NCAA D1 Hockey Concepts -- Wisconsin Badgers & Yale Bulldogs (64/64)

[raysox]

Fun series! Looking good so far. I'm surprised we don't see more college hockey concepts!

[MDGP]

14 hours ago, raysox said:

Fun series! Looking good so far. I'm surprised we don't see more college hockey concepts!

Thanks! I totally agree, I wish there was more college hockey stuff on here too. But I guess that's the price one pays for loving something as niche/hyper-regional as NCAA hockey.

[MDGP]

Only one team today, the boys out of Sault St. Marie (the one across from the one you're thinking of), the Lake Superior State Lakers!

 

 

If you don't follow NCAA hockey history very closely, you probably don't know about Lake Superior State. From 1988-1994 weren't just good, they were historically good. They won a title in 1988 and from 1992-1994 lost a single game, the 1993 National Championship to the University of Maine, in one of the all-time great NCAA hockey games. They may even be the beneficiary of some patented NCAA rat:censored:ery with a 2019 (pretty dubious) claim that a National Champions plaque was awarded to them despite the loss. They've done nothing of note since their 1994 national championship.

 

Why this story? Well for one it's interesting, but more importantly, it aligns with a philosophy I have: If you were historically good at any point in time, you should probably wear that design or at least something like it. Lake Superior State currently wears "Buffalo Sabres but not as good" jerseys which is probably fitting for a team of its stature.

I however, wanted to return their jerseys to their look of glory, which also happens to be a pretty unique look. The Lakers' championship look included shoulder stripes with very wide piping and matching hem stripes. That look is brought back almost exactly, though I did switch from drop shadow numbers to regular block numbers for visibility's sake. 

 

However, that logo just isn't salvageable. Much like Bentley's logo, the Lakers' logo falls into the "barely at home in a middle school gym" bin. It's not quirky, it's just boring and ugly. So, I redesigned it.

 

I actually like the anchor iconography, so that stayed as the primary focus. However, I modernized it, giving it new shadowing that depicts a stylized L on the right side of the anchor. I initially thought of an updated 'LAKERS' wordmark across the front, but it just didn't work in execution. In its place, I tied a rope around the anchor, that forms the letter S. This, combined with the L forms a subtle LS letter lockup.

[GriffinM6]

Dude that LSS logo is amazing. They should pay you for it. The uniforms are pretty damn good as well. 

[MDGP]

13 hours ago, GriffinM6 said:

Dude that LSS logo is amazing. They should pay you for it. The uniforms are pretty damn good as well. 

 

Thanks Griff, that's some high praise coming from you! I'm also a big fan of the jerseys, got those classic Winnipeg Jets vibes. It's really too bad LSS has gone away from this look in favor of something so generic.

[MDGP]

It looks like another logo redesign is up for the Lindenwood Lions, so only one team again today.

 

This is another school you might ask, "who even is Lindenwood?" Thankfully, I have all the information you need. Lindenwood is a school in Missouri and I know a guy who won a national championship in Rugby. The women's team is also in the CHA. Sorry if you were looking for any useful information.

 

 

Being a PSU alum, I've spent a good amount of time looking at the Lindenwood logo on the banner at Pegula Ice Arena (Penn State women's hockey also plays in the CHA). I've always known it was an overly cartoony and pretty poorly rendered logo (look at that hair!), but it wasn't until I worked on this project until I realized the logo is an absolute mess (specifically, look at the eyes zoomed in). I legitimately thought the vector file I downloaded was screwed up, but I've confirmed this is actually how the logo is designed.

 

This is one of those logos in which I wanted to update the overall design but take influence from the original logo. In order to do this, I took the lion's elvis hair mane on the original logo and made an updated flowing mane, with the gold hair lines thicker, better reflecting the actual color of a lion mane. I also tried to keep the general shape the same. Otherwise, I don't think there's much else to discuss that isn't obvious. Overall, it's meant to be a cleaner, more simplified render of a lion logo.

 

The secondary logo is inspired by the current LU letter lockup but with a drop shadow added. This drop shadow is a major part of the theme of the jerseys, with all letters and numbers (aside from the name on back) featuring the drop shadow. The stripes take inspiration from the mane on the new logo as well as the New Orleans Saints' good jerseys. I'm also realizing as I write this that these are extremely similar to the Bruins' centennial jerseys (It's pretty ironic that they're my favorite team and it didn't even cross my mind).

