NFL Concepts - Fixin' Florida

[AHcreative]

Hey, y'all. I haven't posted any concepts here in a while for many reasons, of which I will name a few (and I'm not calling anyone out, I just have a few things to get off my chest):

• Most of my hard work gets pushed down to the depths of the second or third page by sloppy, rushed, and half-baked concepts that for one reason or another stay on the top page and get millions of comments.
• There are many immature people here that simply post things like "your concept sucks," "this is terrible," or (and this is my personal favorite) "your idea is wrong because of x, y, and z. This would never be seen in real life!"

And these next ones, to show that I'm not solely passing the blame on others, have to do with my flaws.

• I have trouble with commitment; I say I'm starting a series with the intent on finishing it in its entirety, yet I never do.
• Even with all of the sub-par work out there that I mentioned, there is a ton of great work on these boards and I feel as though my concepts get overshadowed because my skills are not as great as others.

And last but not least, it's something that everyone on here experiences:

• Life. Life has just been crazy lately and I haven't had the time to sit down and work on some concepts like I would like to

.

So, there you have it. I don't plan on making this a series per se because I know that I'm not going to get all of the teams finished. But let's just say, if I do get some stuff done I'll dump it here.

TL;DR - I haven't posted concepts in awhile due to silly things but I'm posting a few now because of reasons. And if I haven't lost you yet, I'll explain a little bit about each concept.

Over the past couple of years, Nike has graced all of us with redesigns of each of the three teams that call Florida their home (...why on earth does Florida need three NFL teams?). All three designs have been not well-received to put it lightly. However, each overhaul shares some qualities that, IMO, are worth saving or fixing. I have attempted to fix all three Floridian teams to my liking. While there may not be any major changes, I did work hard on these. In fact, I've been working on Jacksonville and Tampa Bay off and on for a while, and I started on Miami about five hours ago and just finished not too long ago.

To get things started we have the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, the Jaguars probably have the worst look of these three teams currently and that's mainly because of their helmet. The black to gold concept isn't too bad of one in theory and especially when the idea behind the helmet was to, and I'm paraphrasing here, "show the Jaguar lurking from the shadows into the light." Pretty cool, huh? Not so much. The current Jags helmet goes from gold to black suggesting that the jaguar is crawling back into the darkness, probably to escape the perpetual mediocrity that rushes onto the field year after year. All kidding aside, though, I actually think the helmet could work if done properly, which is what I tried to do. The helmet now goes from black to gold so that the Jaguar is emerging from the darkness. As for the jerseys, teal is making its triumphant comeback as the primary color. Black has had its time as being the Jaguars primary color. Besides, it's still featured prominently throughout the color scheme and I've even included a special "black out" alternate jersey. I fixed the problems of the black numbers on the teal jersey as dark numbers on a dark jersey hardly ever work out. The TV numbers are on the sleeves instead of the shoulders to make room for the subliminal jaguar-spotted striping pattern on the shoulders. This pattern can also be seen on the pants.

So, here are the Jaguars:

*click for zoom*

Up next we have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay, in my opinion, actually have some pretty awesome uniforms, it's just that the number font is a mess. But before we get into that, let's talk a little bit about the logo and colors. I don't know if you can tell or not, but I significantly darkened the red and reduced the color scheme to red/pewter/silver. The logo has the "tatters" n the flag just as the previous logo did and the entire concept is devoid of orange (except for the football in the logo). The uniforms still have the shoulder yoke that the Bucs' current jerseys do except for the fact that it extends all of the way to the collar -- which is all pewter instead of half pewter, half red. The yoke has some stripes on it to emulate slashes of a sword as does the long stripe on the pants (in all honesty I tried making the pant stripe mimic a sword/sheath). The alarm-clock number font is completely replaced by a modern, yet simple font that makes due without horrible gimmicks. Oh, and the shoulder logos now match. The "Bucs" wordmark is now strictly on the chest, right above the number.

The Buccaneers, gentlemen:

*click for zoom*

Finally we have the team that has probably received the least amount of criticism from the Nike overhaul: the Miami Dolphins. Let me begin by saying that I love Miami's new logo. At first I was like "meh, it's alright." But it's grown on me and I believe it to be multiple times better than their previous logo. That being said, I don't much care for the blue in the color scheme. The Dolphins should always be just aqua and orange. The blue in the logo will stay on the helmet, but you won't find it anywhere on the jerseys. The aqua facemask is also making a well-needed comeback. The jerseys are simple, yet a little different from what the 'phins have ever worn. The helmet, pant, and shoulder stripes are all the exact same on the home uniform and the only one that differs on the away uniform is the helmet stripe. The shoulders feature Northwestern stripes on a background that is the same color of the pants, or opposite that of the jersey. Currently, the Dolphins have this really hokey number font that I'm not too fond of, so I used a different font that is slimmer and looks better, IMO. There's not much else to say about this one, as it's pretty straightforward.

Here are the Dolphins to wrap it up:

*click for zoom*

So, if you read all of that guys; I thank you very much. Please share any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticism with me as I'm always open to suggestions on how to progress my ideas!

Thanks for viewing everyone, have a nice day!

[MJWalker45]

I'd swap the sleeves for the Dolphins or go with the bigger sleeve stripes ala Ohio State. I'd also use a thicker font number for all 3 teams and a more athletic font for Miami. Maybe something similar to the Minnesota Golden Gophers new numbers.

