NHL uniform concept thread

[andrew.]

This is just a thread for me to post up some stuff I come up with. I am new to this sort of thing, though long interested in it, and as far as rules in here go all I'd ask is that comments and criticisms be honest. Be as blunt as you like, positively or negatively, just try to make a point; advice on a technique to make something look more realistic or a tip on something to avoid is great, but complaints based on nothing other than personal preferences are not.

I am using Microsoft Paint and Paint.net. For the time being, I do not know nearly enough to create new logos for teams or use most templates found around here, but I'm making this thread to learn, so don't be shy.

To kick off, here's a St. Louis Eagles concept, for all intents and purposes the first hockey jersey concept I've ever made, and definitely the first I've ever bothered to post anywhere online. I may include gloves, pants, etc. in further concepts but for now I'm trying to keep it simple.

A few notes about the above jerseys, ignore as needed - the logo is brightened slightly from the original St. Louis Eagles logo but otherwise unchanged. The red used is a shade I like called Rosso Corsa, famous as the national racing color of Italy (212, 0, 0). The St. Louis script font on the white jersey is, I believe, Amperzand. I did not include the same script on the black jersey both because it looked ugly in red or white and because I personally like having city names on away uniforms only. The original Eagles jersey had blue trim despite the red logo, but however popular it is, red/black/white is my favorite color combination and no matter what shades of blue I tried replacing the black with, it never looked as good as with the black I used. The red jersey looks just as nice in my eyes as a white jersey, but it's red because there's already a white one there. The original Eagles did not transform into any team that's still around, so I just used three players from the St. Louis Blues for the names and numbers. I'm not really a fan of blocky, college-style lettering, but it seems to work nicer than any solid font I tried. I couldn't get shoulder numbers or a shoulder logo (though I didn't have one anyway) to look nice, but I'll figure that out sooner or later.

Anyway, if anyone's got any thoughts, feel free to comment and criticize. This is my first attempt at uniforms of any kind, so I'd ask you adjust your comments accordingly, but if you think something you see here is genuinely terrible, then you don't need to soften your comments for me. I imagine I'll be posting three or four 3-jersey sets per week, or somewhere around that pace, of both current and defunct NHL teams. I don't really know the etiquette around this site yet, so bear with me.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Stampman]

The number font is not a good choice--that's more than a personal choice--because that #17 above could easily look like 77 in a game, but it could also be undecipherable--you don't have to use bland fonts for numbers & names--but ones that are easy to read quickly are best.

Other than that I see potential if you learn to use and create more.

[CGL77]

With the exception of the script on the road jersey (a la Vancouver) I really, really love this concept. The jersey is flawless in my opinion. If I were to be really picky, though, I would probably wish for a more modern logo but am happy, too, with the logo you used. 10/10; nathless. I would buy the third jersey tomorrow.

[andrew.]

Thanks for the comments pals! I hadn't considered that 17 looks an awful lot like 77, but learning already. Appreciated.

[hockey week]

yeah, really the font is the only hangup. It looks especially odd on the white jersey, where you have a very old-timey curvy font on the front above the logo, but 70s futuristic jagged font on the back. It would also be difficult to decipher. Pick something that looks a little more classic, but not old. I think you could make the Capitals' numbers from the copper/blue/black era look good on there, but again, play around.

The one exception would be the front of the third jersey. That font would be fine. It was very common to do things like that in the 30s (think like a flash gordon style), so the ST LOUIS on there actually fits the whole look very well. Definitely don't change it.

These are great jerseys. I wish they had hemline stripes, but I'm a traditionalist. Very nice concept.

[andrew.]

I hadn't thought of that, it does look a bit schizophrenic with numbers styled from different eras. Thanks for the tip.

[drdougfresh]

Numbers and the idea behind the concept should match, in my opinion. Often times, block numbers solve that problem. It's really the easy way out, but it just works for some designs. That being said, you could really elevate this concept by changing the numbers to something less modern, something more curvy (maybe some serifs). Dump the script on the front of the away jersey, and this is actually a pretty solid look.

[hockey week]

definitely do update this at some point. It really is a great concept, and for once, completely original. I don't think I've seen anything like this jersey pattern on here yet, and obviously it's not copied from any hockey jerseys I know of. (yes, I realize the third is in the 1992 Red Wings throwback style, but it's been changed enough to be clearly different. The home and road really are completely different. If I'm mistaken, I'd love to see what it's based on.)

but really, give an update at some point, this is a concept worth finishing.

[andrew.]

I've got a few other things to try out first, but I'll be sure to update this set once or twice in the near future. Good catch on the Red Wings throwback - it wasn't my original intention to base it off that, my idea going into making the third was nothing more than to make something that looked like the home and away with blocky text on the front apart from a logo, and that's what I did, and then it occured to me how much I like that Detroit jersey and that there might be a way to give a nod to that with the three colors I had on the palette instead of the two Detroit had.

