yet tasteful inclusion to the jersey. For reference, here is my best attempt at recreating a sparkly fabric on the jersey.

 

 

One of my initial ideas for the jersey included a stacked wordmark, which notably has an interlocking S and A. The dimensions of the wordmark didn't translate well to the front of a jersey, so I opted to write San Antonio all on one line.

 

As mentioned before, 90's hip hop/New York is up next, with no other jerseys on deck for the time being. C&C appreciated, as are suggestions!

[fortunat1]

My latest jersey pays homage to one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time, A Tribe Called Quest. Their catalogue features some of the 90's most impressive albums, as well as a stunning return in 2016, making them one of the artists that I listen to most frequently.

 

The jersey takes inspiration from their classic 1991 album, "The Low End Theory". It remains one of the most iconic album covers in music history thanks to the distinct striped model in the middle and the unmistakable red, green, and black color scheme. Seeing as this was the basis for my jersey, I chose to use a black base with red and green accents to evoke the imagery found on the album cover. The base of the jersey features a two-tone black stripe pattern meant to imitate the stripes seen on the cover of the album. Green and red stripes running up the jersey would be far too busy for my taste, so I opted to use two shades of black in order to make the pattern noticeable but not overwhelming. I created a wordmark in the style of the classic Knicks wordmark (which is superior to the current version and needs to return). I chose for the wordmark to say Queens, as the group is from Queens and frequently references the borough in their lyrics. The numbers are simply the regular Knicks number font. The jersey trim uses a green-black-red pattern, mostly meant to add some more color to the jersey while limiting how much green and red actually touch.

 

 

I know that letting red and green touch is oftentimes a bad idea in design, so I took some steps to create contrast between the two shades. I experimented with different shades of green and red and sent each jersey through a color blind filter to make sure that the design was still visible and not too muddy. Please let me know if there's any issues.

 

This will be the last jersey in this series as of now, but I am fully open to returning at some point. Suggestions for new jerseys are still appreciated though, as I am more than willing to come back when I get some more designs put together. C&C appreciated!