NHL meets AFL

[WLD42]

Hi, everyone! I'm new around these parts, although I've enjoyed looking at concepts as a guest for some months now, and I never cease to be impressed and amazed. I wouldn't call myself a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination; I operate using good old MS Paint, but it's a fun hobby. It's no good making the concepts if I'm the only one who ever sees them, though, and so here I am! Since I'm definitely a beginner in every sense of the word, C&C is always appreciated, and I expect to be updating the concepts I'll be posting here with occasional revisions.

Anyways, as you may have guessed, hockey and Aussie rules football would be my two favorite sports, and so I decided to have a little fun and make some hockey uniforms for the teams of the AFL, and some footy guernseys for the teams of the NHL. Given the sizes of the respective leagues, I'll be posting two NHL teams and then one AFL team. Because I'm just a little OCD and need some sort of order in my life, I've also decided to do it in chronological order of the teams' foundings. In case you were wondering.

All of the AFL teams get a simple set of one dark and one light jersey. I've given all the NHL teams at least two jumpers as well, although, as is the case in the AFL, it's more of a primary and "clash" than a home and away, and some have alternates or throwbacks as well. And that's all I really have to say about that! Hope you enjoy.

Quick Links

NHL:

Montreal Canadiens

Toronto Maple Leafs ---> Update

Montreal Wanderers ---> Update

Boston Bruins ---> Update (Throwback)

Montreal Maroons

Chicago Blackhawks ---> Update (Secondary)

Detroit Red Wings

New York Rangers

Philadelphia Quakers ---> Update (Secondary)

St. Louis Eagles

California Golden Seals ---> Update

Los Angeles Kings

Minnesota North Stars ---> Update (Primary & Secondary)

Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburgh Penguins

St. Louis Blues ---> Update (Secondary)

Buffalo Sabres

Vancouver Canucks

Atlanta Flames ---> Update (Primary)

New York Islanders ---> Additional Option (Second Alternate?)

Kansas City Scouts

Washington Capitals

Cleveland Barons

Colorado Rockies

Edmonton Oilers

Hartford Whalers

Quebec Nordiques

Winnipeg Jets (1.0)

Calgary Flames

New Jersey Devils

AFL:

Melbourne Demons ---> Update

Geelong Cats ---> Update

University Students ---> Update

Carlton Blues ---> Update

North Melbourne Kangaroos ---> Update

Port Adelaide Power

Essendon Bombers

St Kilda Saints

Sydney Swans

Fitzroy Maroons / Gorillas / Lions

Western Bulldogs ---> Update

Richmond Tigers

Collingwood Magpies

Hawthorn Hawks

Brisbane Bears

So, working our way from the past to the present, we start out with the Montreal Canadiens. Nothing too surprising here. A classy and classic (I hope) set for the league's oldest team. I borrowed pretty heavily from their hockey jersey on this one, although that won't be the case for all of the teams. Let me know what you all think!

[mbannon92]

This should be interesting. I've always been a fan of crossover series (when done well). American sports to Aussie has been done a lot, but I don't remember ever seeing hockey, and I'm really interested to see Aussie to hockey. I don't think anyone has ever done that.

To the concept, it looks good. A team with such a classic look is a no-brainer. I like that you went with the wraparound stripe on the secondary. I'll be interested to see some of the newer teams/team's with less history.

[lancealot]

Montreal looks good cant wait to see some of the AFL teams on a hockey jersey, would love to see a port Adelaide throwback

[WLD42]

I'd say the term "no-brainer" sums up the Montreal concept pretty well, mbannon. But some of the newer teams are indeed a little out there, for better or worse, and I'm sure a few of them will end up sending me back to the drawing board. And the first AFL-to-hockey-jersey is coming up after this! I don't have any throwbacks or third jerseys right now, lancealot, but that doesn't mean it can't happen! Port probably would be one of the first I'd try it with, too, since they have such a storied pre-AFL history that I didn't utilize at all in the concept I have for them right now.

