International (IIHF) Hockey Concepts

[IceCap]

So with the 2010 Winter Games having come and gone, I've been inspired to go back to the drawing table and come up with some international ice hockey concepts. We'll cover the top 1-12 ranked teams in Vancouver. Up first, the teams that won Gold, Silver, and Bronze; Canada, the US, and Finland.

Canada

With Canada I'll also go over the items we'll see in all concepts. The Nike logo and tags are there, as is the IIHF logo on the back, under the waist stripes. The nation's ice hockey federation logs is located on the right hand side of the back hem stripes. The federation logos will not be used as the primary. National flags serve as helmet logos. Ok, onto the concept.

Essentially what I tried to do was to combine the two uniform designs from the past two Canadian gold medal teams, 2002 and 2010. The gold's been dropped in favour of silver, for two reasons. First, the addition of gold reeks of arrogance, and if the Americans had introduced gold following a first place showing in a tournament we (Canadians) would never stop crying foul. That, and I just think the silver goes better with the red and black scheme then gold does.

The logo is the Canada Hockey maple leaf, filled in with red. I wanted to avoid using the federation logo (with the hockey player), and the design worn during the 2010 tournament was specifically designed for the Vancouver games and wouldn't work as a full time mark. So I went the minimalist route. A plain red maple leaf. Straight and to the point.

United States

I've brought this logo back from an earlier concept. I was inspired to use the eagle and shield when the US wore a throwback with this logo. Though it was a rough mark, I thought the idea of the eagle/shield as an US hockey logo had potential. So when I stumbled upon a representation of a US Air Force roundel from Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series of alternate history books, I jumped at the opportunity. All I did was change the crossed swords to crossed hockey sticks.

The idea of a bold star seems perfect for an alternate logo for the States. Rather then just sticking it on the shoulders or between some stripes, however, I opted to integrate them into the striping pattern.

Finland

The inspiration for this set was the design of the white sweaters they wore at the 2010 Games. The striping pattern had potential, I felt, but it just wasn't being executed as well as I would have liked to seen. So I took the basic idea behind it, and gave it a slightly more traditional spin to really bring out the design's potential. The logo is the familiar Finnish ice hockey logo, only with "FINLAND" replaced with the Finnish translation, "SUOMI".

Now I know I said that federation logos would not be used as primary crests. At first glance it may seem like I did just that. The federation logo seen on the back, however, is slightly different. Here's what the Finnish ice hockey fed uses.

Teams 4-6, Slovakia, Sweden, and Russia are up next.

C&C welcome as usual.

[Has2916]

Too much black on the Canada jerseys IMO. I like the US jerseys except the eagle kind of looks like the eagle from the Nazi emblem. The Finnish jerseys look like a combo of this year's and the 2006 jerseys. I like them though, but that font needs changing.

[IceCap]

Re: C&C

The black on Canada's sweaters did two things. It helped tie the current look together, in my opinion. The current look has black tacked on as an afterthought with black number outlines, but without much use elsewhere. Black, being such a bold colour, isn't something that looks good when you just tack it on at the end. So I wanted to integrate black further into the current Canadian sweaters helped tie the look together. Also, it allowed me to combine the 2010 sweaters with the 2002 sweaters, those being the two most recent Gold Medal Canadian teams.

The US eagle, is well, an eagle. Sadly any stylized full body bird of prey will be compared to the Nazi eagle. Still, I think the version I used looks distinctly American enough to work.

I don't mind the Finnish font. Due to RC's site shutting down, the fonts available to me are limited, and I didn't want to stick each team with a kind of block font. So this font allows for a change of pace, I think.

Up next, 4, 5, and 6, Slovakia, Sweden, and Russia.

Slovakia

These are based off of the Slovakian sweaters used during the early 2000's, a look I liked a lot. The current Slovak sweaters, to paraphrase Cole, look like the typical Nike Swift hockey sweater; different colour armpits, stripes that lead nowhere, and different coloured shoulder caps.Granted I kept the latter on my white Slovak sweaters, but it just looked empty without them. This concept also served as an experiment to see if this type of striping pattern pattern along the yoke would work on the new Nike Swift template.

