Montréal Maroons

[IceCap]

This concept was influenced by four sources. Those being hockey week's excellent What if the Maroons Never Folded? series, dgnmrwrw's excellent NHL: Defunct Franchise Redesigns project, a recent discussion concerning the Philadelphia Phillies' maroon throwbacks, and the Hockey Canada logo from 1988-1995 (my personal favourite Hockey Canada logo).

First thing's first. The primary logo. I decided to keep the M, but update it. As I said before the Phillies' maroon set was a partial inspiration. The Phillies' maroon uniforms kind of set it in my mind that maroon and grey is a very "80s" colour scheme. While I didn't want to design a "Montréal Maroons in the 1980s" concept, the choice to go with maroon and grey did push me in the direction to try and evoke that era with the logo. Sort of a "what if the Maroons were still active, and they redesigned their M logo in the 80s and kept it around?" kind of scenario. That's obviously where the 88-95 Hockey Canada logo influence came from in the form of the motion lines. I've always been a fan of that logo, and I wanted to capture a bit of what I enjoy about it with the new M.

The idea to include black obviously came from hockey week's series. I decided to add it here because while I find white, grey, and maroon a stunning combination I just couldn't get it to work in the context of a hockey uniform. Maroon would have been the obvious choice for the pants colour and home helmet colour, but that kind of led to a bit of a maroon overload. I just didn't like how all the elements of the home uniform came together. So I decided to experiment with hockey week's idea and use some black. I really like how it turned out. I'm usually not a BFBS kind of guy, but I like the way it plays off the maroon and grey.

The alternate logo's inspiration came from both hockey week and dgnmrwrw. In hockey week's series he had the team wear poppies and Union Jacks on the shoulders during WWII, to emphasize the team's role in representing Montréal's Anglophiles. In dgnmrwrw's series he redesigned the Maroons from the ground up, using a lion and a crown as elements in his logos, again emphasizing the teams English-speaking roots.

While the idea of giving the Maroons an alternate logo to emphasize their role as the team of Montréal's English speaking population appealed to me, I didn't want to simply copy what hockey week and dgnmrwrw had done. So I passed up on using poppies, the Union Jack, lions, or crowns. Maple leaves were out, with the Jets and Maple Leafs more or less claiming use of that symbol.

Finally I found the perfect source of inspiration. The flag of Montréal. It might seem odd to use it as the basis for a Maroons alternate logo. Flags on non-national team jerseys and sweaters rarely work out, and in this case the Maroons wouldn't even be the lone representative of the city. My decision to use the flag as the basis for my alternate logo stems from the manner in which it was designed, as well as the elements it utilizes.

The flag was designed to celebrate King George V's Silver Jubilee. The red cross on white, known as St. George's Cross, has long been a symbol of England. Three of the four icons used in each quarter of the flag represent nations that make up the British Isles. A rose for England, a thistle for Scotland, and a clover for Ireland. All in all the flag of Montreal is very British in design, which I felt made it perfect for what I was trying to do. Design an alternate logo that could emphasize the Maroons as English Montréal's team.

I know the logo uses a number of colours not present in the rest of the uniform, but it all kind of ties back to the Phillies' early 90s set as being a key source of inspiration. That uniform featured the team's then-primary logo on the sleeve, which utilizes a number of colours not found anywhere else on the uniform. In that sense the concept kind of came full circle.

Anyway enough of me blathering. C&C is welcome, as always.

[sportstar1212]

Very nice looking jerseys. I like the logos too. There's nothing I don't like about the concept.

[IceCap]

Thanks. That's very much appreciated.

[hockey week]

That is SOLID!

I'd say you should attempt to remove either gray or black (probably black, because maroon/black would be a very dark color scheme), but it works. Everything about this concept says "there is one too many bumper stickers", but when you try to think of what should be removed, the shoulder stripe, the sleeve stripes over the shoulder stripe, the different home and road logos, etc...it's hard to imagine the whole concept without it. I think there should be some tinkering here, it's one of those 9.5 out of 10 kind of concepts, and I really think it could be a fantastic 10 with just one detraction...but Idk what that is.

Really, a great concept. Best original Maroons one I've seen.

[IceCap]

That is SOLID!

