The Guinness Premiership

[Davidson]

hi guys,

having seen a few other rugby threads recently and finding myself a bit bored at work today i decided to take a crack at the english league teams. being from new zealand, until i moved to london a few years ago, i didnt realise that there were other sports. but im sure the majority of you will have little to no idea who any of these teams are.

to give you a bit of background, these are the teams of the top division of the national competition, the structure of which is more akin to the english football premiership that any american franchised set-up. many of these teams date back hundreds of years to the beginnings of the game and have a somewhat dated look with regards to colours. since becoming a proffessional sport in 1996, kits have gone through a few revolutions (some good, some garrish) and now seem to have their own distinct style as a sport. obviously the clothing is far tougher than soccer outfits and these days seem to use more of the body contours than round ball unis. many historical outfits exist still as you will see and there is a tandancy for unis to use hoops and quarters as opposed to the more familiar stripes of footy.

as you can see i have included three kits for each set. this is because in recent years, teams have carried a third kit with which they play european club matches in the heineken cup competition (you will find rugby sponsors are often alcohol based) which is the rugby equivalent of the uefa champions league. the best clubs in england play the best clubs from ireland, scotland, wales, france and italy.

hope you like.

fd

LEICESTER TIGERS

leicester (pronounced lester) are the currnet domestic title holders and have been the most consistent uk team since the dawn of proffesionalism and have had lots of success in europe also. they historically played in green red and white hoops hence the nickname 'tigers'.

[Moser316]

Awesome work with the first concept! I'm vaguely familiar with the Guinness Premiership (although I don't get it on TV, the most rugby I've watched until recently was Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius training with the London Irish on Jackass), so I'm curious to see what you'll come up with for the Exiles and Harlequins, among others...

[Davidson]

BATH RUGBY

next up bath. to the amature era what the tigers have been to the proffessional era.

i know there are fans of blue and black combos on this board. bath used to have a nice

bar across the middle (much like sampdoria if youre a italian football fan) which ive tried to use.

i may have gone a bit ott with the shoulder straps?

LONDON WASPS

one of the classic clubs. you cant go changing the home uni too much. all black with the striped socks.

tried to be a bit more adventurous with the change jerseys.

[Davidson]

HARLEQUINS

now, most of you will probably think this is a joke. but i kid you not. since they split with wasps 1870 quins have been turning

out in sky blue, claret, brown grey, green and black. im not sure as to the exact reason but im sure they got a good deal on those

colours. as you can imagine, until they were forced to in 2000, quins never even had an away kit so they have alwasy just tended to

be colour varioations of the home jersey but in white. i have minimised the green in the home jersey here but the european shirt

is a direct copy of the original quins jersey on the new template.

[gordie_delini]

Love the Bath kits - although I wish they'd go back to having Blackthorn as their sponsor. I'm curious to see what you do for the rest of the league, especially London Irish.

[kewp80]

I really like all of these, especially the Harlequins concept really nice work there. The Wasp's Euro kit you made looks fantastic as well.

My only grip is the Leicester Tigers. I would rather you try and make them more like the kits they have now, with more horizontal stipes, like these:

Other than that these are very nice so far. Can't wait to see the Newcastle Falcons!

[Davidson]

I really like all of these, especially the Harlequins concept really nice work there. The Wasp's Euro kit you made looks fantastic as well.

My only grip is the Leicester Tigers. I would rather you try and make them more like the kits they have now, with more horizontal stipes, like these:

Other than that these are very nice so far. Can't wait to see the Newcastle Falcons!

yes, i really like those ones. they are last seasons tho. i hate this seasons.

think youre right tho, ill take a look at them tomorrow.

[jr79]

The Tigers used to have a very distinctive striping pattern which was quite nice, but that newer jersey has too much white, whereas the older ones were always predominately green.

Harlequins are certainly unique if nothing else.

[Davidson]

The Tigers used to have a very distinctive striping pattern which was quite nice, but that newer jersey has too much white, whereas the older ones were always predominately green.

Harlequins are certainly unique if nothing else.

they had an straight green jersey for a season with some red arms but before that they have always had the stripng below which has more white than they do now.

[Davidson]

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

never really been fond of the saints colours to be honest. i think they look okay on a white away strip

like bradford bulls do in the superleague.

[Gazzzaf]

I've tried my hand at the Harlequins before (although it was the league team). It came out nowhere near as good as yours. Great work on the away strip. I'm a huge fan of chest stripes and therefore love the Bath strips. The Wasps are very clean as well. I'm not too sure about the Tigers though. The two shades of green are unecessary and the rounded panelling about the sleeves looks a little awkward. I'm looking forward to seeing your other offers for this set; looks promising so far.

[Davidson]

chur bro.

i kinda know what you mean about leicester. my problem with them is that im quite colour blind and it drives me crazy watching them as they just look a blur. i wanted a bit more contrast in some of the outfit without simply making the red brighter. you might well be right tho. bit over complicated perhaps.

LONDON IRISH

special one for me as they are my old club. before i was an designer/animator, the plan was to make a living playing pro rugby. i was lucky enough to be around when the likes of all black steve bachop were there, but unlucky enough to wreck my knees and back and end my carreer age 20. back then jerseys were still huge great big cotton things and pretty ugly canterbury affairs.

london irish are a bit of an odd team. you no longer have to qualiify by irish descent as the club merged with the former richmond and london scottish (both teams have now reformed as amateur clubs) so the team encorporates a lot of navy as well as the red and white of london (even tho they play in reading?!). irish have taken to using more the more tradtional colours of ireland in their third strip.

[Davidson]

NEWCASTLE FALCONS

these guys got picked from obscurity at the dawn of proffessionalism and were manufactured into an allstar team overnight.

now home to probably the best known, possibly the best player in the world and world cup winner: johnny wilkinson.

as they have less of a history, i think they can afford to be a bit more out there. like their northern rivals sale sharks, the former

newcastle gosforth play on the anthropomorphism of the team mascott. in this case, ive given them a bit of plumage or something?

hey currently have a sweet pink alternate which ive carried over and the third set carries the stripes of the original club from which they

were born.

[Akuma]

Hey, Finally!

Someone who likes Rugby here!

Nice work on the Falcons kit

The design ties in nicely with their Nike Pro Baselayers.

And you made the away kit look good, even With Pink!

And to show what can happen if you let French Women design your Rugby kit, I present.....Stade Francais!!!!

[Primal]

I quite like that bit of "plumage"...

[kewp80]

That Newcastle concept looks fantastic! Really nice work on that. The third looks great though, it's my favorite so far.

[kewp80]

Double post, sorry.