Before we get to any of that, though, here's what I think the Toronto Maple Leafs would look like if they played Aussie Rules. As soon as I started thinking about them, I couldn't picture anything but blue hoops on a white jumper. But I also knew that I couldn't just make a Geelong replica, because where's the fun in that, so I used the striping pattern that the Leafs have on their socks, and I think it looks pretty darn good!

[Dbroalexander]

I feel as if the secondary Leafs jersey should be blue with white stripes.

[lancealot]

Agreed blue with white stripes whith the white shorts, and maybe a brighter blue rather than the near navy blue you have used. And when I was talking about the port throwback I was referring to the 97-2010 jersey not the prison bars jersey

[WLD42]

My original logic behind having just the one blue-stripes-on-white jumper was to give such a historic franchise one single identity, but now that I actually bother to do some research, the AFL clubs that I had in mind (Collingwood, Geelong, North Melbourne, etc.), which I thought only had one, actually do have second guernseys, they just don't seem to use them often. So with that precedence tossed out the window, I toyed around with the very suggestion the two of you made. It looked a little harder on the eyes than the white base did, but when I looked into lancealot's idea of a lighter blue from earlier in the team's history, it looked much better! So I thank you greatly for your contributions. I still prefer the white with blue stripes, but after all, that's why one's a primary and one's a secondary. Here are the updates:

Melbourne's hockey jersey is coming up very shortly!

[Mr. Aware Eagle]

Love the idea for this thread. Everything looks good so far.

[mbannon92]

Toronto looks good. The only suggestion I could make would be to add a logo somewhere (even just the maple leaf with no text). But if it's common for AFL teams to have logoless jumpers, then the Leafs would be a good team to do that with.

[WLD42]

Toronto looks good. The only suggestion I could make would be to add a logo somewhere (even just the maple leaf with no text). But if it's common for AFL teams to have logoless jumpers, then the Leafs would be a good team to do that with.

It's very common for Aussie rules jumpers to be logo-less. It's mostly newer teams that have logos on the jumpers that they regularly wear, although many teams have alternates that will have a logo on them, which some fans seem to like and some vehemently hate. The majority of my concepts are also without logos, which I find to be part of the fun: creating a recognizable identity for a team using just patterns and a color palette.

Anyways, without any further ado, here's the AFL's oldest team: Founded in 1859, it's the Melbourne Demons! Designing a hockey jersey is definitely a completely different ballgame from designing an Aussie rules guernsey. I actually made all of the hockey jerseys before deciding to do it the other way around too, and I do think it shows that I made these when I was still discovering the ins and outs of design. Mostly, though, I wanted to try things that I'd never seen done before, and keep the teams' identities strong as I transferred them from footy to hockey. And I think that is particularly evident in the Demons' jersey, as I kept their classic, unmistakable red yoke and made it the centerpiece of the design. I considered going logo-less, a la the Canucks' flying V, but in the end decided to put in the wordmark, which ultimately led me to my choice of name/number font, as the little tails on the wordmark lined up quite nicely with the Ducks' numbers. C&C much appreciated!

[Discrim]

Though it's been years since I really set out to do any crossovers (I'm more a fan of using ideas from one sport in others), I can still appreciate one done well. And being the resident footyphile, welcome to the boards

Habs: yeah, somehow I couldn't picture em looking much different.

Leafs: Good start: focusing on the best part of their uniform. The socks' stripes could stand a tweak, but the jumpers are well executed.

Dees: yes. just yes. Throw some Dees on that just bought a Cadillac.

[BigBubba]

I would definitely make one of the outlines white for the numbers/captain's "C". There isn't much contrast as is. Also, I would drop the double outline for the NOB. Still though, I've liked your concepts so far and look forward to seeing more.

[mbannon92]

I would go single color for the captain's patch/numbers/NOB. White for all on the home, white/blue/blue on the road. That would give better readability and match the wordmark. I really like the design though.

[Buster]

Nice field hockey concepts!

