NHL Rebrands -- #2 Pittsburgh Penguins

[Generic]

The 2nd and 3rd one in hit the spot for me, wonderful work. What if you added the lighter blue to the background of those, I find the lighter blue very complimenting to the logos and jerseys so it'd be a nice touch. I love the design of the jersey, it looks well planned out. The secondary looks really good, took a little time to find the NY ( I was tired ) but I loved that aspect. It works really well for a secondary, only advice is the shape it a little more then what it is. If they ever used logos like these in the NHL it would bump the league ahead in design by a lot. You have a 'quirky' kind of style with this concept, a style I'm now expecting to see in the future of the NHL around 2020.

[Lights Out]

@Lights Out, I agree with you in a sense, I could never see the Islanders wearing anything like this, quite honestly.

To be fair, I never said it wouldn't work in the NHL, just that it wouldn't work in New York. Your concept just has more of a New Orleans or California style to it. With simpler numbers and a better font, this definitely would work in the NHL.

Are you planning on making an alternate jersey, BTW? An orange version would look beast.

I actually like the third one the best - from there, you began making it a little too detailed. Maybe you should just use the third one with the color scheme you ended up using as the primary crest.

[knnhrvy16]

I really like what I'm seeing here, that's a nice fresh idea that really stands out. The colors as you've used them also go very well together, and I think this new style you've given the Islanders is very awesome. It is quite different and would take time getting used to for the Islanders, but nonetheless it is still a well dine, very polished look that I think would really catch on. Great devotion and hard work too, a month mustve taken alot of patience!

As for your other comments about the concepts thread as a whole, I'm relatively new (joined last year), so I haven't been around as long as others, but I've personally seen some really great work during my time here. I'm a little more of a conservative designer than most (though I still go crazy every now and then ), but I really like any kind of concept, as long as the designer put the effort into it. I could be completely misunderstanding you and please correct me if I am, but it seems like in your opinion, if something isn't wacky or crazy, then it isn't a good design. If I'm understanding you right, I'd have to respectfully disagree. Yes, there are those five second concepts that really bug me and those where effort is obviously lacking, but there are some concepts I've seen where the idea is simple, but the work is well done and gets the point across just as much as any other design would. I really think there is alot of talent on the boards, from many members. Even those with lesser resources to work with still manage to crank out a good concept every now and then, so though I do agree that some creativity is lacking in parts, the talent is still abundant and growing, at least to me.

I hope I didn't come across argumentative at all, I'm really not intending to be. I just had some thoughts in the subject I wanted to share, and based on this work you have here it looks like you're well on your way to a great career in designing and really work hard at what you do, which demands great respect and applause. Keep up the great work, I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

[Lights Out]

I could be completely misunderstanding you and please correct me if I am, but it seems like in your opinion, if something isn't wacky or crazy, then it isn't a good design. If I'm understanding you right, I'd have to respectfully disagree.

I can't speak for Elliott but it's not a lack of wackiness/craziness that is frustrating people - it's a lack of effort. There's far too many five-second piping changes that in all honesty change nothing, and far too many MS-Paint fill tool extravaganzas, and not nearly enough high-concept, creative designs. Every concept does not have to be crazy, but they should at least show some creativity.

[Bmac]

Like a few others said before, I think the logo should be simplified a bit. It's just too much going on for a hockey crest. But it is a very good logo. The alternate logo is neat, but also a bit too detailed. The jerseys are a bit out there, but that is a good thing. They are something I can see teams slowly working towards in the future. I'm not too sure about the light orange, and there is a lot of light blue. Perhaps a little less detail would go a long way. Adding some more white to the home jersey migth help as well. And I have a feeling you could come up with a cool alternate jersey to go with this. Overall, great job with this.

BTW, it's nice to see you're posting concepts here again. Welcome back! It's always nice to see a concept from elliot.

[Has2916]

I really like design #2, but I like the NY in the lights in design #1, but with the water from the final design.

[GFB]

To those saying that the original design is too complex for a hockey crest, I wholeheartedly disagree.

First, a number of great hockey crests are very complicated. The Blackhawks' Chief, the Winged Wheel, the Wild's Forest Bear, and several other hockey crests are not simple logos, yet they work perfectly.

Secondly, hockey sweaters display the largest logo sizes. Football helmets, baseball caps, basketball shorts, and soccer badges all display smaller versions of logos. So if you are going to have a busier logo, a hockey team would be the ideal host because they can provide a greater surface area to present a logo.

[elliott]

I could be completely misunderstanding you and please correct me if I am, but it seems like in your opinion, if something isn't wacky or crazy, then it isn't a good design. If I'm understanding you right, I'd have to respectfully disagree.

I can't speak for Elliott but it's not a lack of wackiness/craziness that is frustrating people - it's a lack of effort. There's far too many five-second piping changes that in all honesty change nothing, and far too many MS-Paint fill tool extravaganzas, and not nearly enough high-concept, creative designs. Every concept does not have to be crazy, but they should at least show some creativity.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. knnhrvy, I love simplicity in many forms, and simple designs often look better than the alternative. And I'm not saying that everyone should just go out and try the craziest thing imaginable, that's not smart. I just find that a crazy, out-there design usually interest me a lot more than someone filling in templates with paint or recoloring a logo.

