American Soccer Concepts - Colorado Rapids (Update) & Vancouver Whitecaps

[crashcarson15]

My goodness, has it really been this long since I posted one of these? Anyways got a couple in waiting but this one's relevant to the short-term, so...

Charlotte 1775

I'm going to be absolutely shocked if this one isn't a love/hate type of concept. Shocked. The wheels on this concept have turned pretty quickly and as far as the crest goes—for once—it's really similar to what I sketched out. Watching the Charlotte Hornets brand unveiling got me thinking about a CLT concept and this ended up being the end result. As far as the story behind things, when MLS is awarding its last 7 clubs (remember, the Canadian clubs are now in their own league), Michael Jordan gets interested in owning a club in Charlotte and well, because it's Michael Jordan, he gets his wish.

Anyways, onto the club's identity in and of itself, after seeing what the Hornets did (especially with their CH logo), I really wanted to do a Charlotte concept using teal and purple and hexagons and the city's history and using Michael Jordan as the owner allowed me to do that. (One of Charlotte's nicknames is "The Hornets Nest," I'm not just doing this because of the basketball team.) I originally had started to sketch a hexagonal C (which was always a focal point of this crest) with a crown in it but couldn't get it to look right so I moved to the Wikipedia page for the city. Luckily, I stumbled upon a historical event which may or may not have happened in the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which may or may not have been signed in 1775. If it happened, it would've been the first such declaration in the United States and is celebrated by North Carolinians and Charlotteans each year (though apparently not as much now?). The date is on the state flag though, so I was cool with using it.

That led to the end product of the crest as can be seen above, with a "75" filling the empty space in the hexagonal C. Charlotte's—and Mecklenburg County's—name origins have German ties and as a fan of the Bundesliga, I wanted to make a crest similar in nature to that of FC Schalke 04 or Hannover 96. As for the kits, I really just started messing around with some hexagons on a kit and saw what I got—ultimately, it resulted in a series of chevrons on the home kit with a hexagon pattern that I really just fell in love with. I paired the teal shirt with white shorts for the home and on the road, eliminated the series of chevrons but kept a vertical stripe going down over the heart. I struggled for awhile to get a sponsor logo that would look right on the kits and had to enter another alternate universe to do so. Between now and some arbitrary point in time, online sports betting is legalized in the United States! I can say goodbye to all of my money in this world! Anyways, the world's largest sports betting website—bwin.com—entered the market and looked to MJ's MLS team as a place to sponsor something.

...and exhale. Any C&C would be much, much appreciated on this! Cheers!

[1clkgtramg]

Is it bad that I actually like the Charlotte Home kits? It's so out there, but thats what people liked about the Hornets. I really like the unique striping too, I wish I came up with that for my MLS NASL concept series.. Heck, maybe I wont bother making a Charlotte one since yours is more perfect than I could ever make mine. (Well, maybe I wouldnt have the Aberdeen FC style neck, but other than that, perfect)

[DS729]

I really don't mind the home. The clash is a little cluttered but the home is nice. I look how bold and "out there" it is. Most people don't really go outside of the box, and they may look nice. But at least you're trying something original that's really out there.

[ujju2]

Love them both! Very unique!

[Saathoff]

Design is really out there. But great use of the colors. Good job!

[crashcarson15]

Atletico San Juan

I had been sitting on an iteration of this since quite literally the start of the series but never posted it -- ultimately, I changed some things around in this second run and like it a lot, lot more. In 2015, with the renovated stadium in Bayamon sitting vacant, an ownership group gets together to bring soccer back to San Juan for the 2016 USL season. The team is a hit and is very successful as they market themselves well in the community. Atletico is a common naming convention and that's why I went with that.

As for the concept itself, it heavily features a flag motif that's drawn from a combination of the Puerto Rican Coat of Arms and Hertha Berlin (and other German Clubs) of whom I am a supporter. As for the flag, there are four parts -- the lamb in the top left is taken from the San Juan Coat of Arms, the interlocking SJ in the top right is, of course, an homage to the city itself, the shell in the bottom left represents the club's (original) placement as the only in the Caribbean while the crossed swords in the bottom right represent the club's nickname, Los Bucaneros. The colors are the ones I've been using for my USA club since 2011 and they just have always seemed to fit for me. I've changed things around quite a bit with the kits here and this was another case of messing around a bit. I was originally going for a different twist on a halved shirt here and ended up morphing it into what you see now. The sponsor is Scotiabank -- who do a lot of work in the Caribbean and the kits are by Under Armour. I'm also presenting this on a new template so any feedback on it would be appreciated!

(Also, gotta say thank you on all the feedback on that Charlotte concept! Let's try and keep that going, alright?)

[1clkgtramg]

I really like the ASJ kits. Even though the coulour change is subtle, I do think that would be interesting to pull off. The strange striping pattern, how would it look reversed in the chevron section? I'm curious because the logo isnt as legible as it could be and maybe mirroring the pattern on the chevron could fix it? Also, maybe throw in the establishment year on the empty spaces in the roundel logo? Just a thought.


Scotiabank represent!!

[Saathoff]

San Juan is really cool! Though only issue for me is having a royal blue kit and the change kit being navy. Not enough contrast between the sets.