Should have another set up tonight sometime. Thanks for the comments.

[kw11333]

Great work!

[GO2HELL]

I would match the sleeve and chest striping on the third so it remains consistent. Also try and use a traditional block font for the home and roads, perhaps make the numbers triple layered and the names a single colour.

[andrew.]

A Nordiques set I worked on for a few hours today. In order from top to bottom they're home, away, alternate and fourth, and the last jersey is not a part of the set, just an idea I had.

The colors used in this set, for anyone that's interested in that sort of thing, are Maya blue (115, 194, 251), Sapphire (8, 37, 103), Platinum (229, 228, 226), and the black for the inside of the necks (and the St. Louis jerseys) is 44, 44, 44. The red was just taken randomly with the color picker thing in Paint.net from a picture of the Nordiques logo. I'm not quite sold on what I managed to make as the primary logo for the wolf jersey. It just sort of occurred to me randomly trying to sleep last night that I might be able to stick a wolf howling at the moon inside of a Q, and the silver on the inside of the Q is meant to be the moon. I set out intending to make that jersey be the basis of a 3-jersey set, but I tried for a solid hour to make a dark version of that jersey look good and couldn't manage it, so I just stuck a white version here at the end. I tried to match up the fonts a little better but I'm still not 100% confident on them, but this is all just for fun so whatever. I may have overdone the Fleur-de-lis, there's eight on the home, away, and third. I like them but I didn't want to splatter them all over the other two uniforms, so I just stuck a tiny one on the back of the neck on the fourth and the other sweater where the Reebok logo was, and moved the Reebok logo to the tail.

As usual, any input is appreciated. Learning every day, so don't be shy.

[worcat]

hasn't that wolf been on a bunch of other concepts? some clip art image offline?

[andrew.]

The wolf silhouette is just a black clip art turned blue and slimmed down a bit, I wanted a silhouette anyway and I didn't have hours to spend creating from scratch something that was going to be a generic, solid color silhouette anyway. I don't know enough in Paint.net yet to turn a real photo into a logo. I imagine most of you look down your nose at clip art, but it seemed the fastest way. I've never seen a wolf silhouette used in any Nordiques concepts before (just a wolf head on an Icethetics post), but I still have plenty of other threads on here to sift through. If it's been used before or it's cliche for Quebec concepts or something my apologies, I didn't know.

[habsfan1]

Of all the jerseys you posted so far, my favorite one is the St-Louis red alternate. Good job on that one.

[Stampman]

I'd outline the numbers on the Nordiques unis.

They need to stand out more.

But the ideas are fine, but the dark blue seems to come out of nowhere.

I'd use the fourth as the alternate

the fifth one has promise--maybe some stripes along the bottom...

[DeFrank]

hasn't that wolf been on a bunch of other concepts? some clip art image offline?

yup

[andrew.]

Anything else? I thought a few of these were a lot better than the St. Louis ones, to be honest.

[officeglenn]

The St. Louis jerseys are quite nice. I agree on the font needing to be changed, and I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of hem stripes on the homes and aways to tie it all together. Do also get rid of the "St. Louis" on the white jersey. It's unnecessary.

But I think you've taken a step back with the Nordiques jerseys. For one, the powder blue you've used is too light and doesn't have enough contrast with the white. The number font is too thin and wispy for my tastes; go with something a little beefier. And you've got fleurs-de-lis smack dab in the middle of where the sleeve numbers would go; somehow I don't think the league would let that fly.

I can kind of understand the rationale for the red jersey, but the navy blue jersey really comes out of nowhere. I would just scrap it altogether.

The Q-wolf logo and jersey does have promise, but it's not really congruous with the rest of the set and would be better served simply presented on its own. Again, the blue needs to be darker, as does the grey, as it too does not contrast enough with the white. That jersey also needs some more striping; two little swooshes that may not even show up under the player's gloves are not enough. It's going to look pretty much like a plain white jersey, and certainly nothing that would look like it belongs in a professional hockey league. Watch the placement of the sleeve numbers, too. On one side, you've got it above the top sleeve seam, but on the other side, it's below that seam.

[andrew.]

Thanks for the honest words, there are a lot of things people are saying in here I hadn't really thought of. In creating jerseys I was thinking in terms of what I look for when I'm reading other concept threads on here, and I wasn't really thinking 'gloves might cover that up' or really in terms of what the NHL would allow and so on. There's only so much you can do with such a small template (in Paint or Paint.net, anyway) before it starts to look a bit murky, but I'll see what I can do.

I'm going to make five posts of five different sets, to test out different ideas and all the rest of it, so I'll make three more posts over the next few days and then I'll read through it all again and update what I've already done.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate the honesty.