 

[gosioux76]

13 hours ago, MDGP said:

It looks like another logo redesign is up for the Lindenwood Lions, so only one team again today.

 

This is another school you might ask, "who even is Lindenwood?" Thankfully, I have all the information you need. Lindenwood is a school in Missouri and I know a guy who won a national championship in Rugby. The women's team is also in the CHA. Sorry if you were looking for any useful information.

 

More specifically, Lindenwood is in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri. They play at the Centene Community Ice Center, which is the practice facility of the St. Louis Blues and next week is hosting an NCAA Frozen Four regional round. 

 

On a separate note, if and when you get to North Dakota, I'd like to advocate for a concept that rebrands the team using its existing "NODAK" throwback/alternate, which I'm seeing more and more of in retail inventory. 

 

(FWIW, as an alum, I voted for NODAKS among the finalists when they were seeking input on a replacement for Fighting Sioux. The powers-that-be went with the blandest, if safest, route.)

 

[LogoMark]

Terrific update for Lindenwood, I love the geometric mane!

 

(note that you have a different black in the whiskers, tongue, and bottom tooth)

[MDGP]

9 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

 

More specifically, Lindenwood is in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri. They play at the Centene Community Ice Center, which is the practice facility of the St. Louis Blues and next week is hosting an NCAA Frozen Four regional round. 

 

On a separate note, if and when you get to North Dakota, I'd like to advocate for a concept that rebrands the team using its existing "NODAK" throwback/alternate, which I'm seeing more and more of in retail inventory. 

 

(FWIW, as an alum, I voted for NODAKS among the finalists when they were seeking input on a replacement for Fighting Sioux. The powers-that-be went with the blandest, if safest, route.)

 

 

I've actually completed NoDak already. And I do take some influence from these jerseys, which I do like a lot, but the overall look is going to be more like the traditional look than these ones.

 

9 hours ago, LogoMark said:

Terrific update for Lindenwood, I love the geometric mane!

 

(note that you have a different black in the whiskers, tongue, and bottom tooth)

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

 

Also, thanks for pointing out the two blacks, I had made some last second changes to the logo and missed that.

[MDGP]

Finally back to two concepts in one post!

 

First up, college hockey's most colorful team, the LIU Sharks. LIU is one of college hockey's newest teams, and they certainly look like a new, smaller team. Unfortunately, their use of white helmets and navy blue pants gives them a real small town high school kind of feel.

 

 

I decided to have some fun with this one since LIU is such a new team. I figured, LIU is so bright that they should just embrace it. So no navy blue, no black, just sky blue and yellow. We also go away from straight stripes and break out some curved ham and sleeve stripes inspired by ocean waves and the dorsal fin of a shark. Finally, I took some 90s inspiration with a triangular shoulder yoke.

 

 

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Tonight's second team is my childhood favorite, the Maine Black Bears.

 

 

Technically the logo is a redesigned logo, but I redesigned it years ago, so if you want to check that out, you can see that here, as well as my alternate logo design that didn't make it onto the jersey. I also hope you weren't expecting anything particularly new, because that's not happening. Maine has the best jerseys in college hockey, full stop. The only change I made outside of the updated logo package was making the shoulder yokes match the sleeve stripes more closely.

[MDGP]

Got a couple more teams from Massachusetts for you tonight! We're a full 72% of the way through the state!

 

First up, the UMass Minutemen. As would be expected from a team that didn't couldn't field a D1 team from the late 1970s through 1993 because the school didn't have an indoor rink, UMass hasn't experienced much success until recently, when Cale Makar led the Minutemen to a national final appearance in 2019 and a national championship in 2021.

 

 

UMass isn't changed very much. The biggest changes are with the striping pattern, the logo coloration, and the chest wordmark. The striping pattern on the roads has flipped between silver and white on the outside, and I return back to primarily silver. The logo removes all black outlines and replaces them with silver and white for a more modern, cohesive look. Finally, the real-life chest wordmark reads Massachusetts, which I'm not particularly a fan of. It's too long and the letters become stretched and hard to read. So, I altered the UMass wordmark and placed it arched across the front.