I'd say you should attempt to remove either gray or black (probably black, because maroon/black would be a very dark color scheme), but it works. Everything about this concept says "there is one too many bumper stickers", but when you try to think of what should be removed, the shoulder stripe, the sleeve stripes over the shoulder stripe, the different home and road logos, etc...it's hard to imagine the whole concept without it. I think there should be some tinkering here, it's one of those 9.5 out of 10 kind of concepts, and I really think it could be a fantastic 10 with just one detraction...but Idk what that is.

Really, a great concept. Best original Maroons one I've seen.

First and foremost, thanks for the kind words. Your concept series was part of what inspired me to do this, so this means a lot.

I get what you're saying about it being just a bit to busy. I had the same thought when I finished it, but I couldn't decide what to take out. I thought about going with a simpler single colour number font, but I wasn't sure how that would look next to the logo and striping. I may go back and try it anyway, just to see how it works out. If I was going to change any one thing to relieve the "one too many bumper stickers" effect it would probably be the numbers and Captain's/Assistant's patches.

[officeglenn]

Not feeling the M logo myself. It's so tall and narrow, and the diagonal strokes are so short, that it barely registers as an M at first glance. Would also like to see more black on the white jerseys; it's so prominent on the maroon set, but almost non-existent on the whites.

[hockey week]

That is SOLID!

I'd say you should attempt to remove either gray or black (probably black, because maroon/black would be a very dark color scheme), but it works. Everything about this concept says "there is one too many bumper stickers", but when you try to think of what should be removed, the shoulder stripe, the sleeve stripes over the shoulder stripe, the different home and road logos, etc...it's hard to imagine the whole concept without it. I think there should be some tinkering here, it's one of those 9.5 out of 10 kind of concepts, and I really think it could be a fantastic 10 with just one detraction...but Idk what that is.

Really, a great concept. Best original Maroons one I've seen.

First and foremost, thanks for the kind words. Your concept series was part of what inspired me to do this, so this means a lot.

I get what you're saying about it being just a bit to busy. I had the same thought when I finished it, but I couldn't decide what to take out. I thought about going with a simpler single colour number font, but I wasn't sure how that would look next to the logo and striping. I may go back and try it anyway, just to see how it works out. If I was going to change any one thing to relieve the "one too many bumper stickers" effect it would probably be the numbers and Captain's/Assistant's patches.

I'm honored that you appreciated my work. I thought it looked mildly familiar haha. Really, try it with just maroon and gray, and try it with just maroon and black. If white is used properly, it might work. Also try it without the sleeve stripes. Something in there should go.

And officegkenn makes a good point. See if you can make the M wider. Nothing fancy, just horizontal stretch. That should fix that issue

[IceCap]

Alright, here it is with a modified M and a more consistent colour scheme between the home and road. I'll also play around with the colour scheme itself, but I wanted to get these out there, to see how the new M and and road colour scheme works....

[raysfan24]

This is pretty sweet. I would love to see this in a game to see how it looks.

[Patchez]

This is pretty sweet. I would love to see this in a game to see how it looks.

[oaklandhusker]

Alright, here it is with a modified M and a more consistent colour scheme between the home and road. I'll also play around with the colour scheme itself, but I wanted to get these out there, to see how the new M and and road colour scheme works....

It's so much better now. The thicker M makes all the difference in the world.

That's really cool...

[IceCap]

Thanks for the kind words, I really like how the new M turned out, and the emphasis on black on the road turned out better then I thought. I'm going to play around with these some more, going with one sans black, one sans grey, as well as playing around with the number fonts.

This is pretty sweet. I would love to see this in a game to see how it looks.

That's amazing. Thanks!

[hockey week]

That table hockey guy might be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Is there a place to make those yourself, or is that your own creation? Serious props if it's your own.

Instill think you can get rid of the gray, maybe from everywhere but the logo (but you've already established that colors n e logo but not on the jersey are ok).

On the white, make all of the gray into white, so you have white stripes between the maroon ones, and on the maroon jersey make them black. The whole thing should pop more. Addition by subtraction.

Thinking in my history/marketing way, I also think that would open up the option for a gray third jersey in the future, not just a black one.

[Patchez]

BF: Your welcome… I like your uni design!

I created the tabletop hockey graphic myself… here is the original:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ab6d2chH48s

[Dbroalexander]

These are pretty fantastic. Any other current versions of past teams you're going to be doing?

[wildwing64]

The wider M definitely works better. Not much more I can add, but this is a brilliant concept