All in all though, the design is great. Love the team logo

[mbannon92]

Charlotte is freaking amazing. That hexagon pattern is genius. If this was a real team, I'd buy that home shirt in a heartbeat. Also, lol at a gambling site sponsoring Michael Jordan's team.

I like the crest for San Juan, and the kits are an interesting idea, but they could be executed better. The white/blue chevron makes it hard to see the UA logo and crest. A white/gold chevron (with blue UA) would work a lot better IMO. Also, the clash is too similar to the home kit. If you want to keep the same design I would make the kit white/gold, or keep the navy and go with a new design.

[-kj]

Orange would make a good change kit for San Juan, as a nod to the Islanders.

[The_Admiral]

Just came across this. Wow! I love Miami Athletic and Western Reserve SC, which is one of the first times I've ever been on board with Euro-style nomenclature for a North American team. So good work with that. Love the Charlotte. That's next-level '90s.

I'm not on board with the Hartford Hearts. I believe the "Hart" in Hartford refers to a deer, as in a place where deer cross, or ford, a river. So maybe a better representation would be a buck by a river.

[crashcarson15]

Atlético San Juan Update

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I did originally have a white third shirt with that set that I didn't end up posting with the new template I'm working off of. I decided not to really mess with the roundel because it's not a huge part of the concept—I really liked the suggestions that mbannon92 and Mockba put forth and tried to incorporate them into an update. The chevron should now be set-up so that everything's a lot more visible/legible and I loved the idea of the orange road shirt as an homage to the Islanders. I ended up using the lighter blue on the original home concept here and paired it with the navy to make something hopefully better. The color contrast is a little jarring but does get me back to more of the halved look I was originally going for with this concept. I'm interested to see y'all's feedback on this... (And in regards to the Hartford concept, that was one of those "draw in Philosophy class, computerize on a car ride without internet" concepts that I admittedly didn't do too much research on. Might go back and look at that one again). Probably another concept coming soon so keep the feedback coming!

[Whittier S]

The logo is totally lost on that orange jersey.

I'm really enjoying this series, you do great work.

[Saathoff]

Great fix. Logo is lost like Whittier said. Maybe just add a stroke the logo to have it stand out. I know the Seattle Sounders do this with their home & clash kits.

[1clkgtramg]

Aww, I'm gonna miss the double blue kits, but this is more appropriate. I too agree the logo on the Orange one is lost though. Have you tried using the roundel on the Orange?

[crashcarson15]

Anchorage Drillers

I don't have much time to explain this because internet not going to be here now but it's like oil and copper and blue? Copper shorts would be a thing if needed in case of a clash. FedEx is the sponsor because cargo through Anchorage airport.

[Guest]

Anchorage Drillers

I don't have much time to explain this because internet not going to be here now but it's like oil and copper and blue? Copper shorts would be a thing if needed in case of a clash. FedEx is the sponsor because cargo through Anchorage airport.

Love that color scheme Alex!

[1clkgtramg]

Wow, really nice combo for Anchorage! (I assume there is no relation to the Edmonton Drillers?) I think its almost perfect the way it is, just needs more "Alaska" like the Big Dipper or something. Maybe if one had the Pin Stripes and the other one had the Bid Dipper embossed on it like TFC does with the maple leaf? Too bad you don't have 3 kits cause I really like both jerseys, but it being in Alaska, a white one would be likely. (also, maybe its just the image, but the script is blurry on the logo on the jersey, maybe remove the white outline in the one in the jersey to clean it up?)

White Home with Big Dipper.
Blue Away with Pinstripes.
Copper Third with Pinstripes.
White or Copper shorts as an option is what I would do

[crashcarson15]

I might go back and do things with that Anchorage concept but ultimately, I wanted to steer away from the traditional Alaska imagery. Not sure why though...

Iowa Rangers FC

This concept really doesn't tie in to the area all that well—it's been adapted from something I've been working on for another league on here—but I did like the concept and wanted to put it together for something here. Full disclosure before we start, the rampant lion was picked up off of a clip art site somewhere, I believe. (I'm not sure where as it's been a little while since I started on this one.) The "IRFC" moniker fit well and I opted on using Rangers over Rovers as it's a bit of a classic name in football between (Glasgow) Rangers and Queens Park Rangers and I'll be using Rovers perhaps in my next concept. Iowa seemed to make sense as a location for the club and naturally, the club would start play at Drake Stadium. Sorry Des Moines Menace, I wasn't a fan of the name...

As far as the colors go, I wanted to keep in mind the potential controversy in using "Rangers" because of the heated rivalry between 'Gers and Celtic. And while I don't think there's too many Celtic supporters in Des Moines, I wanted to go with the green and white colors of Celtic nonetheless to "balance" things if you will. The kits have a basic tartan-like pattern to honor the Scottish imagery that goes throughout the concept and I went with white sleeves in the style of Hibernian while I thought that white socks on the home made the most sense. It's all sponsored by Hy-Vee, easily the only company I thought of for an Iowa-based team. What a silly name. I also went for Puma for the first time in this concept series, adapting their King template seen on clubs like Cardiff City and Newcastle United this campaign to the template. I do realize that this is my second use of Tertre in this series so apologies there—once again, this is a result of this concept evolving from a concept for a different use. Looking forward to getting some C&C on this one though as well!

[Berlin Wall]

I love these. Charlotte is absolutely awsome!^^