CONCEPT81: New Orleans Saints

[bigdub81]

This isn't so much a concept but yet simple tweaks and additions! My "inspirations" came from both other franchises as well as the teams 1967 era throwback jersey which has the audacity to have the gold in both the numbers and sleeve stripes match. How dare they! Anyway, I got bored and thought about what it would look like if the Saints used elements from their throwback uni's for either their home or away set without completely going retro (i.e. NYG). This is what I got....C&C.

HOME: Basically What They Wear Now Execept For A Few Minor Changes.

> Black Collar

> 'NO' Wordmark (Gold w/ White Outline)

> Louisiana Patch w/ White Outline For Better Definition

> Players Name Now In An Athletic Font More Fitting To The Jersey Numbers

> ALL GOLD'S MATCH!

AWAY: My Personal Favorite And Because What They Have Now Is Boring

> 'NO' Wordmark (Black w/ Gold Outline)

> Louisiana Patch w/ Black Outline For Better Definition

> Players Name Now In An Athletic Font More Fitting To The Jersey Numbers / Now In Gold w/ Black Outline To Contrast Against Black Jersey Numbers

> Gold Primary Logo (FDL) Placed Above Players Name

> Fleur de Lis' Removed From Sleeves And Replaced With 1967 era Sleeve Stripes

> Reebok Sleeve Logo Now Gold

> ALL GOLD'S MATCH!

HELMET: Giving It What It Needed

> Larger Fleur de Lis Primary Logo

> Medium Gold Stripes Added To The Outside Of Main White Stripe. Pattern Mimicks The Helmet Logo As Well As The Pants

PANTS / SOCKS: An Improvement

> Single Wide Black Stripe Removed For Black/Gold/White/Gold/Black Stripe That Matches The Helmet Stripe

> Primary Logo Removed From Hip

> Socks: No Change

EXPLINATION: My Thoughts!

Wordmark/Patch: I thought that the Saints always needed some sort of a secondary logo once they dropped the 'La' patch in the late 90's. Since they brought a modified version back for the 2006 season (and yet dropped it after?) many saw it as a sign of inspiration and re-birth and it's demise the following year as a reason for a losing season! Whatever the case It didn't make sense to me to put 'SAINTS' uner the collar as their wordmark when if they did choose to keep the patch as a permanent fixture on the jersey, it would also have the team name inside of it thus giving each jersey 'SAINTS' on their twice. I chose to go with an interlocking 'NO' in the teams font (i.e. NYG, CINN) because it stands out more than the team name and IMO look's better!

Alternate Version With State Patch and 'NO' Wordmark Removed. Wordmark Replaced With 'NOLA'

[infrared41]

Looks great. I really like the road look. Nice work.

[See Red]

Those really look fantastic. It'd already a winner based on all of the golds matching. I'd probably pick up one of the road unis... I can't decide between the 'NO' and the 'NOLA' but I don't think you can really go wrong with either.

[Ted Cunningham]

So what's the explanation for not putting the stripes on the home sleeves? Was that to avoid the complete retro-ing of the uniform? While I certainly am a huge fan of the golds (finally) all matching, I'd be careful about combining the old and the new. In your original post, you said you wanted to avoid the Giant's entirely throwback look. I think it's more important to avoid the halfway throwback look, similar to what the Giants wore in the first part of this decade. It always bothered me that all the Giants had to do was change the pants striping slightly, add northwestern striping to their sleeves on the aways, and drop the dark outline around the numbers on the aways and they'd just have a proper throwback.

I think it's interesting that the people who have commented thus far have said they'd buy an away. Is that because it has the stripes? I know I saw no Giants away jerseys being worn by fans until they had added the stripes and dropped the number outlines. (It may have been heavily marketed too, but still, once they made the change, that's when I saw their aways in public.) I like what you did with the pants/helmet striping. 1) It matches (!). 2) It's an update. It feels modern without being gaudy, and I love the idea of putting the state back on the uniforms.