[kansas sports fan]

Jaguars need a pair of gold pants

[Atomic]

MOD EDIT?

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As far as concepts go. The Jags give me a hybrid USC Trojans/New York Jets vibe. The sublimated Jaguar spotting is a nice touch, but the numbers on the road sleeves are a little hard to read. Maybe switch the sleeves to teal with white numbers?

Tampa is the strongest of the bunch. Maybe add in a little orange, but other than that it's a pretty solid look.

For Miami, I'd actually drop the white sleeves on the home and go full aqua.

[FinsWins10]

I will be back jags and bucs starting grow on me dolphins away doesn't need aqua sleeves

[Clintau24]

Jaguars need a pair of gold pants

Oh God no...

[AHcreative]

What's the deal with all of these mod edits?! I'm not doubting the authority of the moderating team, but were all of these edits necessary? I mean, of the ten replies, six got edited and five got completely erased. What was said that warranted that?

[FinsWins10]

Yes I did it fins still not growing on me

[LMU]

What's the deal with all of these mod edits?! I'm not doubting the authority of the moderating team, but were all of these edits necessary? I mean, of the ten replies, six got edited and five got completely erased. What was said that warranted that?

We're editing out all the comments that aren't constructive. Your thread just happened to have a temper tantrum happen in the middle of it.

[AHcreative]

What's the deal with all of these mod edits?! I'm not doubting the authority of the moderating team, but were all of these edits necessary? I mean, of the ten replies, six got edited and five got completely erased. What was said that warranted that?

We're editing out all the comments that aren't constructive. Your thread just happened to have a temper tantrum happen in the middle of it.

Gotcha. So basically the second bullet point I posted above?

C'mon guys, I understand that you may not like my concepts, but at least give me some suggestions on approval. So far this thread has been an absolute trainwreck which is discouraging because these are the first concepts I've posted in awhile because of stupid things like this.

Thank you for all that have left constructive comments and please, I'd enjoy more. I will work on editing these later and I planned on working on a Carolina Panthers set in the near future but if no one has anything decent to say I'll just stop posting.

[WESPN]

Not crazy about the Jags. Too much going on.

As for the Bucs, everything is great except for the helmet. If you were actually going to "fix" the Bucs, the second thing to go would be that enormous helmet decal (the first obviously would be the alarm clock numbers). Is that Woodblock on the number font?

For the Dolphins I have no major qualms. Well done.

[AHcreative]

Not crazy about the Jags. Too much going on.

As for the Bucs, everything is great except for the helmet. If you were actually going to "fix" the Bucs, the second thing to go would be that enormous helmet decal (the first obviously would be the alarm clock numbers). Is that Woodblock on the number font?

For the Dolphins I have no major qualms. Well done.

The gigantic helmet logo is actually one thing I really like about the Bucs' new design.

The font I used for the concept is a variation of BrightonTwo.

[MojoRoberts]

The orange stroke on the numbers seems to cut into the white number rather than surround the number as it should. Try changing the stroke to the outside of the white numbers. Everything else looks great to me. You've addressed pretty much any complains I've had with the recent overhauls.

[mamiller99]

I'm a fan of your TBB redux, I think is has to do with the shoulder design(I wanted to say yoke, but I do t know if football has that), because it reminds me of the Blues current yoke design(before the Icethetics potential jersey leak), which I am a fan of. I think it would be cool if the 'Phins had orange belts.

[davidmiller5]

Good job with these. Jacksonville and Tampa are definitely improvements over what they are currently wearing.

I would like to see the Jaguars' helmet in action. Are you thinking it would be a helmet similar to what they used to wear that looked black in the shadows but a dark green in the light, or would it be a fairly obvious gradient? Either way it would be a big improvement. Many NCAA teams use gradients on their helmets that I like, but Jacksonville's helmet is made much worse by the drastic change from gold to black over such a small area. Yours takes away this problem.

I'm not a big fan of the jaguar print on the uniforms. I have seen many Jags concepts with the spots included, and it always looks forced to me. The Lions don't have giant manes around their shoulder; similarly, they Jaguars don't need jaguar spots to make it a good concept.

I like the Bucs. I don't mind the giant helmet logo; someone needs to break out of the NFL's traditional helmet mold. I also like your decision to eliminate orange. It can work as a supporting color, but it isn't necessary. It's refreshing to see a Bucs' concept without it.

My biggest issue with the Dolphins' design is the font. By the time you add a stroke to the number 3, the middle extension (what is it called?) almost disappears completely. A thicker font should take care of this issue.

[mbannon92]

Jags: It's hard to tell what the gradient on the helmet looks like, but if it's like their previous helmet--where the color changed depending on the light--then I like it. As far as changes, I'm not sold on the sublimated spots, and I would make the road TV numbers white. Other than that, improvements all around.

Bucs: You managed to fix the problems with their new look while still keeping the overall feel. The number font is great. I like the updated yoke a lot, as well as the pants stripes. My only suggestion would be to reconsider the silver/chrome facemask. Pewter would look better, IMO.

Dolphins: Not a huge fan of these. The contrasting sleeves don't really work, and the number font is hard to read. Fix those two things and it'll look a lot better.