...And now we head on down to the Crescent City!

[tBBP]

Welcome back. I am now on to part FIVE in this series. Here's a list of the teams I've completed concepts for up to this point:

Cleveland Browns

Tennessee Titans

Philadelphia Eagles

St. Louis Rams

Okay, so let's head on down the Mississippi River, shall we?

Welcome to Creole Country!

New Orleans. The Crescent City. Love(d) that place, being that Pensacola (my hometown) is only three hours east--or was before Katrina knocked down the twinspan. (Those in the know know what I'm talking about.) As any Saints fan knows (and yes, they do exist outside Louisiana--ask skyaa1), though there have been little subtle changes here and there, the overall look of the Saints has remained the same for their entire existence. There was a period, though, between the early '80s right on up to the time Ricky Williams played there, where the people in charge just could NOT make up their mind on a look--flip-flopping between gold pants, black pants, white pants, back to gold with a solid black stripe a la the Steelers, black pants with the same stripe, only in gold, solid black pants from a few years ago, San Diego-style numbers, road gold numbers outlined in black, black road numbers outlined in gold--they even toyed with the idea of a black dome once, in the 1970 pre-season. (For what it's worth, I think the Saints' helmet is one of the best in the league.)

Though the team really doesn't have that rich a tradition, the uniform itself has stayed, for the most part, just that--traditional looking. But, to me, it just didn't say "New Orleans" or "Saints" enough for me, so i let the cerebellum start spinning. I also enlisted the help of one skyaa1 for this one, since he (as best as I can tell) is the foremost Saints fan in the community.

The first thought that came to mind was to go back to more of an old gold rather than Vegas gold, but then skyaa1 showed me this photo. BINGO! Copperish gold = good. (That same photo will be referenced later on.) Ol' boy also suggested--and I was thinking the same thing--employing the pants striping used back in those days, so I did. The same stripe that the Saints' domes employ are now used on the pants--black/white/black on the primary gold pants, and black/GOLD/black on the secondary white pants I included, since white pants have been used by the Saints before. (No black pants for the primaries this time around--although I did think about it.) For the jerseys, I wanted to do something a little different to try to "freshen" up the Saints' look, and because I'm a bit tired of seeing standard block all the time, so I pined through about 11000 fonts before I found a number style that said "Saints" to me. I set it in the San Diego style the Saints employed during various periods of their history-white with gold trim on the black tops and black with gold trim on the white shirts. As the current jerseys have no striping whatsoever on them, neither do these. (I'm thinking maybe I should have, but I'll let you all see it and then y'all can make your own judgement on that.) I did, however, put the (in)famous Louisiana "boot" logo back on the sleeves, like they used to be. And, just for effect, the collar/sleeve ribs on the black tops are gold; black on the white tops. I wanted to try to work a crescent design into this concept somewhere, just to tie the design into Nawlins' nickname (and it amazed me skyaa1 had the same idea), but, in the end, it just didn't come out right, so I stayed true to the Saints' overall traditional style--but with some enhancements. I also ain't too fond of the Saints' current wordmark, so I fashioned one out of an older French-Catholic style font (understand the French-Creole connection here) and modified it a little bit. I like it--it's more "New Orleans" to me...

And now, the third outfit. As most of you have seen by now, I have a habit of doing some super-special things with my alt sets, and this time is no different. Remember that photo I mentioned skyaa1 showed me? (here it is again.) Well, that's exactly what I based my third outfit on--serified block numbers included. Now, Anyone remember those gold alt jerseys the Saints broke out back in '01 or '02 against the Vikings? I loved those. And they wore them with the black pants. Now, imagine a cross between the two sets I just described and BAM!--you have my rendition of an alt set for the Saints. The pants have the gold/white/gold stripe and same striping and sock style seen here from the Archie Manning days--only without the thin separations between the stripes.

SO...y'all ready for this?

I present to the masses...the re-done New Orleans Saints!

[LMU]

I personally prefer the double outline of the fleur-de-lis, but the matching shade of gold, and the font are perfection.

[speedy]

big fan of the new wordmark, but my favorite would be the current helmet with the archie era uniforms.

[whitedawg22]

Pretty schweet. The only combo I'm not fond of is the black jersey/white pants. I applaud the font selection, both for the numbers and the wordmark. Not a big fan of the Jim Taylor numbers, but I guess they're kitschy and historical.

This is one of the few cases where the San Diego style numbers work, in my opinion. Most of the time (e.g. current Cowboys, Bills) it just ends up looking needlessly complicated. But the thinner numbers, combined with the use of white and gold on black, makes it turn out nice.

The only thing I would have liked to see is a black jersey with plain gold numbers, Raiders-style. I have always thought that would be a great look for the Saints, especially if the numbers were somewhat metallic. But this is a classy enough look to make me temporarily forget that dream.

Nice work. Is "Devereaux" a random name, or is it some reference to Joshua Devereaux, a striker on the Saints Premier League soccer team in South Africa?

Anything new happening with the airline series, or is that on the back burner for now?

[tBBP]

Pretty schweet. The only combo I'm not fond of is the black jersey/white pants. I applaud the font selection, both for the numbers and the wordmark. Not a big fan of the Jim Taylor numbers, but I guess they're kitschy and historical.

This is one of the few cases where the San Diego style numbers work, in my opinion. Most of the time (e.g. current Cowboys, Bills) it just ends up looking needlessly complicated. But the thinner numbers, combined with the use of white and gold on black, makes it turn out nice.

