Chicago Blackhawks De-Edge

Well, the Blackhawks won the cup last Monday, something that this Canucks fan isn't exactly thrilled about.  They did deserve to win though, they were the best team all year long.  And speaking of the Blackhawks, they are the next team for my De-Edge series.

Chicago Blackhawks:

I'm trying to make something new for each team in this series, so even though I wouldn't change the Blackhawks jerseys in real life, they get changed here.  I started off by adding some of the colours in the logo to the striping on the home jersey.  I then based the road jersey off of that jersey, but only using red white and black.  Also the Blackhawks secondary logo is over top of the sleeve-stripes again like it was back in the 1950's.

 Thanks for visiting, and as always feel free to leave any feedback you might have.

Carolina Hurricanes De-Edge

This De-Edge concept kind of doubles as my Hurricanes jersey fix.  Although to be honest when I started this concept I wasn't trying to make it similar to their new jerseys, it just kind of happened.

Carolina Hurricanes:

The first thing I did was put the hurricane-flag pattern back on the hem.  Then I decided to keep the fonts and name-in-shoulder-yoke from their current jerseys.  After that I experimented lots with the rest of the jersey, trying to find the best look.  It ended up looking quite similar to their new jerseys but that wasn't intentional.  Below you can see some of the sleeve striping patterns I tried out.

As you can see, the sleeve striping pattern I ended up using on the red jersey is just the hurricane-flag striping without the black squares or perpendicular lines.  The white jersey is then a recoloured version of those stripes.

Feel free to leave any comments, as always I'll try out any suggestions you may have.

Colorado Avalanche De-Edge

I'm kind of going alphabetically for this De-Edge series, but I was a bit stuck on good ideas for Carolina and Chicago for so I skipped a bit ahead to Colorado.

Colorado Avalanche:

I thought the Avalanche could use an updated colour scheme, so I got rid of black and silver, and used a navy and light blue.  That allowed me to experiment with a light blue road jersey.  For the striping pattern I wanted to use a mountain theme, but without copying their original jerseys.  Afterwards I realised it looked very similar to this concept by Justin C, so he gets credit for the idea.

Thanks for visiting.

Calgary Flames De-Edge

I have another De-Edge concept today, for the Calgary Flames.  For this De-Edge series I'm hoping to have about a concept a week.  So this series could drag on a while, especially if I go back and make alternate jerseys, but hopefully that will mean no long stretches of time without any posts.

Calgary Flames:

I've seen a handful of people use the flame pattern from the Flames logo as jersey striping.  I used those concepts inspiration or this (I don't think I've seen it used exactly like this, but it's possible I have and are sub-consciously copying someone's idea).  I also used the darker red from the Flames' Heritage Classic jersey, and no black.  The shoulder logo is the old WHA's Calgary Cowboy's logo (I think the Flames should purchase the rights to that logo, kind of like the Canucks did with the Millionaires brand).

Have a good day!!!

Buffalo Sabres De-Edge

As promised yesterday, I'm back with another De-Edge concept today, this time it's for the Buffalo Sabres.  This is also the 100th post on this blog, in just over 400 days since it began!!!  I was a bit stuck with this concept until I made a decision that in this version of the NHL the light colour sweater doesn't have to be white.  For this concept the road jersey is yellow, but for future teams the road jersey could be grey, vintage white, or any other light enough colour.  Hopefully this decision will allow me to make some more creative concepts as this series continues.

Buffalo Sabres:

For the Sabres I wanted to use their original colour scheme, but I didn't want to just copy their original jerseys.  I was a bit stuck until I noticed the striping pattern on their 1978-80 road socks, which I based the jersey stripes off of.  Also (as mentioned above) the road jersey is yellow, which allows it to be a reverse of the home jersey.  I used their original logo, but with an added blue outline so that the yellow outline doesn't get lost on the yellow jersey.

I haven't started on the next team of this series yet, but I have lots of ideas in my head so hopefully the next team will be posted soon.  Thanks for reading.

My Thoughts: New Star Rising

Welcome back to another post on SG-94, the second today (I think this is the first day with two posts on this blog).  Here I'll be talking about the Stars new logos and jerseys.

