Australian "Football" concept: AFL teams hit the gridiron

[RuffDawg]

Okay, I'm a little happier with the Port Adelaide uni this time around. The black nameplates are gone (on second look, they were too "arena football" for this concept set anyway) and the names now have an outline. The sleeve design wraps around to the back, while the side panel stripes continue up into a hoop that meets at the collar. The middle stripes on the side panels now start at a football-shaped point, similar to the slash design on the sleeve, rather than extending all the way up to the yoke seam.

[mbannon92]

Much better, good update! I like you worked the design into the whole sleeve.

[RuffDawg]

Quick update guys, I've spent the last couple days sick and holed up in the house and the creative energy (along with most other kinds of energy) has been sadly lacking. I've got an idea of where I'm going with the next team though, so it should be posted tonight.

[RuffDawg]

Alright, after a few days in the wilderness of ill health, I'm back in business and having had some time to labor over this one, I finally just went ahead and did it.

Essendon Football Club was founded in 1872 and was one of eight founding members of the VFL (which would become today's AFL) in 1897. They were the champions of the VFL's inaugural season and have a total of 16 premierships to date, tied with one other club for the most of all time. They had several nicknames -- including a team of small and speedy players dubbed the "Mosquito Fleet", which in turn inspired this mascot/alternate logo in the late 90s -- before finally settling on "Bombers" during World War II due to the club's close proximity to Essendon Airfield.

Their uniforms? It's like this... here's their original 1897 uni, and here's what they wore in 2010. Don't bother looking up anything in between. This team was called the "Same Olds" during the 1900s for a good reason. It meant there was really only one direction I could go with this concept.

The iconic red sash on the jersey is the only thing that could ever make this look like an Essendon jersey, so naturally it had to be carried over. The theme repeats itself in a different way on the road uniform, with two sashes inside a black yoke forming a symmetrical stripe around the collar. Black nameplates were used to make the NOB easier to read (and for a jersey manufacturer to make), and also for symmetry's sake I included the club logo on the back. This logo is also the one used on the helmet but without the script.

The striped socks worn by the team make it to this concept as well, since neither solid red nor black looked good enough. The only creative license I've really taken is the halftone stripe on the pants that fades from jersey color to red.

The number font chosen is the same as the Bengals. I did this for three reasons -- it's not too far removed from the standard AFL font, it breaks up the monotony of the block-derived fonts, and because of the amount of black in the road uniform and the potential clash with Collingwood's home jerseys when the two teams play. The pants are, obviously, interchangeable in case the Magpies went with their monochrome look.

I know this is going to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it designs so I may be redoing this at least once, but my next team will include a pair of throwback alternates. That's your only clue.

[InCase]

I was wondering how you were going to go about the sash, whether you would end it either side of the numbers or have it behind the numbers. Glad you kept the whole sash. I like the pants stripe, adds a nice little touch as Essendon don't have much to work with.

[mbannon92]

Essendon looks really good. You incorporated the sash really well, and I like the road design. The only thing I'm not sure about is the pants stripe...it may be too modern for such a classic design.

[RuffDawg]

Alright, time to revive this thread now that I've found some downtime, some inspiration, and since this is the first day in about three weeks that I haven't been sick the whole time (hooray for small miracles).

What we know today as the Brisbane Lions started out life as two very different clubs in two very different eras. The "Lions" nickname comes from the Fitzroy Football Club which was established in 1883 and was one of the eight foundation clubs of the VFL. The following year, they won the first VFL Grand Final game (note that the premiership was awarded the previous year to Essendon as a result of their league record; no Grand Final game was contested). They won another 7 premierships but none after 1944. Take heart, Detroit, your Lions have nothing on how long these Lions had a losing record. By the 1980s, the club was in financial crisis and in danger of folding.

Meanwhile, the Brisbane Bears entered the VFL (now the AFL) in 1987 as the league's first Queensland-based team, part of the nationwide expansion during the 80s and early 90s. For whatever reason, the Bears' original logo was a koala which, as we all know (and Australians will be very quick to remind you) is not a bear. The logo was the least of their worries, however, as they entered the AFL with no stadium to play in and very little time to assemble a team. Not surprisingly, they spent their first few years at the bottom of the standings and it was 8 years before they first qualified for the postseason.

Despite being separated by two state lines (with New South Wales, home of the Sydney Swans in between), the two clubs merged in time to start the 1997 season as the Brisbane Lions. It proved a successful move as the team won three straight premierships from 2001 to 2003, and narrowly missed out on four in a row when they lost the 2004 Grand Final to Port Adelaide.

The Lions' current uniforms combine Queensland's traditional sports color, maroon, with the blue and gold from Fitzroy's uniforms (interestingly enough, Fitzroy's red was originally maroon and the team wore this similarly-colored jersey in 1974, 22 years before the merger).