[Morgan33]

I've been looking at this concept for the past few days and thought I'd give my two cents..

I absolutely love the logo. The waves and lighthouse are masterfully rendered and its clear you toke a lot of time to make sure all the elements flow together in a cohesive manner. I particularly like that you used two shades of orange and blue, it really adds a whole other dimension to the logo and gives the illusion of light being reflected off the water. The only criticism I can give is that the skyscraper background is a bit much. I think the Lighthouse would pop alot more if you eliminated this aspect of the design and made the background completely white. Thats just my opinion though, even if you keep the background its still one of the best looking Islanders logos I've seen.

On to the jerseys. These don't seem like products of the future so much as products of 90's era of dye sublimation. The gradients in the dots especially bring back memories of jerseys like Los Angele's "Burger King" Alternate and Vancouver's Red "Checkmark" Third. I can appreciate the influence from soccer jerseys but as the Reebok Edge Uniform system taught us, what works for one sport does not necessarilty work for another. The Road Uniforms look fine enough but the homes are in desperate need of white to add some contrast between the orange and blue. Also Im not a fan of hockey jerseys with vertical stripes. Reebok seems to have learned its lesson with this (as most of their newest designs now have horizontal stripes) and I seriously doubt any teams will be tucking in their jerseys anytime soon as that was vetoed by the General Mangers during the initial design process for the RBK Edge System. I would love to see the logos on something a little more traditional without sacrificing the creative elements of the jerseys. Hope I don't come off as being too critical, these are just my opinions.

Overall this one of the most creative and interesting concepts I've seen here in a while. Great stuff!

[knnhrvy16]

I could be completely misunderstanding you and please correct me if I am, but it seems like in your opinion, if something isn't wacky or crazy, then it isn't a good design. If I'm understanding you right, I'd have to respectfully disagree.

I can't speak for Elliott but it's not a lack of wackiness/craziness that is frustrating people - it's a lack of effort. There's far too many five-second piping changes that in all honesty change nothing, and far too many MS-Paint fill tool extravaganzas, and not nearly enough high-concept, creative designs. Every concept does not have to be crazy, but they should at least show some creativity.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. knnhrvy, I love simplicity in many forms, and simple designs often look better than the alternative. And I'm not saying that everyone should just go out and try the craziest thing imaginable, that's not smart. I just find that a crazy, out-there design usually interest me a lot more than someone filling in templates with paint or recoloring a logo.

Oh okay, I understand now. In that case I completely agree with what you're saying. I just wanted to make sure I knew what you meant.

Again, keep up the great work! I'd love to see an alternate, if you are planning on one of course. I think an alternate in this set would look incredible, seeing as how the home and away are amazing designs themselves.

[Shumway]

I think the 3rd on here is your best bet. I loved your initial concept, but it just doesn't render as a hockey crest to me. I think it was just a bit too complicated with the two-tone oranges. The white-orange contrast here seems to make a big difference. You might even be able to work the triangular shapes into the lighthouse beacon. Hell, work in a wordmark on top of the lighthouse, and you've got a sweet jersey crest. Overall, amazing stuff here, Elliot.

[fishheatcats]

I love the final version, but I think you just need to drop the skyscraper background. If you're gonna go with the lighthouse theme, then playing off the "city" image is unnecessary. Go with the navy blue from the first few variations. Very nice work. I always liked the mid-90s fisherman/lighthouse logo the Islanders had, and this design really takes that theme and classes it up a few notches.

[ThePreacher]

Dude... dude.

DUDE.

A+++

Nice work!

[swe3t]

I think that the third variation is the best one here. The later version does seem a little too cluttered, I would replace the city buildings with the dark blue from the previous versions. I think the dark blue background looks phenomenal on both sides of the orange tower. Great work though, and welcome back.

[elliott]

---------- Pittsburgh Penguins ----------

Hey guys, it's been a while, but I've been working for about 3 weeks now on this Penguins concept and I think it's finally about ready to show.

Color Scheme -- I originally had the first logo mockups in yellow and black, traditional colors of pittsburgh sports teams and a scheme that would unify the 3 major franchises. I decided to drop this scheme and also try to move past the current vegas gold scheme. Now, I took in to mind many of the penguins concepts I have seen, which have had plenty of other colors, too, I've seen variations with the powder blue or navy or silver. I used black, a sort of coppery-gold, and off white. The idea is to create sort of a rusty, dirty look that represents the blue collar, hard working nature of a city like Pittsburgh, while still remaining faithful to the color roots of black/gold.

Primary -- I stalled on this concept about a week after I started because I could not get this logo to look right. But I picked it back up and once again came up with an abstract, artsy logo, in the same category as the Islanders logo I did. But I got some good advice and toned down the abstractness, adding a real outline around the logo to add some professional value. The result is this logo, which I ended up liking, I think it's an interesting render of a penguin, penguins are a pretty fat and unintimidating animal, but I wanted it to still look fairly dynamic in its pose. You'll notice the barberpole pattern on the under-wing area, which launched my attempt to use a continued motif throughout the concept.

