We move the world...YELLOW is the new brown beyotch!

[tBBP]

Test of your awareness...be real with yourself--do you really have a CLUE which carrier is featured in this concept? At all? Odds are, you've seen the trucks and planes everyday without even realizing it (and if you work in an office building, no DOUBT you've seen thousands of mailer envelopes for this carrier!

For those who are still stumped, the answer will be revealed in a moment, but for now, take a second to review the first two installments in this series:

FedEx

UPS

And now, the answer you seek...group together the first initials of these surnames: Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn.

And now you know! (Key clue...YELLOW.)

The three names you just read? The surnames of the founding members of DHL, in the year 1969, which originally began as a shuttle courier service between San Francisco and Honolulu. (reference the surname on the jerseys?it's a conglomeration of the surnames of the founding members.) Over the next few years, the carrier expended into the Pacific Rim, and eventually, expanded into Europe (making this one of the few well-known U.S.-born companies to expand the other way--that is, not towards the rest of the nation, but instead, towards Asia and Europe.) DHL would later expand their courier service into Latin America, the Middle East (which I know about all too well), and Africa, making it a true "global" carrier. In fact, that's DHL's calling card...global delivery. Fast. These days, DHL is German-owned, HQ'd in Bonn, Germany (it's US base of operations is in Plantation, Florida). It's global network is unmatched by any other global carrier--as a matter of fact, it's one of the very few companies period that provide service into Cuba and Iraq (which is what I meant by knowing "all too well").

Okay--so that concludes your super-brief history lesson on this worldwide express service carrier...now on to what you all came here to see.

Once I started this series, I couldn't wait to get to this one. I was going to wait until a little further down the line to unveil this, but I figured what the hey--why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? (Answer: 46-hour-a-week graphic design/pre-press job, 40 miles of commuting, and weekend volunteer tutoring jsut to pass along my inside knowledge of the pre-press and printing industry to future graduates--but that's another story.) Most of you know DHL's colors: yellow and red, yellow being the ubiquitous color of the company, almost on the same par as UPS (who, ironically enough, DHL actually shares a small partnership with). And since yellow is also my favorite color (Florida boy here?what can you say?), I knew I'd have fun with this.

It actually wasn't hard to come up with this concept, or at least the idea of it. Subtle nuances in the execution is what held this up for so long--you'll see soon enough. For starters, the triple-striping so prominently feautured in DHL's branding package is also prominently feauted throughout this concept. The domes are, of course, yellow, with the DHL logo on the sides and red triple-striping. The "home" kit (and I quote that loosely--you'll see why) in this set consist of a?what else?yellow jerseys, with red pants (kinda stole that idea from DHL's aircraft livery) with yellow triple-striping, and red-topped yellow socks with red triple-striping. True, it created sort of a "pseudo-leotard" look, but not so much so. "Road" kit? White jersey, yellow pants (being that yellow is DHL's predominant color, I wanted it to be featured prominently) with red triple-striping, and the same socks as with the home kit, except they're white where the "home" kit had yellow (striping is still red). For the TV numbers, I did something a little interesting and set them inside the sleeve triple-striping, similar to how the DHL letters are set inside the stripes in the logo. And speaking of those numbers, they also mimic the DHL letters--that is, big, bold, super-sheared, and red. The home shirts have yellow sleeve striping, to mimic the bottom three yellow stripes in DHL's logo. All sets have black shoes (the "workman" look).

For the secondaries...only because I know more than a few people would be curious about it, the secondary "home kit", the "canary look", as I call it, is all-yellow (yes, predictable?but also fitting for DHL, I believe). The only change for the secondary roads is red pants instead of yellow.

As for the 3rd/alt, I went a different direction. ever seen a DHL uniform? Well, check them out here, in particular the two women in the middle. Here's another view. That's exactly what I modeled the 3rd sets after--I call it the "workman's set", as it damn near exactly matches an employee uniform.