 

 

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UMass Lowell were the best team in division 2 when they made the jump to Hockey East in 1984. They've been okay since. They've had their fair share of national tournament appearances, and a frozen four appearance in 2013 backstopped by the greatest college goaltender I've ever seen in Connor Hellebuyck.

 

 

Having seen plenty of UMass Lowell hockey over the years, I've come to the conclusion that they don't really have primary and secondary colors, they have multiple primary colors. Unlike pretty much any other team, the Riverhawks have seamlessly moved between red and blue, with an heaping helping of white on every jersey they've ever worn. I wanted to create jerseys that continued this trend, specifically focusing on jerseys in which red in primary at home and blue is primary on the road. The road jersey is primarily blue with a unique striping pattern featuring a white-red-white triple stripe between two smaller white striped. The home jersey keeps the same design, but the white stripes become phantom stripes, creating the appearance of a blue-white-red-white-blue northwestern stripe. Now, red is the primary on the jersey, while gear and numbers provide the blue as a secondary color.

 

Like UMaine, the UML logo has been changed, but was done previously, so check that out here.

[MDGP]

Next up, teams 30 and 31.

 

Mercyhurst are the nations other Lakers, this time Lake Erie.

 

 

Often when a team is green and blue, they take the easy way out and just base themselves on the Hartford Whalers. Mercyhurst has previously been no exception to this. I wanted to move away from the Whalers and give the Lakers something unique. The home jersey is all about focusing on green. The hem and sleeves feature a striping pattern I live to refer to as Southeastern stripes, as they're the inverse of the Northwestern stripe, with the jersey rounded out by a green shoulder yoke and green numbers.

 

The road jersey is out first truly different design compared to the home. Barber pole stripes are back, inspired by the striped shirt, this design had to take some liberties in order to make it sufficiently dark. As opposed to alternating green and yellow stripes, this jersey alternates between green, blue, and white. For the logo and numbers, I found this weird phenomenon where despite what seemed logical, white numbers partially on a white background were actually the most visible of the options, so I went with it.

 

 

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Our second team are the Merrimack Warriors. They play, not in Merrimack, NH and also not in Merrimac, MA, but in North Andover, all of which are located in the Merrimack Valley, and the Merrimack River is where the UML Riverhawks get their name, and also runs through North Andover which is where we established the Merrimack Warriors play. Basically this is for all you Midwesterners, all the schools between UNH and Boston are really really close.

 

 

So this one is actually a double logo redesign. For the primary letter logo, I have never liked the current MC logo that Merrimack uses. It has always felt lazy and out of date, even back in the 2000s. The head design below was actually completed first, and I wanted to create a design that could work in tandem as an actual logo set. The design features a letter lockup partially inspired by the helmet and partially inspired by the contrast of sharp and curved lines of the St Augustine cathedrals in the area (Merrimack is a Catholic school). The M and the C are joined together, with the center of the M crossing itself to create the C below.

 

So, the head logo is a weird story. I used to go to the hockey east semifinals and finals every year. During the 2011 season Merrimack made the finals of the tournament before losing to Boston College, as most teams did during the era. During that game the team logos were displayed on the ice with lights. The Merrimack logo featured a skating warrior logo. I also remember seeing the logo a few years later on google at about 65 x 65 resolution. Since then, I have never seen this logo again. I cannot find it anywhere online, and I know that none of the jerseys they wore have this. If anyone knows of this logo and can access it, or just likes the whole lost media treasure hunt and finds it, please post it below.

 

However, I always like the idea of the Merrimack Warriors actually using a logo that depicts a warrior. They also used to have a very 1970s style logo, but I'm not a huge fan of it, so I came up with something new. As I noted with the MC logo, this logo takes inspiration from the cathedrals near the school. Overall the design is pretty simple, a warrior wearing a simple gold helmet with navy shadowing on the left side of the face. It has some similarities to the my Augustana design, but rest assured, the Augustana logo is rip-off, as this logo was designed much earlier.

 

The Merrimack jerseys take a simple theme throughout, an offset white stripe within a larger blue stripe. This features on the sleeve stripes, hem stripes, and shoulder yokes. This jersey also features the unique situation where the yellow jersey is actually the road jersey with a white jersey at home, kinda like the Nashville Predators. The thinking behind this idea is that almost nobody else in the nation has a yellow home jersey, and none of them play in Hockey East. In this situation Merrimack could wear the yellow jersey in pretty much every game, home and away without any issues. In any of the exceptionally rare instances there would be yellow vs. yellow, either Merrimack could wear their white jersey on the road or the home team could wear their blue jersey. The white jersey is also available just to give Merrimack the option to wear white as well.