In recent years, blue has become a little more of an afterthought in the Lions' color scheme (as evidenced on the new logo) with the emphasis on maroon and gold. I decided to resurrect the blue as a true secondary color for a little balance. Most of this concept is fairly self-explanatory... I elected not to use a blue yoke to emulate the actual uniforms, instead opting for a Vikings-inspired side paneling/shoulder stripe combination. Gold is used only as an accent color, with much of the striping following a blue-with-gold-outlines theme. Since the side panels are the same on both home and road jerseys, this is the first set in which the pants are truly interchangeable with the pattern remaining seamless from top to bottom. Above the NOB is the old lion logo which was a carry-over from the Fitzroy days. The number font is the bastard reject of the Jaguars' old set; it may not have been popular at the time but I think it works for a team called the Lions and fits with the pant stripes, which I've shaped this way to allude to a lion's tail.

I'll follow this up with a two-uniform throwback set based on the old Fitzroy and Bears uniforms.

[InCase]

Damn, I thought you where purposely going to make Brisbanes look to match their current guernsey.

Looks very good, nothing else to really say, it's spot on.

[mbannon92]

Glad to see you back up and healthy!

These look really good...the design is simple but attractive, and I really love that color scheme (that's not really a critique, I just wanted to throw that out there ).

Not much to say here, I don't think you need to change anything. Great job!

[RuffDawg]

Damn, I thought you where purposely going to make Brisbanes look to match their current guernsey.

Haha, I couldn't even bring myself to intentionally make something look bad. Brisbane's AFL jerseys are garish, but IMO the gorgeous color scheme they use makes them far less ugly than they could be. So far, the only truly horrible jerseys I've come across in my research of AFL history are the Port Adelaide alternates I posted in their write-up... and even then, I tried to make the concept look classy (by including absolutely no elements from the alternates... that's no coincidence).

Now that I've come down from my Browns-induced heart attack, Brisbane throwbacks are coming this evening!

[fillmont]

Damn, I thought you where purposely going to make Brisbanes look to match their current guernsey.

Haha, I couldn't even bring myself to intentionally make something look bad. Brisbane's AFL jerseys are garish, but IMO the gorgeous color scheme they use makes them far less ugly than they could be. So far, the only truly horrible jerseys I've come across in my research of AFL history are the Port Adelaide alternates I posted in their write-up... and even then, I tried to make the concept look classy (by including absolutely no elements from the alternates... that's no coincidence).

Now that I've come down from my Browns-induced heart attack, Brisbane throwbacks are coming this evening!

Also glad that you're healthy and making new concepts. I love all of these.

[InCase]

Throwbacks? Awesome. Can't wait to see an Eagles yellow peril.

[RuffDawg]

Here are the Lions throwbacks, with one each based on the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy uniforms.

The Bears played only 10 seasons before the merge and had three different looks in that time. I went with convention and based this predominantly on their original 1987 set, worn for two seasons until the maroon switched to cerise (a color which I very deliberately left out). A quick photo search revealed that the long sleeved version had twin stripes around the sleeves which, along with the shoulder yoke, seemed ready-made for a football jersey so I used both elements here. The only other thing to report is the helmet logo which, as you can see in the 1987 uni, wraps around to the back of the jersey but stops. The concept here would continue the stripe all the way around the back of the helmet until it meets the matching logo on the other side. Here's what the logo on the other side would look like.

For the numbers, this being a late 80s concept, I emulated the 49ers numbers from that era with the gold trim and drop shadow. The numbers are white for contrast and since it became an official accent color on the Bears' uniforms in 1992 (the same year the koala logo was dropped).

On to the Fitzroy throwback, which would probably be worn as an alternate road jersey against teams from the state of Victoria (where Fitzroy were based; teams there include Collingwood, Essendon, Melbourne, Hawthorn, Geelong and a few others which are yet to appear in my concept set). I decided to keep this as simple as possible, using the colors from Fitzroy's uniform in their final 13 years of existence. From 1968 to 1982, the old lion logo appeared on the front of the jersey inside an oval (as seen here), so I added that to the back. The number font is the throwback block which I think looked nicer and more old-timey than the standard block.

I'll do another couple teams before I add any more throwbacks. The next team's colors? Well, I guess it's whatever the bride decides on...

[RuffDawg]

137 years. One premiership (in 1966). A worse win-loss record over their years than any active AFL team and they've finished at the bottom of the standings more times than any other team, period. The history of the St. Kilda Football Club is littered with the kind of futility that should make fans of the Cubs, Leafs, Bills and every Cleveland team ever realize that life ain't so bad after all. Despite all that underachieving, however, recent years have seen the club's performance take an upswing. They have made the last two Grand Finals and forced a 68-68 tie in this year's game before losing the replay to Collingwood (don't ask me why the AFL doesn't have overtime in its rules). As you might expect, the Saints' long-suffering fan base is a healthy one and they boast celebrities like Eric Bana, Elton John, Shane Warne and the band Wolfmother among their supporters.