Sweden

I'll first acknowledge that this isn't much of a change at all. When I do a concept, I try to come up with the best possible look for that team, in my own opinion. Sometimes that means that a concept will stay close to the current design with only a few tweaks here and there. I would never post this on its own, but I decided I would go ahead and share it as part of the larger set.

Anyway I decided to focus on a very simple striping pattern, as well as return to the older style crowns. Why? Well I'm not a fan of the new crowns. Sweden's look has always been about beauty in simplicity. Most of the time when a team's look consists of two colours it's the primary colour and white. Sweden pulls this off without white. The introduction of white into the outline of the new crowns muddles the look, I think.

Russia

I wanted to echo the Soviet-era uniforms here. No, not because I'm a closet Marxist. I just wanted the uniforms to homage the golden days of the Russian hockey program, which were during the Soviet era. The numbers are those utilized by the Capitals. Aside from the Ovechkin connection, I thought the Caps' current number font both worked well with the "RUSSIA" script and had the sort of pseudo-Soviet feel I was looking for.

[officeglenn]

I think the biggest thing you need to do with all of these is move the nameplate up above that seam on the shoulder yoke. The Nike Swifts were pretty much designed to have that there, and when it's where you have it, it just looks like the name and number are forced into much too small a space.

[Has2916]

Great job on Sweden. Not much needs to be changed anyways.

The Slovaks have one of the better international logos and this is a nice jersey to go along with it. The stripes are simple yet well used. Not too busy.

The Russian "Soviet-era" jersey is great. I had a similar idea myself just not as well executed.

Btw, those fonts are here now:

http://eriqjaffe.50webs.com/

Numbers are here:

http://s767.photobucket.com/albums/xx314/HockeyJerseyConcepts/NHL%20Numbers/

[Bmac]

I'm really liking these so far. I agree about the nameplates being a bit low on the jersey, but other than that I think these are perfect. Great job!

[IceCap]

Bumped. Moved the names up. The Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Belarus coming up.

[officeglenn]

Bumped. Moved the names up. The Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Belarus coming up.

Looking much better already. I would bump the Slovakian ones up just a bit further so they don't run over the striping.

[Chapeeko]

For Slovakia I think you should use one of these logos I made

[Corvus]

I like the CCCP inspired Russian jersey, but I'm not sure the blue on the sleeve cuffs would actually be visible, it could easily end up hidden by gloves. Which reminds me, I was in the Sochi pavilion at the Olympics and they had some displays of Soviet and Russian hockey memorabilia, including an all blue early soviet era jersey.

[IceCap]

Update on Slovakia's logo.

[Chapeeko]

I think a blue outline on white jersey logo would look a lot better.

[IceCap]

Sorry for the delay in completing these, but school got intense at near the end of the Academic year, and with minimal exams to write and all my essays out of the way, I finally had the time to devote to finishing this project up.

7, 8, and 9, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Belarus, are up....

The Czech Republic

These are based off of the "Czech butt" sweaters, my favourite Czech set. Nothing much else to say, other then the fact that I was originally planning on a red jersey without the white yoke. I decided to see if it would work, and I liked the result.

Switzerland

Switzerland's new set is, in my opinion, the nicest among IIHF teams currently. It's so simple, so understated, yet perfectly captures the nation's identity in its design. I only tweaked the striping somewhat. I got rid of the double Maple Leafs-like striping pattern in exchange for solid stripes to better reflect the design of the Swiss Cross that appears as the (off-centred) crest and as the emblem on the flag.

Belarus

Like Russia's set, I wanted to call back to earlier Soviet-era designs. In Belarus' case, I drew inspiration from this sweater. Why though? You may ask. Why go for a Soviet-inspired design for a nation that supposedly suffered under Russian-led Soviet oppression? One look at the crest should answer that. The crest I used is the one used by the actual Belarus national team, and it's the country's coat of arms.

