Raymie's Concepts

[Raymie]

It's late in 2012. The Arizona School Facilities Board, finally back to its pre-recession state, begins funding the construction of new public schools in Arizona. One of the first projects the AZSFB awards money to is one that's been on the books for years, but that the recession had killed.

This 2008 item on the Agua Fria Union High School District website hints at what could have been:

"High School No. 5 is slated to open its doors for freshmen in the fall of 2010, and located in Goodyear on Lower Buckeye Road near Citrus Road. The significant continued residential development is resulting in increased enrollment at the rate of 10 to 14 percent per year. The design and construction of this fifth campus is now underway to accommodate the growth in the District's student population."

The fall of 2010 came and passed, but that never happened. But what if that school were now finally being built?

This is my first full concept (aside from the Western New Mexico University secondary logo I created). I cannot for the life of me use Illustrator for anything more than simple shapes and roundels. So I present this hand-drawn version. Keep in mind that my dragon logo is weaker than weak, but I think the C and D make up for it. (I'd love to have this vectorized and cleaned up...)

The colors got wrecked by the scanner and have been somewhat restored in Photoshop ? it should be orange and forest green (think U of Miami). Sorry if it's too big. The "split jersey" is intended to show both the dark and white versions of a particular outfit in the least space possible.

[Nugget799]

I don't think the numbers on the football and basketball jerseys would really work that well in the real world. The football jersey also reminds me of a King's Jester and could do with a bit more work. I do love hand-drawn concepts, though.

[Raymie]

Actually, the design is intended to show (with less drawing and paper space) the home and away jerseys in one stroke — it's rather unconventional. In the real world there'd be a green jersey and a white jersey, plus white pants and orange pants.

The basketball jersey got ruined because I made a mistake coloring in the side panels on the orange home jersey (I had originally intended to have white panels) but ended up making orange side panels for a white jersey. In addition, the layering of green on orange looked horrible.

One of the nice things is that the plan to build a high school is real (though it's hard to find information) but on hold. Arizona's rates of opening new high schools have fallen off: we opened one last year, will open one this year, and it very well could be no new public district high schools for 2013-14.

[Dbroalexander]

Actually, the design is intended to show (with less drawing and paper space) the home and away jerseys in one stroke ? it's rather unconventional. In the real world there'd be a green jersey and a white jersey, plus white pants and orange pants.

That's a pretty good idea, for a hand drawn concept at least. But you should probably label it so it says "home" and "away" that way no one thinks it's supposed to be like those old half and half fashion jerseys.

[Raymie]

I'm likely going to try my hand at refining that basketball jersey, and I think the design's gonna be sorta unorthodox.

[Raymie]

And here we are. Different pencil set means a different look: the dark green is correct but the orange is a touch washed out in this variant. The basketball jerseys pick up on the football jersey sleeve stripes. Also, soccer uniforms; gray baseball roadies; and a hockey uniform. That sorta-pointed C is gorgeous, isn't it?

[Raymie]

My scanner couldn't get all the details in this beauty, but here it is. I had to lower the contrast and brightness (the teal turned out turquoise), which should also explain some of the quality issues.

Copper Canyon High School

In a few sentences: 2004-vintage high school in Glendale. Color scheme straight from the 90s (teal-black-copper-purple). Looks "meh" now.

My concept embraces the black, copper and teal (discarding purple: too many colors) with a look that is rather 90s but modern. Again, the split jersey style is used in a couple places.

Note: the baseball home uniform should have teal pinstripes. You can see that they've been drawn in, but the scanner didn't catch all the fine detail. Most sports currently wear black at home, but that's trite (and, to be honest, teal high schools in AZ are few and far between). Teal is the main color for most of the dark uniforms, except for soccer which retains black (and a keeper teal kit for both home and road, because nobody else will have teal) and a third jersey for football that is black. Note the zig-zag theme plus a nice arch motif for the scripts and basketball uniforms. Baseball roadies are gray, but look at that beauty of a cap — teal with white front panel!

I'm probably looking at doing another high school soon. Any C&C?

[cohenj21]

This looks pretty good. The only thing I would change would be to just use your CC logo on the basketball and track uniforms instead of Copper Canyon, because even though it's unorthodox for those types of uniforms, I think it's a good wordmark and Copper Canyon is a little too long for a jersey.

[Gary]

Dunno about Copper Canyon, when I think of the blue you have, the first thing I think is Cactus Cobras.

[Raymie]

In most cases you'd see Copper above the letter and Canyon below, but that wouldn't work with the wordmark style.

That IS supposed to be teal BTW...it is a scanner issue more than anything else.

[Raymie]

If you've ever hated your school's colors, well, you're not alone. But you might like them a little bit more after today's concept.

The 1970s gave us some strange things, and high schools in Arizona were no exception. In 1971, Marcos de Niza High School opened. The Padres had a similarly San Diego-inspired brown and gold scheme. Arizona's first and only Chiefs is off the rez and at Thunderbird High School (opened 1972) which adopted orange and blue into its color scheme. Corona del Sol (1976-78) went with orange and yellow for its colors.

But one of the greatest color offenders in the state is the result of the Phoenix Union High School District deciding to open a school named for one of its most important figures. Dr. Trevor G. Browne served on the district's governing board for 25 years, and in 1972, Trevor G. Browne High School opened — with brown and orange as its school colors.