The only thing I would have liked to see is a black jersey with plain gold numbers, Raiders-style. I have always thought that would be a great look for the Saints, especially if the numbers were somewhat metallic. But this is a classy enough look to make me temporarily forget that dream.

Nice work. Is "Devereaux" a random name, or is it some reference to Joshua Devereaux, a striker on the Saints Premier League soccer team in South Africa?

Anything new happening with the airline series, or is that on the back burner for now?

DAMN YOU PICKED THAT ONE OUT FAST AS HELL!

That name stuck out in my mind all this time since I first heard about him when I was overseas during OIF2. The head of staff of one of the DFACs I worked in there was from South Africa and he was talking to me about a certain football team down there and he mentioned the name Joshua Devereaux to me and it immediately made me think of New Orleans when he said it--those types of surnames are common in throughout Creole Country a..k.a. Louisiana (and a piece of southern Missisippi). Good eye!

Yeah the Airline Football League Series is on hold for the present...but I do have some concepts done I just haven't gotten to finalize yet, thanks to endterm exams.

Stay tuned!

[BlueSky]

I like 'em with the exception of the "state" logo. Number and wordmark font are a big improvement. And yes, the "-eaux" suffix is very prevalent in Louisiana, and it's pronounced like a long "o", so you'll see stuff like this for LSU:

So I knew the name was appropriately regional but had no idea of the connection to another "Saints" team.

Thanks for your kind words about my "fandom." We moved to N.O. in August 1969 and I attended my first Saints game in December of that year at age 8. They beat the Steelers 27-24 in Tulane Stadium. I was at Archie Manning's first game as Saints QB, a 24-20 victory over the Rams to open the 1971 season. Archie scored on a keeper with a few seconds left; he fumbled at the goal line and the play would definitely be overturned in today's replay era but back then the TD stood and Archie was unfairly anointed as a true savior. Watching Peyton and Eli sure makes me feel old!

Had season tickets for a few years in the 80's and have been to many games, the most memorable being their only playoff victory, the "there is a God after all!" game. Go here to hear the Jim Henderson radio call I'm talking about. The Rams had erased a 31-7 Saints 4th quarter lead and were getting the ball back with about 2 minutes left when that happened.

I just got my Archie throwback and have high hopes for the Payton era, though with their schedule this year any realist knows it'll be a year or two before they can contend.

Anyway, great work as usual.

[IceCap]

Use the newer fleur-de-lis and you have a winner.

[MSO94]

Just had to say Im Pensacola Home boy to

[BlueSky]

Hey Bucco, if you really want one of those replica Sam Mills jerseys, go to the Sports in General forum and see my post ref the big sale at Distant Replays here in Atlanta. They have that jersey in stock and it's 50% off in the store and 30% off on the web. It's not on their website but call 'em - they have it and they guys that run the store are great.

[ninersdd]

Thats one of the best consepts that I have seen. Nice job on the gold especially

[tBBP]

Just had to say Im Pensacola Home boy to

look like we got anotha one up in here! See, Pensacola on the come-up in the community...(well, about as much as it CAN come up anyway)...

I'm still stuck on whether I should leave the state logo or leave it off...i actually kinda like it as is for what it is...jsut a representational logo of Louisiana. But I know some people don't exactly agree with that.

Overall, this may be in my top 10 of all my concepts, just because I put so much into this one (like I don't with the other ones)...but, I don't know--i just like it!

[Audiodrama]

The Fleur de Lis in the primary has two outlines but the one on the helmet has one outline?

[tBBP]

Yeah I can now see the outer outline I had on the fleur-de-lis somehow got lost. It was there originally--but it was my own bad for not making it thick enough. My bad folks...

[neo_prankster]

Are you gonna do the Chargers anytime soon?

[tBBP]

Are you gonna do the Chargers anytime soon?

Eventually...that one's going to take some SERIOUS thinking, though. The current sets are actually among the best in the league if you ask me. But, there are things I ain't exactly too hot about with it as is now. But yeah--eventually I'll be getting around to them.

Just so everyone knows, there are some teams I'm not even going to attempt touching--include the Chicago Bears in that grouping, and there will be others.

Just keep an eye out for me though...more to come (with this AND the airline league series!)

[lilgump]

I love the color of gold you use. Too many teams have gone to vegas gold, and not too many have any true gold, or at least a darker gold, left.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

Primary home and away: use the new Fleur de lisle and you have perfection

Alternate home and away: Secondary home i like but im not a big fan of the white on white away.

Gold alternate: Perfection.

overall great package especially the numbers which i really like.

[Artmanc3po]

I've always thought the Saints have one of the best unis in sports, and have thought so since first getting some Saints card in a package of Topps around 78 or 79. Black pants era was great in late 70s, early 80s, Bobby Hebert era unis were terrific. Always a great set. Always seemed to be a little bit cutting edge.

I too prefer the current fleur-de-lis.

Gold alternate would be amazing. The Saints could pull it off. Again, be cutting edge in a way some teams couldn't handle.

[BigShoop]

What really makes this concept pop, is the font. Good choice. Good work. Not too keen on the alt, but everything else is clean.

[mts773]

These are very nice! Normally I'm not a fan of that number font, but I think it works very well here, and is somehow fitting for New Orleans. If the Saints adopted these full time I would have no complaints!!