You may have noticed it looks strikingly similar to Soviet Bloc-era Communist coat of arms. This is because that the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is actively trying to recreate the Soviet system of government and culture in Belarus. Lukashenko came to power in 1994 and consolidated power to the point that he is the only dictator left in Europe. At the start of his first term as President Lukashenko changed the newly independent republic's flag and coat of arms to versions that reflected the nation's Soviet past. He's also retained the KGB name for Belarus' intelligence service, the only ex-Soviet state to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Belarus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_emblem_of_Belarus

He also said "I look at our old people and the middle-aged generation who are nostalgic for the Soviet Union, and they can see that Lukashenko is a good chap."

So with that in mind it seemed fitting to model the Belarus set off of a Soviet-era design.

10, 11, and 12, Norway, Germany, and Latvia, are up next to finish out the project.

[jonioks]

Seems pretty good, except Finland's jersey is horrible and it's a modified jersey of the worst jersey of Finland. Socks and such are okay, but the striping and the logo are the worst part. Yeah, Finland changed their logo's font, but it wasn't use at Vancouver Olympics. It can be found here. You should really try to make more like their current. dark jersey.

[IceCap]

Seems pretty good, except Finland's jersey is horrible and it's a modified jersey of the worst jersey of Finland. Socks and such are okay, but the striping and the logo are the worst part. Yeah, Finland changed their logo's font, but it wasn't use at Vancouver Olympics. It can be found here. You should really try to make more like their current. dark jersey.

Thanks for the logo. I've updated my Finland set with it.

Also, thanks for the feedback, though I don't think I'll try and make Finland's jerseys seem to much like what they wear now. I've already had my Swiss and Swedish designs reflect their actual sets already, and I want some variety.

[IceCap]

I think a blue outline on white jersey logo would look a lot better.

I decided to take your advice and I added an extra set of outlines to Slovakia's logos. It's an improvement, I think. Thanks.

Anyway, onto the last three, 10, 11, and 12.

Norway

I may be a fan of traditional jersey designs, but Norway's current set just bores me. I tried to make something a little more interesting, yet not over the top. The logo is the roundel of the Norwegian Royal Air Force.

Germany

I drew inspiration from Germany's outstanding 2010 World Cup kits. I wanted something striking, and I think I got it. The Iron Cross seemed like a perfect fit for the alternate logo. It's simple, bold, distinctive, and has been a symbol of Germanic nationality since the middle ages.

Latvia

Latvia's 2010 Olympic set was so close to perfection, yet so far. They have a unique national colour scheme that stands out in a sea of reds and blues, and their coat of arms, which doubles as their logo, is interesting and striking enough to work in the role it's assigned. Yet they added a LATVIJA (LATVIA in Latvian) script to the waist stripes, and added the Nike-inspired different coloured shoulder caps and underarms. So the goal here was to simplify the same general look they used during the 2010 Games. I also added a little more silver into the jerseys as I felt that the uniform looked "off" with silver being so prominent in the crest yet absent elsewhere.

So that's it, my IIHF concept series. I'll probably add to it over time as I work on concepts for the other none-hockey power nations, but for now it's a wrap.

C&C is again welcome.

[jonioks]

1.Norways logo is unrecognisable, you should try the polar bear logo.

2. Latvia's colors scheme is not right.

[IceCap]

1.Norways logo is unrecognisable, you should try the polar bear logo.

2. Latvia's colors scheme is not right.

1. I didn't want to use the polar bear logo as the primary, as I stated in the beginning I wouldn't use federation logos. The polar bear logo is the logo of the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation, thus I didn't use it. I did, however, use it in the same place I used all federation logos, the bottom right area of the hem striping on the back.

2. I edited Latvia's burgundy. Should be correct now.