Well, I hope you had fun visualizing the concept as you read that (that's why I write these explanations, after all)...here's the visual.

C&C--let me have it...worldwide!

[BlueSky]

Very nice, as usual. You have a talent for incorporating relevant elements into your designs.

IMO the red numbers on the yellow jerseys would benefit from a white outline, and the all-yellow left me with seared retinas. Other than that, bravo!

[andymorrison13]

Fantastic work as usual

[nwtrailtrekker]

just needs a little relish!

good work

[DelayedPenalty]

I like the 3rd alternate the best. The black breaks up the red and yellow well, doesn't make it quite so overpowering. Like skyaa1 said, I think the numbers could use an outline, maybe bring in more black.

[tBBP]

'Preciate the comments so far.

Yeah, my better intelligence kept telling me whilst creating these things that the numbers could use an outline, but, again, me and my steadfast (read:stubborn) ways kept sticking to the DHL script (read again: sans outlines).

And I'm slowly falling in love with that DHL 3rd set and the primary "away" set, probably two of my favorite concept kits I've done.

Oh--and speaking of concepts, I'm about 80% done with a new concept template...sure to be my best one YET...until I refreshen it and make it even better!

I may present my next concept using it...keep an eye out!

[Discrim]

once again you impress me, B. out of all of em, oddly enough I like the third uniform the best. admittedly, if not for its similarity to DHL's wordmark, I woulda chosen a different number font, but that's my only complaint on these.

[sc49erfan15]

Dunno if it was intentional or not, but that 3rd reminds me a LOT of the German flag. If it's unintentional, it fits in well due to DHL's German ties. If it is intentional and you didn't say anything about it...I'm proud of myself for noticing before any other resident vexillologist did.

They look a little loud, but also excellently translated to a football uniform. Great work.

I also appreciate the crash-course history lesson. I only recently (within the past 2-3 years) noticed DHL trucks and vans popping up in my area - didn't know if they were an upstart company or what.

I'm looking forward to what you do next - the only other two possibilities I can think of is Airborne Express and USPS (and CanadaPost, etc, if you're getting into national postal systems) - but I'm sure you'll surprise me. Again, great work!

[tBBP]

Dunno if it was intentional or not, but that 3rd reminds me a LOT of the German flag. If it's unintentional, it fits in well due to DHL's German ties. If it is intentional and you didn't say anything about it...I'm proud of myself for noticing before any other resident vexillologist did.

They look a little loud, but also excellently translated to a football uniform. Great work.

I also appreciate the crash-course history lesson. I only recently (within the past 2-3 years) noticed DHL trucks and vans popping up in my area - didn't know if they were an upstart company or what.

I'm looking forward to what you do next - the only other two possibilities I can think of is Airborne Express and USPS (and CanadaPost, etc, if you're getting into national postal systems) - but I'm sure you'll surprise me. Again, great work!

Actually, you know what...the whole time I'm reading the backstory of DHL, even mentioned the German connection, and it never ONCE dawned on me about the colors also being representational of DHL's main home base. So yeah--give yourself an award.

Hell?I'll do it for you:

To my boy Discrim up in the dawty nawf: I came thisclose to going with a super-oblique version of Myriad for the numbers (the font that "Express" is written in, in case anyone else reading this was/is curious), but the numbers was just too narrow for my liking, and hence, the creation of the bold super-oblique numbers I used. Bout that third...yeah that may be one of my favorite ones I've done PERIOD, right there with the 3rd/alt I created with my Lufthansa concept back in my AFL Concept Series.

Red and yella kill a fella... (first one to figure that riddle out wins a trophy.)

[Discrim]

...and the riddle has to do with telling apart the venomous coral snake from a nonvenomous king snake

[tBBP]

...and the riddle has to do with telling apart the venomous coral snake from a nonvenomous king snake

For you, sir:

(although that pretty much goes for most if not ALL snakes, poisonous or not...I know, cuz I done been snapped at by more than plenty.)