Secondary -- The circle area is my attempt to bring the 3 main motifs of the uniforms (barberpole, pinstriped black, pinstriped offwhite) together into one mark. originally, I worked with sillhouettes of a penguin or of a igloo in the middle, pinstriped area..but I scrapped these two ideas in favor of my stylized P, which I'll talk about more a little later.

Uniforms -- I'll talk about these next because the idea for the uniforms pretty much directly followed my not-quite-final logo. We have a lot of polarizing things here, so i don't expect everyone to like these, but do try to see what I was going for. First, you see the barberpole design, I've seen this done a lot of different ways through Sens and Habs concepts, but I wanted to try to do something new, especially with the pinstripes that keep the vertical stripes of the barberpole. Pinstripes on a hockey jersey was new to me for the NHL, I'm sure they do it in European leagues or national hockey, but I tried to explore this design element, adding simple alternating-in-color pinstripes. There is 4 on each side of the jersey, so not too many pinstripes, I wanted it simple. So, you'll notice the barberpole continuing a little down the pants, then we have the socks, once again, pinstripes, no horizontal sock stripes here. Ok, the next thing is, we have a distinct lack of white here. There were complaints about that on the home jersey of the last concept, so let me tell you, I did MEAN to do this. The away jersey is off-white, I think it would help out an NHL that is pretty devoid of different/unique colors. Maybe we could even have the Kings break out some yellow (+purple) road jerseys.

Numerals -- Ok, this was an entirely custom font I came up with, the main feature being the continued barberpole pattern playing along the right side. The numbers themselves end up being pretty interesting looking themselves, though, I'm not 100 % finished with the numbers, I still have to tweak the 7 and 8 at this point, but I'll be sure to post that when I'm done. Right now, you can just see the 2 and 3.

Wordmark -- This was actually the last part of the concept I did, so I saved this explanation for last. I had the numerals finished first, then I worked up the 'P' you see on the secondary logo, with the barberpole design on the opposite side than the numbers. I worked up the remaining 'Ittsburgh Penguins' in the same fashion. Also here, you see the diagonal mark I'm going to be using on the alternate. The diagonal wordmark is inspired one of the franchise's original uniforms.

So yeah, that's that, I think this ended up being a cohesive concept if anything, with some consistent logo and uniform work. However the rest I'm not sure about, I do hope that you like it.

Next I'll be posting my Islanders alternate that I never got around to showing, then the Penguins alternate, and maybe even another Pens alternate concept after that, I have a few ideas.

[Lights Out]

I really love this concept, but the wordmark and numbers are extremely unreadable. I respect that you don't want to use plain athletic block, but that font needs a major rethinking - then the whole concept will be perfect.

[sergeimakarenkov44]

with Pittsburgh I will always be a purist, so this isn't exactly something I like. Lights Out is right about the numbers and wordmark. I'll give you credit for being creative, but I'm just not that into the vertical baseball stripes and the wing-looking things.

[Punch]

It looks like you spent a lot of time on this concept. As a newbie, that is inspirational to me. The idea is creative, don't get me wrong. But, it still doesn't seem like a reasonable idea that the NHL would pick up on anytime soon. There is so much going on in the uniforms - barber pole stripes, pinstripes, vertical striping on the socks.

I'll give credit to you for using a 100% original font, but it still is unreadable. You should remove the horizontal bars on the sides of the letters. That could possibly improve the wordmark.

I can't accuse you of rushing through this or not being creative, however. Good work.

Punch9

[mbannon92]

I agree with the rest of the guys. I think if you took the stripes off the letters and numbers it would look a ton better. Also, I don't mind either the pinstripes or the barber pole, but I think you should just choose one...both is a little too much.

However, like Punch9 said, I have to give you credit for being incredibly creative, and I'm sure you spent a ton of time on this. The designs may not be realistic, but they sure as heck are fun to look at! Keep it up man!

[aci]

I'm pretty sure if the Penguins ever wore these, there would be the same hub-bub about the numbers as there was for the Kings' jerseys where the 1 and 7 looked the same, and the old Lightning 'painted-by-a-2-year-old' digits.

Legibility is a fad that will never go away, and unfortunately your custom font leaves a lot to be desired. It's not even something I think could be fixed with minor changes, either, without destroying the entire purpose of the numbers. Like, the 3 almost looks like a British pound sign.

As far as positive criticism, I think that the off-white road jersey is a great idea. I also like the pinstripes and the barberpole, just not together. I think when you have both, it just makes the whole thing cluttered. Personally, if I had to pick one, I'd go with the pinstripes because I love the socks you designed.

At first when I saw your penguin logo, I thought it looked like crap (seriously, I was like 'wow, that looks like crap'), but once I saw it on the jersey, my opinion did a complete 180 turn and I think it's awesome. Going back to look at the full-size version, I'm not sure why I didn't like it to begin with, but I guess seeing it against the pinstriped backdrop really helped.