Rochester City soccer

[chestnutz]

With a slew of soccer concepts coming in lately, and me searching for a team to do for the past month or so, I finally decided on doing a black and white team, because I think if done right, not much can look better in sports than a pure black and white fitted squad. So I looked around for a soccer club to do, DC United, Juventus, Newcastle, but no. I eventually turned to my team, the Rochester (Raging) Rhinos. Being born, raised, and currently residing in Rochester, I've already done 2 other Rochester soccer concepts, but I'm hoping this will be my best yet.

First things first, out with basically everything they just unveiled this past year. The new crest is an absolute joke, so that was easy to get rid of. The kits aren't bad, but they're just a template bought from an online store (I know, because my soccer team now has the EXACT same uniforms from the exact company. Not exactly very unique or professional looking), but I'll get to those later.

I decided to ditch the green, at least as a primary color, and stuck with black and white stripes, which is what the Rhinos have used throughout their history, with yellow as a trim, also something the Rhinos have always used. I may bring back green for a third kit, but we'll save that for another time.

Then, after some tough thinking, I decided to get rid of the Rhinos moniker and completely rebrand Rochester. Rochester City (i.e. Manchester City) really sounds nice I think, and it strays away from the usual FC/United teams in America are referring back to nowadays.

I introduced an illustrated flower, because the ROC is known as the Flower City, 1996 (which I'm not sold on the location of) for the year they were founded, and 4 stars above the crest for the 4 championships they've won.

Well, here it is. I'm not in love with it, but with your help I can make it a bit better.

[Krona]

I like it. Im working on something similar, but used the stylized flower on the flag as well as the cities colors. you might want to check those out. i think the flour/flower city angle works well and rochester fc sounds so good, theres no reason to muddy it up with rhinos. id try to keep the 1996 horizontal and have some ends to the ribbons on either side. great work and thanks for reminding me about my neglected concept.

[bulldogbarks55]

With a slew of soccer concepts coming in lately, and me searching for a team to do for the past month or so, I finally decided on doing a black and white team, because I think if done right, not much can look better in sports than a pure black and white fitted squad. So I looked around for a soccer club to do, DC United, Juventus, Newcastle, but no. I eventually turned to my team, the Rochester (Raging) Rhinos. Being born, raised, and currently residing in Rochester, I've already done 2 other Rochester soccer concepts, but I'm hoping this will be my best yet.

First things first, out with basically everything they just unveiled this past year. The new crest is an absolute joke, so that was easy to get rid of. The kits aren't bad, but they're just a template bought from an online store (I know, because my soccer team now has the EXACT same uniforms from the exact company. Not exactly very unique or professional looking), but I'll get to those later.

I decided to ditch the green, at least as a primary color, and stuck with black and white stripes, which is what the Rhinos have used throughout their history, with yellow as a trim, also something the Rhinos have always used. I may bring back green for a third kit, but we'll save that for another time.

Then, after some tough thinking, I decided to get rid of the Rhinos moniker and completely rebrand Rochester. Rochester City (i.e. Manchester City) really sounds nice I think, and it strays away from the usual FC/United teams in America are referring back to nowadays.

I introduced an illustrated flower, because the ROC is known as the Flower City, 1996 (which I'm not sold on the location of) for the year they were founded, and 4 stars above the crest for the 4 championships they've won.

Well, here it is. I'm not in love with it, but with your help I can make it a bit better.

Why don't you put "est 1996" horizontally in the lower "V" part of the crest below "city." It's easier to read and self-explanatory. Also why don't you change the colors to Blue & Gold which are the city's official colors. When the Lancers began in 1968 I outfitted the team that year at Ruby's Sporting Goods. We ordered the jerseys directly from Bukta in England. The all-Durene Cotton jerseys were a quarter-sleeve style with alternating Royal & Gold 1" vertical stripes and Royal V-neck and sleeve-end trim. We put the embroidered Lancers 3" circular crest on the left chest and put 4" numbers on the right chest and 10" numbers on the back. We used Stahls Pro Block font. The numbers were Red with White contrasting stitching. We used Red because they showed up the best on the jersey.

