The 1972 Project - FCS: Richmond Spiders

[colinturner95]

Just when I think I can get back in to a flow on this thread, I find myself swamped with other things.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Football - Every once in a while, the random lists I use for these series give us a little gem. In this particular case, we get in back to back teams, the two teams that play in the "Oldest Rivalry in The South": William & Mary whom we just saw previously and now, the Richmond Spiders. Now the Spiders currently play in the CAA but will be moving to the Patriot League starting next season so I went ahead and used that as their conference since that's likely where they'll be when this is all said and done. Now to the actual design. I wasn't trying to rip off @NH4's design for Richmond, but when they're the only team in the NCAA to have the Spiders' nickname, the low-hanging fruit is hard to ignore. I almost flipped the helmets to navy being the primary, but white seems to have more recent relevance so white remained the primary helmet, with both keeping the Spider on the sides. Jerseys add a subtle spider web to the sleeve caps with the team logo on the sides. I didn't plan on sleeve caps being contrasting but when the web was on red, it just gave off too much Tobey Maguire Spider-Man to me (nothing wrong with that, just felt wrong for a sports team). Pants, I went back and forth on using the stripe the other sports will come to use but it didn't fit for me. So wordmarks on the side of the pant legs. 

 

Hockey - another club team getting the elevation, and unlike W&M, Richmond does not have serviceable club uniforms. Okay, they're not completely awful, but when you're forced to use an academic logo on a sports uniform, already losing points with me. So those uniforms skate away, and now we get something that resembles the Regina Pats, with some added spiders to the shoulders in the Nike corners of the shoulder yoke. I can't really pinpoint the why, but I liked a Rangers' style wordmark for the home and away so that's what they get. Like football's sleeves, contrasting shoulders on the away and alternate uniform. The alternate jersey resurrects the early 2000's spider logo, which I felt was the perfect alternate logo for the front of a jersey. The hem stripe changes slightly and is matched on the socks as well. 

 

Baseball - Ironically, the most traditional of the sports I do for all these teams is surprisingly the most modern. Baseball combines the spider sleeves with the stripe which was something I wanted to do on football but it felt like too much there, but somehow it feels like it works better on baseball. Slightly slanted versions of the wordmarks on the home/away tops. Alt jersey swaps for the forward facing spider. No crazy pants, just a couple belts options for one set of striped pants. Hats are either navy/red or tri-colored with the spider front and center. 

 

Basketball - Basketball in somewhat of a surprise remained possibly the most traditional in a sense. The tops really feature none of the spider effect. Classic style stripes around the rounded neck and arm holes. Arched versions of the wordmarks on the chests of the home and away. Alternate brings in the front spider to the chest, as a spiritual successor to the first time the Spiders tried a red jersey with the logo on the chest. Shorts have the stripes on the hem, and around the bottom. The spider design comes in here as I tried to do a Chicago Bulls style design on the sides of the shorts, with a much simpler stripe set up. Beyond that, a traditional wrap up to a fairly modern take. 

 

In other good news, the website has all the new teams (minus Richmond) updated! Mobile and tablet are still a ways out and I'm still working out some random kinks on the web version on some sizing and alignment issues (mostly on the FCS conference page)  but if you can look past those, you can start mixing and matching uniforms for the 24 teams already done! Since I need to update the links in my signature, you guys can check it out here >>> https://colinturner95.wixstudio.io/the1972project

 

C&C welcome!!! I keep saying it, but I should be able to get back into a roll on these