 

[stumpygremlin]

I have loved all of your work. Absolutely fantastic.

• I love the cross sleeve stripe on Holy Cross. 
• I'm so happy that you moved UMass Lowell away from both the Phoenix-designed logo and the Under Armour catalog jersey font
• Absolutely love what you did with Merrimack. You should submit that to them. No joke.
• Minor nitpick: with Cornell, you have the big wraparound "C", no need to put another "C" in the wordmark. It makes the jersey read as CCORNELL.

[MDGP]

8 hours ago, stumpygremlin said:

I have loved all of your work. Absolutely fantastic.

• I love the cross sleeve stripe on Holy Cross. 
• I'm so happy that you moved UMass Lowell away from both the Phoenix-designed logo and the Under Armour catalog jersey font
• Absolutely love what you did with Merrimack. You should submit that to them. No joke.
• Minor nitpick: with Cornell, you have the big wraparound "C", no need to put another "C" in the wordmark. It makes the jersey read as CCORNELL.

 

Hey thanks for the comment! This project has been a real fun challenge for me so I'm happy to see that at least so far the quality has been up to snuff!

 

On the specific points.

•  I've had that cross design hidden up my sleeve for years now, just waiting for the right time to use it, and I knew immediately that Holy Cross was the perfect time.
• I've always liked UML, they've been a fun alternative to BC and BU over the years, and I could not agree with you more about the Phoenix designed logos. The teeth on the bird is bad enough, but a wordmark that is literally Impact font is brutal.
• Thanks! It really is too bad that submitted designs are pretty much a legal non-starter since the whole Ravens fiasco.
• Here's the thing about the Cornell design. You're right, and I know you're right. But my brain just refuses to read it as Cornell. You could not believe the amount of time I spent going back and forth on this. I'll probably end up changing it to the top version as you suggested. Thanks for the C&C on that.

[MDGP]

We have a special treat, as it's "alma maters of 2000s-2020s AFC Hall of Fame Quarterbacks day"!

 

First up the Miami of Ohio Redhawks. Miami had a nice little team during the 2000s and early 2010s. That is, until April 11th 2009. On that day, the Redhawks were but a minute from their first national title, holding a 3-1 lead over the Boston University Terriers. 43 seconds later, the score was 3-3, and the Terriers would steal the title in overtime in what is the second most memorable last minute playoff loss to a Boston team after the Maples Leafs' 3 goal collapse against the bruins in 2013. Miami would go on to the frozen four the next season, as well as a few other title appearances, but they haven't made a real title push in the years since.

 

 

Miami's uniforms have always been pretty simple. During their title hunt years, they wore basically what Cornell wears but with Miami on the front. In recent years they've worn a two stripe design as well as an offset design (kind of like the Merrimack one above but in red and white) with an opposite color shoulder yoke.

 

I decided to combine these looks into another asymmetrical striping design. The bottom stripe is inspired by the thick stripe on both the title hunt jerseys and the recent offset stripe, while the two smaller stripes above are inspired by the double stripe design. I also kept the contrasting shoulder yokes as it further helps them stand out from other red and white schools.

 

 

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Our second team is everyone's* least favorite* school, the Michigan Wolverines.

 

 

As a Big Ten alum, I am contractually obligated to despise Michigan. However, I'm not so petty as to make them not look good. The thing with Michigan is that they seem to forget they have the perfect formula for their jerseys across all sports. On white jerseys, a connected blue-yellow-blue triple stripe with navy blue letters outlined in white. On blue jerseys, yellow only. The number of stripes can change, but I believe the perfect balance is a disconnected triple stripe to match the helmet except on cuffs and collars, where it should be a single yellow stripe.

 

[stumpygremlin]

16 hours ago, MDGP said:

 

Hey thanks for the comment! This project has been a real fun challenge for me so I'm happy to see that at least so far the quality has been up to snuff!

 

On the specific points.