The Lancers were in the American Soccer League in 1968 and played at Aquinas (Holleder) Stadium on Ridgeway Avenue in those days. They only had the one set of jerseys the first two years. They wore them with solid Royal shorts with a 4" Gold number on the left leg and solid Gold socks.

When they entered the NASL we got them a set of mesh jerseys from Russell Athletic for home games. They were solid Gold with 8" front and 10" back tackle twill numbers in Royal with White outline in Russell's stock full block font.

[chestnutz]

Thanks for the comments.

It's funny, last night while trying to sleep I just realized I should've put the 1996 on the banner along with "CITY." I'll do that.

bulldog, I thought about blue and yellow, and have done that for previous Rochester concept, but the Rhinos have way too much history. I'm already getting rid of the Rhinos moniker, but this team is known for its black and white stripes and yellow jerseys. Think about it: do the Red Wings use blue and yellow? The Amerks? The Knighthawks? The Rattlers? The Raiders? No team in the Rochester area uses those colors. I know plenty about the history of the Lancers, but that's a whole different team than the Rhinos. I'm not creating a new team for Rochester, I'm simply rebranding the current Rhinos team.

[kewp80]

I wouldn't mind possibly seeing some dark green in there, but it looks good either way. My critiques have already been voiced: put the 1996 on the bottom and put some ends to the banner.

You've done a pretty nice job here. I remember your previous Rochester Soccer concepts from way back ago. You have really progressed in your logo making, great job.

[chestnutz]

Nothing to do, so a quick update. I tried to work some green in kewp, but it just didn't go well.

[gingerbreadmann]

Infinitely better, my friend. Just not sold on the fonts.

[bulldogbarks55]

Thanks for the comments.

It's funny, last night while trying to sleep I just realized I should've put the 1996 on the banner along with "CITY." I'll do that.

bulldog, I thought about blue and yellow, and have done that for previous Rochester concept, but the Rhinos have way too much history. I'm already getting rid of the Rhinos moniker, but this team is known for its black and white stripes and yellow jerseys. Think about it: do the Red Wings use blue and yellow? The Amerks? The Knighthawks? The Rattlers? The Raiders? No team in the Rochester area uses those colors. I know plenty about the history of the Lancers, but that's a whole different team than the Rhinos. I'm not creating a new team for Rochester, I'm simply rebranding the current Rhinos team.

Well, it wouldn't make much sense for the Wings or Amerks to use Blue & Gold given their natural association with Red. But the Black and White is OK. When the current Rhinos wear the Black & White stripes it always reminds me of Juventus from Italy. I saw Juventus play an exhibition in Toronto against the NASL Toronto Blizzard at Exhibition Stadium in 1981 or '82.

As for Rochester I never cared for the Dark Green, Black and Gold. The Dark Green and Black are too close and often blend together, especially on TV. And I'm not a big fan of Black & Gold together, either. So one set of Black & White stripes and a change jersey of solid Gold are OK if that's the route you want to go. And I still think the word "est." should go on the "1996" and place that at the bottom of the "V." Also, is your flower supposed to be a lilac blossom?

[scottysprings]

Make the stars gold.

[chestnutz]

I'll come up with a final crest soon, does anyone have any last comments?

Also, if anyone would like to create some kits, I don't have much time (leaving Friday) and I'm really bad at making soccer kits, and don't even have the common template everyone has (if someone could give that to me that'd be really cool actually), and you're welcome to. I could give you my ideas and you could make them happen, kind of a collaboration thing. I have beatnik's wonderful soccer template if you'd want that (God I can't figure out how to do it). Anyone interested, PM me.

[LEWJ]

How about beveling the stars like this, only with solid black and gold.

And how about a silhouette of aqueducts/broad city bridge?

[gingerbreadmann]

Or, you could put the "19 96" on either tail end of the ribbon, and put the stars inside the crest somehow, like on top in a separate section.