I'll start off by discussing the new logos that we leaked earlier.  I like the new D-Star logo, it's better than their previous logo, but it's not perfect.  I do like the new colour scheme, the kelly green looks great paired with the black, white and silver.  I don't miss the gold at all (I have made six Stars concepts since I started this blog, and only three included gold).  My biggest complaint about the logo is those little notches where the star connects to the D (the right and bottom portions of the star).  Those just look awkward and poorly rendered in my opinion.  I also don't like how the D is angled more than the star, which you can see if you compare the right side of the D to line created by the bevel on the top portion of the star.  They matched the angle of D to the slope between the top and bottom-left portions of the star instead.  Another minor thing that bugs me is that the outside outline changes colour depending on the background, which is something I think a logo shouldn't have to do.  Overall I'd give this new logo a 8/10.

The new secondary logo isn't nearly as good as the primary.  It doesn't add anything to the identity, it's just the D-Star from the primary logo in a circle with the team's name written around the edge.  Too many NHL team's use these lazy roundels as secondary logos.  It's also a little odd that the D-Star doesn't have the black outline from the primary logo.  I wouldn't give this more than a 6/10.

Photo from Icethetics

We also got a look at another logo which will be on the pants.  I like this logo much better than the roundel logo.  It represents the team's location nicely, and it just looks better than a lazy circle.  Again though, I wish the D-Star part of the logo was surrounded by a black outline like the main logo.  This logo also gets an 8/10.

Photo from stars.nhl.com

And now on to the jerseys.  I'm a big fan of the white jersey, it has a nice look to it, and it doesn't look like any other current hockey team.  The green jersey on the other hand looks too close to the Chicago Blackhawks home jersey in my opinion (which is made worse by the Blackhawks St. Patrick's Day jerseys).  I do really like the fact that the jersey is green, especially the bright shade of kelly green the Stars used, I just wished the jersey was a bit more different than the Blackhawks jersey.  Even if they just moved the hem stripes up, so the hem was green and not white (matching the arm stripes), then it would be different enough for me.  Getting past that though, the rest of the look is nice.  I like the "Stars" and "Dallas" wordmarks in the collars.  Overall this is a huge improvement over the Stars previous jerseys, and I'd rate them an 8/10 overall (home jersey 7/10, road jersey 9/10).

Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments.  Also stay tuned for a De-Edge concept tomorrow.

My Thoughts: New Storm

So the Hurricanes just unveiled new home and road jerseys, the first major change since the teamed moved from Hartford in 1997.  I know you all already know this, so this post isn't reporting the changes, it's my thoughts on the changes.

Photos from instagram.com/nhlcanes

First I want to talk about the teaser picks the Hurricanes were posting on Instagram.  I think that was a great idea, it was fun trying to piece together what the jerseys would look like from the pictures.  It was also cool waking up in the morning knowing there was going to be a new photo.  The Hurricanes marketing team did a great job with this in my opinion.

Screenshot from hurricanes.nhl.com

And now on to the actual uniforms, which I don't think the Hurricanes did as good as a job with.  I don't mind them getting new jerseys, the old ones were around for 15 years and were starting to look a bit dated, but the new jerseys look a bit too traditional.  It's also a bit weird that the jerseys don't match at all, I think it would have been better if the red jersey looked more like the white.  In my opinion the red jersey looks too similar to Team Canada's jersey, and is lacking some much needed black accents.  Also I miss the Hurricane striping pattern, it was such a unique element that is now hidden in the collar.  There are a few things I do like, including the unique shoulder yoke on the white jersey which extends down beneath the NOB.  I also like the new fonts used for the NOB and numbers.  The smaller crest also looks good (although it is a bit high up on the jersey).  Overall I'd give these Jerseys a 7/10, and in my opinion it's a downgrade from their previous jerseys.

I'll have another post like this for the Stars unveiling later today, so stay tuned for that.  Thanks for visiting.

Boston Bruins De-Edge

I'm back with another De-Edge concept, this time for the Boston Bruins.

Boston Buins:

I'm going for a more retro look for the Bruins, since they are an original six team.  The logo is similar to their Bobby Orr "era" logo, but the B has serifs (I used the same logo for my NHL Redesign concept).  Also the sleeve and hem stripes are changed up to match the shoulder yokes.