One of the sources of inspiration for the wordmarks were the wall paintings that indicated "ADMINISTRATION", "ACTIVITY", etc. Set in brown or orange-colored Eurostile Extended Black and tilted on a funky angle, they were undeniably 70s.

Also, the school's late 70s-80s uniforms in football (with strange shoulder cutouts that featured the TV numbers), representative of the best era in their football history, are seen here and essentially brought back, plus a brown third jersey. (It's gotten bad at TGB: like many schools with Hispanic-heavy enrollment, they now are one of the worst football teams in the state, so bad they went 0-10 last year.)

And so I present the Trevor Browne Bruins! (Yes, the road uniforms are supposed to be gray. They have white sleeve cutouts similar to those on the football jerseys.)

[Whittier S]

Loved my high school colours, purple and silver. Our football team used solid silver helmets, no logo or striping. Classic.

[lancealot]

Loved my high school colours, purple and silver. Our football team used solid silver helmets, no logo or striping. Classic.

My team used the same silver w/ black facemasks no logos or stripes

[Raymie]

Oh no, Discrim, you got me to love something: Aussie Rules!

Yup, it's a what-if series, footy meets Arizona high schools! Some changes:

• Most unis have front numbers, except for the Desert Vista and Palo Verde ones.
• Most clash unis are white (but not all).

Either the home or the clash for a team are given. Two parts. Thanks Discrim for the template to reference each and every time I hand drew one of these.

[Mr. Aware Eagle]

Really like the Washington clash jersey. Really cool idea.

[Raymie]

They are the Rams. The home kit would probably be flipped so the ram comes in from the right side.

A couple other notes on inspiration:

• The Copper Canyon kit is directly based off my redesign of the school.
• The Blue Ridge clash kit is one of my personal favorites ? purple and gold striping plus a white mountain.

I have six more of these coming tomorrow plus a change to Trevor Browne. I figure that if Aussie Rules ever came to the US, zebras would be reserved for the refs, and so Trevor Browne were asked to change their look. You'll see the "Year 2" clash kit.

[Raymie]

Part 2 of the project. The way I see it is that the first season featured those twelve charter sides. The next year eight more came into existence for a total of twenty teams. The eight additional teams were Deer Valley, Mountain View Marana, Amphitheater (Amphi), Brophy College Prep, Show Low (after Blue Ridge jumped into the project), Valley Vista, Liberty, and Poston Butte. The new teams extended the reach of the Aussie Rules project further into the West Valley and Tucson especially.

Some of the boldest designs of the Second Eight are Poston Butte's tricolor kit, Liberty's L-stripe, and Marana Mountain View's, well, mountains! (Discrim: if you are reading, I came up with this before you posted your Colorado State of Origin concept.)

In addition, I have designed the other half of a two-kit set for 13 of the 20 teams; the Original Twelve plus Marana Mountain View. There's also a rejected kit for Liberty.

First, the kits for the Second Eight, plus Trevor Browne's redesigned second season clash kit.

Next, thirteen of the twenty opposite kits. Show Low, Brophy, Poston Butte, Valley Vista, Liberty, and Amphi will come later. Note the outliers, such as the copper (!) clash kit for Copper Canyon, the double-striped Y on the Yuma home kits, the mirrored ram horn for Washington, and mismatching kits for Desert Ridge and Blue Ridge.

[Gary]

If you've ever hated your school's colors, well, you're not alone. But you might like them a little bit more after today's concept.

The 1970s gave us some strange things, and high schools in Arizona were no exception. In 1971, Marcos de Niza High School opened. The Padres had a similarly San Diego-inspired brown and gold scheme. Arizona's first and only Chiefs is off the rez and at Thunderbird High School (opened 1972) which adopted orange and blue into its color scheme. Corona del Sol (1976-78) went with orange and yellow for its colors.

But one of the greatest color offenders in the state is the result of the Phoenix Union High School District deciding to open a school named for one of its most important figures. Dr. Trevor G. Browne served on the district's governing board for 25 years, and in 1972, Trevor G. Browne High School opened ? with brown and orange as its school colors.

One of the sources of inspiration for the wordmarks were the wall paintings that indicated "ADMINISTRATION", "ACTIVITY", etc. Set in brown or orange-colored Eurostile Extended Black and tilted on a funky angle, they were undeniably 70s.

Also, the school's late 70s-80s uniforms in football (with strange shoulder cutouts that featured the TV numbers), representative of the best era in their football history, are seen here and essentially brought back, plus a brown third jersey. (It's gotten bad at TGB: like many schools with Hispanic-heavy enrollment, they now are one of the worst football teams in the state, so bad they went 0-10 last year.)

And so I present the Trevor Browne Bruins! (Yes, the road uniforms are supposed to be gray. They have white sleeve cutouts similar to those on the football jerseys.)

Trevor Browne is also one of the ugliest high schools I have ever seen. Because the high school I went to was only 5 miles away(shared the same avenue) I had friends who went there. Plus Westridge Mall was around the corner as well. But Trevor Browne, the way it was constructed, the walls in their class room and their colors just made them the ugliest high school I have ever seen.

[Raymie]

The fact that Westridge Mall now has a different name should be a bad sign. (For those not in Phoenix: the area where Trevor Browne and Westridge are located is now *heavily* Hispanic and lower-income.)

[lancealot]

Defiantly not a fan of front numbers on afl jerseys