So my very own .02: Add the stripes to the home in place of the FDL, get rid of the NO and the FDL above the nameplate, but keep the state patch on both uniforms. Then, to top it off, make the numbers on the away gold with a black outline. Oh, and is your facemask grey or black? The template makes it hard to tell. If you're going with this "modernized-throwback" look, I'd suggest it be black (even though I'm a big fan of grey facemasks). It's a knife's edge, the line between tasteful update and a mash of elements. I think you're certainly on the way to a very tasteful update.

Like I said, just my .02

[Jezus_Ghoti]

Pretty nice, but there is way too much going on on the first set of jerseys. Wordmark under the collar, logo on the breast, logo above the nameplate. Most teams in the league have only one of those elements (excluding special patches and the captains' patches) and your concept has all three. It doesn't look as cluttered as it actually would because you rendered all those elements much smaller than they would actually be.

[BlueSky]

Solid work, very nice look for the Saints. I'm ok with the 'current home, retro away' look but must say for the record that 1) stripes don't work well with modern jersey cuts, some players end up with the 'almost there' half-wrapped look, and 2) not to overstate my feelings but DEATH TO LOGOS ABOVE NAMEPLATES!! Agree with a previous poster re making the away numbers gold w/ a black outline, that's an incredibly sharp look that would look terrific with these gold pants. Suggest you flip the colors, make the name black w/gold outline as that would be easier to read and go with the gold numbers w/black outline.

IMO the 'NOLA' mark is so regional that most people won't know what it means so just go with 'N.O.'. Also, not sure there's that much wrong with the size of the current helmet logo, we don't want the 1967 look where the top of the FDL in essence touches the stripe while the bottom of it almost disappears into the earhole.

The matching pants/helmet stripes look great. All in all, very nice work. but one question...who's Garcia and what have you done with Deuce?

[quantum]

Don't care much for the black/gold/white/gold/black stripe on the helmet and pants. Drop the NO under the collar and go with NOLA, which works much better. The striping on the white jersey is OK, but the modern jersey cut guarantees it won't appear on half the team uniforms. The helmet logo is too big. Keep the state patch.

[Fjm]

Very nice, like them a lot. Props for only having one home and one road.

[bigdub81]

So my very own .02: Add the stripes to the home in place of the FDL, get rid of the NO and the FDL above the nameplate, but keep the state patch on both uniforms. Then, to top it off, make the numbers on the away gold with a black outline. Oh, and is your facemask grey or black? The template makes it hard to tell. If you're going with this "modernized-throwback" look, I'd suggest it be black (even though I'm a big fan of grey facemasks). It's a knife's edge, the line between tasteful update and a mash of elements. I think you're certainly on the way to a very tasteful update.

I originally had the numbers in gold with a black outline like the '67's so I'll post it up in the next go-round. And the FDL is above the nameplate just to see how it would look and because I removed the both of them from the sleeves to add the stripes. It was just to see how it would look but it to can be done away with. And I am a fan of either placing the 'NO', 'NOLA', or 'SAINTS' under the collar but if I keep the patch then there are two options I can go with...(1) Remove 'Saints' from the patch and use as a wordmark and just enlarge the FDL or (2) Place the 'NO' inside of the patch and remove the FDL. It really doesn't make sense to have a wordmark that say's 'SAINTS' and then have it right there again inside of a patch! And yes my facemask is black. It might be difficult to tell with the highlights that I put on it but it's black.

Pretty nice, but there is way too much going on on the first set of jerseys. Wordmark under the collar, logo on the breast, logo above the nameplate. Most teams in the league have only one of those elements (excluding special patches and the captains' patches) and your concept has all three. It doesn't look as cluttered as it actually would because you rendered all those elements much smaller than they would actually be.

Point taken! I'll do away with the FDL above the nameplate. I really didn't consider the captain's patch...forgot about it really.....but I don't care for them at all. To me it makes about as much sense as the neon green dot on the back of the QB's helmet so I guess ref's are getting dumber by the year....anyway...I'll see what's going on in the next version.

Solid work, very nice look for the Saints. I'm ok with the 'current home, retro away' look but must say for the record that 1) stripes don't work well with modern jersey cuts, some players end up with the 'almost there' half-wrapped look, and 2) not to overstate my feelings but DEATH TO LOGOS ABOVE NAMEPLATES!! Agree with a previous poster re making the away numbers gold w/ a black outline, that's an incredibly sharp look that would look terrific with these gold pants. Suggest you flip the colors, make the name black w/gold outline as that would be easier to read and go with the gold numbers w/black outline.

