NRL Redesign Project Mach II

[Gazzzaf]

Made a more appropriate template so I've started over.

Nth Qld Cowboys

St George-Illawarra Dragons

[Gazzzaf]

Newcastle Knights

South Sydney Rabbitohs

[Gazzzaf]

NZ Warriors

[gueman]

Very Good, but...your watermark shoud be toned down a little. It was a bit of a distraction.

[Kit]

Not liking the thinning down of the Dragons' 'V', messing with the V is like changing the Rabbitoh's stripes . Though as a former Steelers fan, can't argue with the Red alt. Don't like the grey one; looks very similar to this year's charity shield jersey.

I'm curious to see what you have in store for Melbourne though; they have one of the nicest home uniforms, and the most ridiculously bad alternate.

And what about Brisbane and Canberra?

[Gazzzaf]

More designs will come soon when I get the time to do them. I am messing around with the watermark at the moment to see if I can get a balance between a clearly identifiable watermark that isn't too obtrusive.

I did St George's V as such because I wanted to bring back their original 1920's V which is even thinner than what I've done. St Georrge has changed their V several times in the last 10 to 15 years, even this year they went with a shortened version of last years..

[Kit]

The thin V (from 1929 until 1930) is hardly seminal. It was so unpopular the team reverted to the horizontal stripes (which are far more historical, and should replace your grey alternate) for an entire decade. The instigation of the red-V full time in 1940 saw the V being quite wide, and by 1949 it was almost as wide (if not wider) than the current jerseys.

If any era is to be remembered from the Saints' history, it has to be the glorious mid-to-late fifties, when they started their 11 straight premierships run.

In that case, the jerseys would look like:

http://www.showroom.com.au/dragons/dragons...ry_team1957.htm

I just think the thin 'V' is too unbalanced, and kinda... wimpy, though I'd support it ending in a point again, like the pre-sponsorship days (just not how it was in 1979, when the point of the V poked out the bottom of the Penfolds logo).

I don't know; I just don't think the Red V needs any updating. It's just... right.

I really like the Warriors jerseys you did though. Did you make the template yourself?

[Gazzzaf]

Thanks for your opinions on the V, after reading your comments, I will have a go at changing the V and will post it up soon. I'm suprised that you didn't criticise both the V neck or the three stripes on either sleeve as they attracted far more criticism than the thin V. These are feature I really would want to keep in this design as the V neck gives an additional 70's/80'/early 90's feel to the design. The three stripes kills two birds with one stone by making it subtley unique from other St George designs and utilises the trademark 3-stripes that their future supplier, Adidas, have on nearly all apparel.

The current V and the last few have been completely wrong. They are angled too steeply or not steep enough and would not meet at 90* angles where the tip should be. This was the first thing on my list to change. I used a thinner V so it would match the width of the three stripes and to also model it historically on the first V (in a gesture not unlike the 2003 Anzac test jersey which paid tribute to the first design which utilised the green and gold). But as you said, the iconic jersey of St George is their 11 straight premiership design and a lot more fans would be able to associate to that then one thats over 80 years old.

I also relly wanted to credit the Steelers by making their old jersey the Reverse strip. The only alteration being three sleeve stripes, but this really isn't much of a problem in my mind.

I have the grey alternate for special games like the charity shield and world sevens. I was looking for an alternate that was neither St George or Illawarra but something that represents the merger as a whole. The grey sort of represents the "Steel Dragons" moniker that was considerd in 1998 but not taken.

I'm doing the Roosters now which includes a Reverse design that is pretty similar to their new one for next year.

[Gazzzaf]

And yeah, I went to the Australian Reebok site to find an image of the white storm design and I made a few alterations then traced it in photoshop. Now it takes me ages to do simple things for my design because I've done most my stuff in paint for the past 8 years.

[Gazzzaf]

I've changed the V and watermarks and replaced them on my server but they haven't changed for me when I view it so I'm not sure if it is working for anyone else. If it isn't working, just copy the image url and enter it into the address bar I suppose.

[Kit]

That new design is so good, it brings a tear to the eye.

I don't mind the stripes on the sleeve. Everyone knows that now that Adidas has taken over from Classic, the Dragons' kit is almost certainly getting a three-stripe motif somewhere; the sleeve references the Steelers jersey nicely.

I remember really wanting them to be Christened the SteelDragons, but I'm really glad they didn't do anything with it; there's just so much heritage in the Dragons name (and so very little in the Steelers ).