[WLD42]

Thanks for the welcome, Discrimihater! I checked out your footy concepts thread a little while ago, before I joined the boards, so I'll admit I was wondering if you might comment here... Glad you like it so far! And thanks for the feedback and suggestions, everyone. I'll definitely look at changing some things up with the numbers, names, and letters, see what works best. In the meantime, though, some more concepts, and I'm posting a twofer today, since I wasn't able to get to my computer at all yesterday.

First up, we have the Montreal Wanderers, who were four-time winners of the Stanley Cup prior to the founding of the NHL, but their tenure in the NHL went down in flames... Literally, as their arena burned to the ground just four games into the NHL's inaugural season, and the team folded after that. Since the Wanderers ceased to exist after 1918, I went with what I consider a historical, dare I say "retro" look, keeping it very simple. But I also wanted to try something new, so I took the well-established Aussie rules "V" design and turned it into a W. (In case you're curious: I couldn't find player numbers for teams that went defunct before the '67 expansion, so the numbers on the back reflect the team's first and last years. In the Wanderers' case, 1903 and 1918.)

And today's second team is one that is in fact still around today, the Boston Bruins. I chose to go with the classic, traditional "V" design for the Bruins' guernseys, as well, but again make it their own, this time by making it a double-V. It's just something I simply decided to give a try, and I really liked the way it looked, especially with these colors, so it stayed! The B's also have our first alternate jersey, a throwback to the years of brown and gold. It is and always has been a unique color scheme in the NHL (although not in the AFL!), and I couldn't bring myself not to use it. I kept the general design of the primary and secondary jumpers, but extended the V up to become a full yoke, in order to set it apart beyond just the colors.

[lancealot]

Wanders: make the w longer so it hangs down to about the middle

Bruins: on the third make the yellow on the back go below the numbers and make the numbers black on the secondary

[WLD42]

I was hoping for a couple more comments, but that's just how it goes sometimes. So here's the next concept, and of course you're more than welcome to keep giving feedback on the Wanderers and the B's, too!

The Geelong Cats are the next AFL team to get a hockey jersey. I didn't borrow a great deal of elements from their Aussie rules jumper; it was really just the color scheme, to be honest, and other than that, just the fact that there's not a great deal going on. Tried to keep the jersey simple while still making it unique. Hope you all like!

Edit: Changed it to get Jimmy Bartel's name right. There did indeed used to be an S there, as rmered pointed out below, but it didn't merit a new post for just that one change.

I've also finally gotten around to working a bit on Melbourne's jersey in the wake of the feedback it got. I was happy to see the design was well-received, since I thought it turned out quite well, too. I tried both solid, single-color numbers, and adding a white outline, and as you can see, I thought the latter was the better-looking option. A small change, but I do think it makes for a great improvement.

[rmered]

Back in the days of long sleeve jumpers Melbourne's came to a point down the sleeves, reinforcing the yoke look.

I'd like to see your Demons concept with that look.

Also, what about their new shield logo?

Parts of this would look good on the hockey jersey.

PS Jimmy Bartel has no S at the end of his name

Apart from those few things, these are great.

[WLD42]

PS Jimmy Bartel has no S at the end of his name

Well I feel silly. Fixed that!

I'll take a look at giving it pointed shoulders, just to see what it looks like, but I am pretty partial to the rounded ones now, because a.) it follows the traditional seam pattern of hockey sweater shoulders, and b.) I don't want to create a carbon copy of a footy jumper transplanted onto a hockey sweater. I'll definitely try it, though, and maybe I'll be surprised at how much I actually do like it! As for the logo, I did see it when I was creating the jerseys, but I opted not to use it simply because I don't have the image-manipulation know-how to take pieces of it (the whole thing, I think you'd agree, is far too much to actually put on a jersey). I'm creating all these with MS Paint, and finding team logos that are workable for me was actually a challenge I encountered for a number of teams, unfortunately even limiting my design options in some cases.

[nuordr]

What is the AFL? I came here looking for the Arena Football League and found soccer!