On to the uniform. The Saints' colors of red, white and black have remained unchanged throughout their history, except for a period between 1915 and 1922 when the white changed to yellow (this was due to World War I and the team not wanting to associate with the colors of the German flag of the time; the colors we associate with Germany today didn't come into effect until 1919, after the war). When the white returned in 1923, the team adopted its tricolor design which it still uses today.

My first thought was of all the split-color Miami Hurricanes concepts we've seen in this forum and "what if I did that in St. Kilda colors?" This lasted about three seconds before a self-applied skillet to the temple set me straight.

I opted for a predominantly red home jersey as there were so many teams already wearing black, while only Sydney has red as their primary color. Rather than split the jersey down the middle, I used the shoulders to create the tricolor effect, with the stripes continuing into panels and piping down the sides. The road jersey is based very heavily on this jersey, worn in 2007 and 2008, but with my own variation of the tricolor piping -- red on the front and black on the back, with a white vertical stripe on the sides that separates the two.

The tricolor stripe is also used on the helmet; I've flipped the helmet on the road version so you can see the other side where the stripe is black instead of red. Inside the back of the collars on both jerseys is the team's motto, "Fortius Quo Fidelius" (Strength Through Loyalty), which appears on the logo. One other detail worth mentioning is that due to the horizontal sponsor's logo, I've moved it to below the collar rather than try and have it occupy the entire right shoulder.

And yes, I included the team's trademark hooped socks.

Now, after spending all that time looking at a logo with "St. KFC" written on it, I'm craving chicken... or maybe a red meat (yes, that's a fairly obvious clue to the next team).

[BigKwell]

137 years. One premiership (in 1966). A worse win-loss record over their years than any active AFL team and they've finished at the bottom of the standings more times than any other team, period. The history of the St. Kilda Football Club is littered with the kind of futility that should make fans of the Cubs, Leafs, Bills and every Cleveland team ever realize that life ain't so bad after all. Despite all that underachieving, however, recent years have seen the club's performance take an upswing. They have made the last two Grand Finals and forced a 68-68 tie in this year's game before losing the replay to Collingwood (don't ask me why the AFL doesn't have overtime in its rules). As you might expect, the Saints' long-suffering fan base is a healthy one and they boast celebrities like Eric Bana, Elton John, Shane Warne and the band Wolfmother among their supporters.

On to the uniform. The Saints' colors of red, white and black have remained unchanged throughout their history, except for a period between 1915 and 1922 when the white changed to yellow (this was due to World War I and the team not wanting to associate with the colors of the German flag of the time; the colors we associate with Germany today didn't come into effect until 1919, after the war). When the white returned in 1923, the team adopted its tricolor design which it still uses today.

My first thought was of all the split-color Miami Hurricanes concepts we've seen in this forum and "what if I did that in St. Kilda colors?" This lasted about three seconds before a self-applied skillet to the temple set me straight.

I opted for a predominantly red home jersey as there were so many teams already wearing black, while only Sydney has red as their primary color. Rather than split the jersey down the middle, I used the shoulders to create the tricolor effect, with the stripes continuing into panels and piping down the sides. The road jersey is based very heavily on this jersey, worn in 2007 and 2008, but with my own variation of the tricolor piping -- red on the front and black on the back, with a white vertical stripe on the sides that separates the two.

The tricolor stripe is also used on the helmet; I've flipped the helmet on the road version so you can see the other side where the stripe is black instead of red. Inside the back of the collars on both jerseys is the team's motto, "Fortius Quo Fidelius" (Strength Through Loyalty), which appears on the logo. One other detail worth mentioning is that due to the horizontal sponsor's logo, I've moved it to below the collar rather than try and have it occupy the entire right shoulder.

And yes, I included the team's trademark hooped socks.

Now, after spending all that time looking at a logo with "St. KFC" written on it, I'm craving chicken... or maybe a red meat (yes, that's a fairly obvious clue to the next team).

Very good. Like to see what you do for Carlton.

[InCase]

St Kilda's are very very nice. Shame you used a dweeb to model them (#44).

Really like the throwback as well, especially Fitzroy, I love those colours.

[Luigi]

Great job on St. Kilda! (my team btw). It's a shame that that we lost the Grand Final replay, bloody Collingwood! I really think that the AFL needs to change its rules about Grand Final draws, would extra time be really that hard to add?

[Luigi]

Any chance of any more of these?

[omnivore]

These look great. Nice work.

[rmered]

These are stunningly good.

I don't know what I was expecting, but wow.

Excellent job.

PS If you need graphics for anything (throwbacks, new logos etc) I probably have them.

PPS Love how Essendon retain the Red sash. Since 1890, they've only had the one uniform, Black with Red sash.