I'm anxious to see the Storm and Roosters jerseys. You didn't tell me where you got your template.

[jr79]

Arrrgh white numbers on a white jersey (Warriors away)... a nightmare for fans!

Yeah the Dragons V is such a hard thing to get right when doing a redesign. Biggest comparison I can draw is the red sash on the River Plate soccer jersey and adidas have struggled with fitting that onto their templates in the past.

I'd love to see the full V come back and fit the sponsor in underneath, but the cut-off V has a longer history than the complete V now so perhaps it is more traditional?

While on the topic of Vs... how bad are the double Vs on the current Australian jerseys? The angle of the V is so flat its almost like 2 gold stripes across the front. Pathetic really.

I'd love to see a big simplification/retro trend strike the NRL and get some old fashioned stripes and Vs happening again. Manly just need to fix their ugly striping patterns to match their 80s jerseys, Parra need to somehow fit those stripes that poke out of the side panels across the whole of the jersey.

I see Cronulla actually wore their throwbacks a second time last season. Must have been popular, so maybe they'll make a comeback. It is one of the NRL/NSWRL's classic jerseys.

Anyone remember those Cronulla jerseys they wore (with the Reebok sponsorship) when they first changed them? They only lasted a couple of years before Super League arrived. I loved those jerseys but you don't see them a lot any more not surprisingly

Oh and another quick point... did any of you notice on the Parra jerseys how the bigger you are, the disproportionately bigger your blue side panels are, so Tim Smith had no side panels at all, and Paul Stringer had a jersey that was almost half yellow and half blue Bugged me all season it did.

[Gazzzaf]

I got lazy with the numbers, this is something I'll probably change soon. And the cut off V only came about 80's/90's I'm pretty sure. Most jerseys these days are form fitting so thats why the parra panels are different sizes. This is also true with the Raiders and Roosters Away jerseys.

I actaully went to the Australian Reebok site for the template. I just traced the outline (with a few changes) on photoshop. I got the colla4rs from the Classic sports site and did the same thing.

[Gazzzaf]

I've updated the warriors to include a black number and have also toned down the watermark. It isnt changing when I view it but it may do soon.

[Gazzzaf]

Sydney Roosters - Not much variation from their 2006 sets, might come up with something else later

[Kit]

That Roosters uniform is *perfect*. I love the whole kit. Are you getting all the sponsor details from BrandsoftheWorld? Because I wouldn't have expected City Ford to be on there.

jr79:

The cut-off V has literally no (good) history. They first cut off the bottom of the V in 1972 for the Penfolds logo, but by 1977, some players' jerseys had the point of the V poking out the bottom of the sponsor's logo. By 1979, everyone's jersey had the poking V (I *hate* the way that looks).

It wasn't until the mid eighties that the V lost its point for good (and has remained that way ever since, of course, around 20 years, paling in significance to the 65-odd years they had the whole 'V').

When they had the point on the V (or at least, some players did), the Dragons won twice times:

1977 - Won in the rematch against Parramatta, 22-0 (following their draw)

1979 - Won against Canterbury 17-13

In the years where the V had no point, the Dragons made the grand final 6 times (and lost all 6 times):

1975 - Lost 38-0 to Easts

1985 - Lost 7-6 to Canterbury

1992 - Lost 22-8 against Brisbane

1993 - Lost 14-6 to Brisbane

1996 - Lost 20-8 to Manly

1999 - Lost 20-18 to Melbourne Storm (with that infamous penalty try)

There is no good history in the shaved-off point .

[Gazzzaf]

Never even heard of that site until you just mentioned it. I've just checked it out and its very handy for finding logos, etc. But I can't seem to find where you find club sponsors on it. I usually get all my other sponsors from the club's site. For example, the city ford logo was on the 2006 shorts in the shop so I used it. However I couldn't find a picture of the back of the shorts so I just used the city ford logo again.

[Gazzzaf]

Canberra Raiders - Been really hectic in the last couple of days, wiped my forums accidentally but new ones are up. I encourage you to have a look at them here.

EDIT: I know that there isn't a major sponsor there but FoneZone has chosen not to renew their deal with the Raiders so they are on the lookout for a new sponsor.

[rmered]

There's just something about Lime Green that says "we're struggling for colour combos here guys".

But I like it when it's toned down in the white kit.

[Gazzzaf]

It gets your attention though, not too many teams don the lime green (talking out of bias here)