IMO the 'NOLA' mark is so regional that most people won't know what it means so just go with 'N.O.'. Also, not sure there's that much wrong with the size of the current helmet logo, we don't want the 1967 look where the top of the FDL in essence touches the stripe while the bottom of it almost disappears into the earhole.

The matching pants/helmet stripes look great. All in all, very nice work. but one question...who's Garcia and what have you done with Deuce?

I did think about that considering the 'NOLA' wordmark. It was put there to satisfy my curiosity! I agree that the helmet logo shouldn't be as big but it does need a little bit of an up-sizing though. The numbers / name will be flipped on the next one and I know about the jersey cuts and what not that the teams have that's why I didn't wrap the stripes all away around on my design. It's supposed to represent a short sleeve cut similar to what a player would wear. No team that has sleeve stripes has them reach around the entire sleeve unless your the K/P or QB in most cases. The Saints would fall victim to that fashion faux pas if these were ever made so I don't feel that we should gripe about them since we all know that stripes not reaching completely around the sleeve would be the outcome!

[bigdub81]

Here is another version of the away jersey.

> Gold Numerals w/ Black Outline

> Added Captain's Patch

> 'Saints' Wordmark

> Louisiana Patch Now Has 'New Orleans' Inside Instead Of 'Saints'

> Player Name Black w/ Gold Trim

> Removed The FDL From Above Nameplate

[statebully]

I prefer just the state logo on the jersey...nothing under the collar.

Also, i'm not a fan of 'New Orleans' in the state logo...stick with 'Saints'

All in all, GREAT design, and i think this is a definite improvement for the Saints!

[BlueSky]

First, I commend you for being open to C&C. Everybody asks for it but often all they do is get defensive and argue the points made. The gold numbers and other improvements take this to a new level. Great work! Can you put the gold number jersey on the template player?

And now I'm just curious, why is the name on the jersey Garcia? You're not implying that Jerry Garcia is alive and secretly playing for the Saints??

[tBBP]

First, I commend you for being open to C&C. Everybody asks for it but often all they do is get defensive and argue the points made. The gold numbers and other improvements take this to a new level. Great work! Can you put the gold number jersey on the template player?

And now I'm just curious, why is the name on the jersey Garcia? You're not implying that Jerry Garcia is alive and secretly playing for the Saints??

Don't kill me, bub (DB81)...but um uh--I know why.

It's Dub's surname.

As to the concept design itself...if they modern jerseys actually had some semblance of sleeves rather than glorified armholes, I could see the road set working and looking REAL nice. BUT...as long as those armholes continue to be cut the way they are, I don't really think the stripe thing is going to work.

HOWEVUH...having said that, here's an idea for you to try: how about shoulder loops, a la the MIN Vikings' old roadies? Recall that they too had different designs for their home and road getups for a while...and not much if any fuss was ever made about that. (just try to find some way to make the loops...well...loop and not be truncated like them Colts johns, folk.

As to the helmet/pants striping, I see you decided to go San-Diego style with it. I can not say why I ain't really leaning toward liking that, but for some reason, even though it looks good, I think this design would be better served with the same triple stripe that the helmet has had since--well, since the Saints had helmets. But that's just a minor nitpick.

But then...if you're going to go the San Diego-style striping route...have you considered an "update" on the Sam Mills/Vaughn Johnson/Pat Swilling/Rickey Jackson era numbers? (I know you and Russ remember the DOME PATROL!)

Just my two cents on the matter...

[Jamikel]

I really love how you made the helmet and pants stripes mimic the striping around the fleur-de-lis. But as Bucco_Brandon said, it doesn't really seem to work with the current jersey. To have that strong a consistency between the logo and stripes and not have that transfer over to the jersey really messes up the flow. But I'd personally rather see the pants and helmet stay the same, with a revamped jersey set that better matches the rest of the uniform.

[TwinsTerritory]

These are a HUGE upgrade to what the Saints have right now IMO. I like the use of colors. It seems like you got a lot more of the "gold" in there than what they have right now.