[bulldogbarks55]

How about beveling the stars like this, only with solid black and gold.

And how about a silhouette of aqueducts/broad city bridge?

Hey LEW, great photo of old Rochester. That's the area where the War Memorial (I refuse to call it by its corporate name) is located, at the corner of Broad St and Exchange St. They tore down all the buildings on that corner to build the War Memorial in the early 1950s. I attended the arena's Grand Opening in October 1955.

Prior to the 1920s Broad St. did not exist. That area used to be where the Erie Canal flowed through downtown. When the canal was moved to the southern part of the county the area was turned into Broad St. The multi-decked bridge over the Genesee River in the picture carried the tracks for the Rochester Subway. After the Subway closed in 1956 the tracks remained to haul carloads of newsprint to the Gannet Newspaper Building on the Southwest corner of Exchange and Broad Sts. Many of Rochester's homeless live in the bowels of the bridge.

Other landmarks in the photo are the Rundel Library (built in the 1930s) on the corner of South Ave. and Court St. and the old Lehigh Valley Railroad Depot on the opposite corner. The old depot is now home to a barbecue restaurant.

[chestnutz]

well you're just a bundle of Rochacha information aren't chya

Just to let you all know, gingerbreadman may be doing some kits for this as a sort of collab, so don't get freaked out if he starts taking over.

EDIT: Don't feel like double posting, so here it is. Version 3.0, which'll be my final one for a week. Changed the 1996 text and made the stars gold.

[gingerbreadmann]

I'M GONNA HIJACK THIS DAMN THREAD!!!

Well as you may know, I've been working with chestnutz, since he has a big soccer tournament, on some uni's for this thing. I've used his ideas for these things and added some personal touches. He chose Kodak as a sponsor, since it was founded in "Rochacha." He also requested he polo-like collar, which yours truly drew in on the front view. Oh, and if anyone has a good soccer sock template, it would be much appreciated!

Disclaimer: I am a total noob to soccer uniform styles and stuff; the only real soccer I've ever known is the MLS. Plus I've not done a soccer concept before, so that might explain if these suck.

Basically for the home kit he wanted something close to Newcastle or Juventus, with yellow as sort of an accent. I went the extra mile and added a yellow arch and one solid black sleeve. The shorts I tried to keep minimalist but sleek; I also like the Swoosh-in-a-circle. It's a bit of a risk but I really like it.

For the clash he wanted something that featured yellow, something like Brazil's kit. Kodak naturally goes with yellow of course so I think that looks great. This is a lot less, well, unique, but I think it looks solid. I think the yellow-on-yellow numbers work, and the pants are very similar to the home kits but feature yellow a bit more, like he wanted.

For the third chestnutz specifically said royal blue or black. Well the Raptors made that one an easy choice. I thought, eh, too much black nowadays, so royal blue is what I went with. This is another sort of more classic jersey. I was going to make horizontal faded stripes but I didn't want anyone accusing me of copyright infringement, so then I thought about Kodak/yellow like I mentioned earlier and put just one horizontal stripe of yellow. I think all the colors work with each other (well, they are the Primary colors) and so I decided to play off the Kodak red and used that in the Nike Swoosh and the numerals. I am pleased as well with how this turned out. But my opinion doesn't matter!

So, what do you all think of 'em?

[gingerbreadmann]

Bump, any opinions on the jerseys?

[gingerbreadmann]

So... 54 hours not enough?

[gingerbreadmann]

Not worth it

[-kj]

Shall I try again? Is the third time a charm?

1. Not your thread to begin with.

2. Begging for comments is lame.

3. Sometimes threads have just run their course, let them lie.

[SG30]

Overall, nice job...a few things...

1. The home kit is very unique and I rather like it, but it seems a little busy. Maybe try putting the names on the yellow part on the back.

2. I don't really like that number font.

3. I'd center the number on the yellow stripe on the alt kit.

4. For the change kit, I'd like to see black shorts.