The NFL Spring League

[JayJaxon]

I think this is a great looking set for the Blaze. I think your decision to have the color progression and not the flames on the uniform was a smart move. I wonder how it would look if it were a gradient instead. Maybe you could look into that and see what you come up with. I love it. Great job.

[gosioux76]

Love the Blaze uniform concept. Great colors, helmet, everything. The logo, though, looks like the offspring of the Philadelphia Soul and Utah Blaze.

[logocruncher]

When I first saw the logo, I thought, "Uh-oh, this is the first of his concepts I actually might not like. And when I saw orange, yellow, and purple were the colors? Then I was REALLY worried. Then I saw the unis, and all was forgiven. The progression is excellent; something about it just looks awesome. I just can't get over how great that sleeve design works; it reminds me of this year's NBA ASG unis, which I liked. The number font and pants are sweet, too. The one thing I don't absolutely adore is the helmet. The flames don't stand out so well because they're basically orange on an orange background. So, therefore I'd go with a white helmet. I think that would give better contrast with the flames, and fit well with the rest of the set. That would do a lot for it, in my humble opinion. Excellent, creative work.

[Riot!]

Great colors, great name, great desing great concept. This series keeps getting better and better.

[bohob]

I really, like this concept. The color progression really works well. The helmets remind me of the Rhein Fire, but that's a good thing. I would suggest a one-color wordmark on the chest, though. It's difficult to read the way it is.

[patsox]

Los uniformes para "El Blaze" de El Paso se parece muy bien para mi. El sistema de color es trabajando para mi, tambien. Finalmente, me gusta el pila de bautismo es muy bonito.

The uniforms for The Blaze are very nice. The color scheme is great, the flame helmets are very creative and well-rendered, I love the sleeve design, I love the font. I would like to see the flame motif applied to the pants though. I think that might look good.

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks for the feedback on El Paso. I was worried about it, so I'm glad it went over pretty well. Right now I'm struggling to get the next team the way I like it. I'll probably get it posted soon so I can get feedback and refine it.

[dgnmrwrw]

#10: Mobile Mudbugs

Colors are red, gold, and navy blue. I had a couple other versions of the M logo (one with claws on each side, little beady mudbug eyeballs, etc.), but they kept getting wackier, more cartoony, and really forced looking. This one was simpler and more subtle in terms of playing with the "Mudbugs" nickname and the antennae. It also looked better on the helmet. So I went with this and erred on the side of caution and simplicity. There is a secondary logo, a mudbug set inside a circle. It's used sparingly, only on the sleeves.

Mobile's uniforms are fairly traditional, with some stylize striping on the shoulders that fits the antennae motif. The Mudbugs wear gold helmets, red jerseys, gold pants at home. White jerseys with gold pants on the road. I did a navy home alternate. I had done a gold alternate--to be worn with white pants, a la Georgia Tech--but decided against it. The more I look at the navy alternate, the more I think the numbers should be gold. I'll probably change that after I get some feedback.

[joshhockey]

I really like these but I think they might look better with white pants with the home set.

[Riot!]

The Mudbugs look great. Good job.

[spamspamspamspam]

Nice, but I think more longhorn steers before I think bugs when I see it.

[logocruncher]

Nice work overall, but I'm not a huge fan. The logo looks more like horns on a bull or something, and I'm not really seeing the bug motif. The colors aren't very good in my opinion, but I like the basic design. Tweak the logo, darken the blue (maybe even make it black?) and you're set.

[JayJaxon]

I like the Mudbugs. Great name!

[BrySmalls]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[dgnmrwrw]

I've refined the Mudbugs' logo and come up with a newer version. I tried to make the antennae thinner and more tendril-like, so they wouldn't appear so similar to longhorns. But outlining them was screwing that up and making them thicker and thicker, so I left them alone and did inlines instead. Here's the new one for comparison:

And an updated home alternate (with gold numbers) so you can see it with a uniform:

Thoughts on this? Is this going in the right direction, or do I just bite the bullet and put a freakin' mudbug with the M?

Also, I've hit a bit of a lull in this project, so I thought it would be a good time to throw out my nickname ideas for the remaining teams one last time and get your opinions.

San Jose: was Grizzlies, but now I'm not sure

Oklahoma: Barons

Albuquerque: Spirits or Roadrunners

Shreveport: Rivermen

Birmingham: Bulldogs

Columbia: Spiders

I was thinking of changing Grizzlies because of how similar my concept was going to be to the one AAO just posted. I like the idea of Spirits, but I've already got some really good sketches for Roadrunners. Of course Roadrunners is a REALLY obvious name for Albuquerque. Barons, Spiders, Bulldogs, and Rivermen are pretty much set. I chose Rivermen over Bombers because I did a Winnipeg Blue Bombers concept recently, and I think I'm drained of that theme. I'd love some input on these as well.

[logocruncher]

I'm not a fan of the gold numbers; they don't looks so hot at all. The new logo is a slight improvement, but I'm still not really seeing the bug.

On to the names... I really like the sound of New Mexico Spirits (much better than Albuquerque Spirits) and I think that, with your designing prowess, you could probably do some pretty sweet stuff with Southwestern Native American art. The rest of the names are good. As for the Grizzlies, I think it'd be fine to keep that name seeing as you designed this before AAO's came out. I'd like to see it, anyways. Nice work.

[JH42XCC]

(deleted)

[TalktoChuck]

I like the updated logo for the mudbugs. As far as San Jose I'd stick with grizzlies.

[JH42XCC]

For the San Jose team, I would name them the Seals; etiher that or Condors would work.

By the way, the updated logo for the Mudbugs looks better than the original one. I hope to see the updated set sometime soon.

[dgnmrwrw]

Thanks for the input. I had been looking at both 'Condors' and 'Vultures' (a name I had once considered for Albuquerque, but scrapped) for San Jose. 'Seals' is interesting too. I'll give them all some thought, along with keeping 'Grizzlies.'

But I probably won't be posting anything new for a little while. The new computer finally came yesterday and the new monitor should be here tomorrow, so I'm going to have to devote some time to getting that set up, transferring files, etc. I'll also finally be able to reinstall Illustrator, so I can use it instead of MS Paint. So hopefully I'll have much better control and tools to work with, and I can really make these better.

There may be small updates here and there, but look for the new stuff to start coming in a week or so.