•  I've had that cross design hidden up my sleeve for years now, just waiting for the right time to use it, and I knew immediately that Holy Cross was the perfect time.
• I've always liked UML, they've been a fun alternative to BC and BU over the years, and I could not agree with you more about the Phoenix designed logos. The teeth on the bird is bad enough, but a wordmark that is literally Impact font is brutal.
• Thanks! It really is too bad that submitted designs are pretty much a legal non-starter since the whole Ravens fiasco.
• Here's the thing about the Cornell design. You're right, and I know you're right. But my brain just refuses to read it as Cornell. You could not believe the amount of time I spent going back and forth on this. I'll probably end up changing it to the top version as you suggested. Thanks for the C&C on that.

I'm sure you could give it a try with Merrimack, though. Even if you work out a contract with them where they pay you a few bucks and some season tickets or something, since you did the work "pro bono" as it were.

 

The bird-with-teeth thing at Lowell is something that they've always had. Since they became the River Hawks in 1994, they've had teeth. Before they went to Phoenix, they used this:

[MDGP]

1 hour ago, stumpygremlin said:

I'm sure you could give it a try with Merrimack, though. Even if you work out a contract with them where they pay you a few bucks and some season tickets or something, since you did the work "pro bono" as it were.

 

The bird-with-teeth thing at Lowell is something that they've always had. Since they became the River Hawks in 1994, they've had teeth. Before they went to Phoenix, they used this:

 

See, I actually like this logo. I guess it's one of those all in the execution type deals. This one leans so heavily into a cartoon style bird that I think  having non-anatomically correct teeth works. Whereas the Phoenix one is caught in the middle of trying to be a cartoon and a tough 2000s logo, and it just looks bad.

[MiK]

Fantastic work - the Lake Superior State and Merrimack redesigned logos are particularly good. The execution on each of these is top notch, well done.

 

The CCornell looks and reads better - without the 'double C' it catches the eye as ORNELL.

 

I wonder if the Mercyhurst home sweaters logo may benefit from a white space between the green text and the blue outline? There's not much contrast between those colors so it kind of bleeds together - you don't get that pop like you do in the away sweaters with the white logo.

[MDGP]

Alright, moving forward while I contemplate some changes to earlier teams.

 

We're staying in Michigan for today. First up, the 2024 Big Ten Champion Michigan State Spartans.

 

 

To me, Michigan State has two default looks, shoulder stripes or northwestern stripes. Everything else just looks wrong. Here I decided to do a little bit of mix and matching. I love the Michigan State wordmark that from what I can tell seems to be hockey specific. It's fun and unique, so it deserves a place on the front. I paired that with the northwestern stripes, as in my research I didn't find a jersey where they wore the northwestern stripe with the wordmark, and it's a combination I actually really like. I rounded out the design with the classic spartan helmet on the shoulder, shorts and helmet.

 

 

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Michigan Tech is a recent member of the husky logo revolution of the 2010s, in which 3 of the 4 schools with the huskies name drastically changed their logo for the better. They're also the Huskies with the most storied history in college hockey, with 3 national championships and 5 runner up finishes in the 60s and 70s, and 10 trips to the frozen four. After suffering a cold period in the 90s and 2000s, they've come on strong in the past decade, and are now a staple in the national tournament scene.

 

 

Like the other black and yellow teams, file this one under "Jerseys I'd be cool with the Bruins and/or Penguins wearing". The Huskies take on a pretty traditional hockey jersey here with a bit of a twist when it comes to color blocking (at least on the home jersey). Yellow and white take center stage on the home jersey, in a type of look that you don't see often but I really like. I'm trying to avoid all of the stereotypical words like clean and pops here, if you couldn't tell. As I noted earlier, the home jersey has some real black and yellow NHL team vibes, while also trying to fit the overall look of the huskies throughout the years. Both jerseys feature the team's signature Huskies wordmark, which I've always loved, and the fantastic update logo on the shoulders and shorts.

 

And just as an added bonus, Michigan Tech is one of the numerous college hockey teams I've redesigned over the years, and is one of the logos I've always seen as a sort of watershed moment in regards to my developing design skills. Unfortunately, I can't link to this because it was during the CCSLC hosting images years (2016 I believe), and those images are long gone. However, I do have at least one image of the logo itself available.

 

[Section30]

Both State and Tech look great.

 

A little bummed the big stripe black jersey is gone for the Huskies but the jersey you replaced it with looks really good too.