Saturday, August 18, 2007

Revisiting The Caps, Cats

The Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers have already officially unveiled their new Rbk EDGE jerseys for this season, but that won't stop me from posting fan-designed concepts for those two teams.

Let's start with the Capitals and a couple of designs that have been floating around since about way back in January.



How about those lookers? Naturally, they're based off that infamous all-star jersey template. There are lots of colors. The quilt in my old bedroom is coming to mind. Sew a patch here. Sew a patch there. By George, you've got yourself a hockey jersey.

Moving right along now. Shortly after the Capitals announced they would be making a return to their traditional colors of red, white and blue, this concept popped up on the web.



The logo aside, that wouldn't be a half-bad uniform design, if you ask me. I could see the Caps wearing something like this and looking very good doing it. Know what I'm saying?

For a closer look at the logo used in that design, see the image to the left. What's interesting is that it makes use of "capitals" in the text of the logo. The irony is that the current logo and the one from the '70s are written in lowercase type. Weird, right? In addition to that, this logo also uses the stick and puck from the dome logo of recent years.

It's sharp work, but ultimately I don't feel it would be an improvement on what the Capitals ended up going with for their new unis. Now let's move on to the Panthers. Got some cool stuff there.



This is from the designer who treated us to the Ottawa Senators jerseys I posted yesterday. Check out the swooshes on those sleeves. That's quite something. Not sure about the choice to put blue numbers on the red jersey. Probably better off with white. I'm also intrigued by the use of the yellow. These jerseys look nothing like the Panthers despite the use of the same colors.

What I think is cool is the concept for a new secondary logo on the shoulders of these sweaters. For a closer look at that, check out this alternate jersey idea.



That's different. Though between that and the sun with the palm tree crossing the hockey stick, I prefer the current shoulder patch. Also, try to visually imagine a player wearing all of those items. That is quite a lot of blue, isn't it? Blue sweater, blue pants, blue socks — and the only thing that breaks it up is the red stripe on the sock.

Hope you enjoyed that. If you want to see what these two teams' uniforms actually look like, I've set up a photo gallery you can access from the sidebar.

But enough with my opinion, let's have yours. Comments go below.

Concept Jerseys For Everybody

I may be playing with fire here, but I've decided to make an Rbk EDGE jersey template available to anyone interested in trying their hand at a creating a uniform concept. God knows I'm not hurting for content, but a lot of people have been asking where to get a template, so I thought I'd try to be helpful for once. If you want to download it, you'll find it toward the bottom of the sidebar on the right.

Having said that, I too decided to try my own hand at a concept for my Tampa Bay Lightning. I put only about 10 minutes into it so the quality and overall design might be poor, but I just wanted to show that anyone can do it.



It's not much, but it works in the "leaked" new logos we'll likely see unveiled a week from today at the St. Pete Times Forum. I have a background in graphic design having worked as a newspaper ad designer for about six years (but you might not know it based on that). I know my way around Photoshop, but it is quite expensive and I am quite cheap. So I have to deal with what little I do have.

What I really wanted to do was see how the Bolts' home sweater might look in blue. I've always thought that would be a neat direction to go. Again, very basic and simplistic, but that's been the Lightning's style. I'm rather anxious to see what they've come up with. What would you all think of a blue Tampa Bay uniform? Too much like the Leafs?

So if you've never made a concept, now is your chance to take a stab at it. I mean, just go nuts. And if you think there's something to it, you've got my email address. Send it along.

UPDATE (8:41 PM): Just noticed an oversight on my part. No numbers on the sleeves. Oops.

First Photo Of Hurricanes Jersey?

I'm aware of the fact that EA Sports supposedly unveiled the Carolina Hurricanes jerseys earlier this summer, but that stuff isn't for me. I want actual photos. That being said, a couple of people emailed in something I can work with.

Apparently, this photo of Noah Babin was posted on the Carolina Hurricanes web site along with a bunch of other prospects. As far as I can tell, he's the only one donning the new Rbk EDGE apparel, though. You can tell by the collar.

In addition, the jersey also has the thin white striping around the shoulders, seen in the EA Sports images. While this isn't huge news, I thought it would still be worth posting. And for those of you wondering, it won't go on the sidebar until we see the whole jersey. For that, the 'Canes are asking us to hold out until September 16.

Canucks Logo Leaked Via Stickers?

Apolgies for the late posts today. Went to the movies this afternoon. Superbad was hilarious.

I got emailed a photo claiming to be that of sticker produced by the Vancouver Canucks bearing the alleged new logo. I should clarify. The sticker wasn't claiming anything so much as the sender of the email. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure:



For a better look at it, I was also sent this rendering of the logo. I really like it better with the green, but who am I to say, really? The question is what do you guys think? Is the blue/black/silver combo too Lightning? (It is for me.) Do you like it better than the blue/maroon/silver combo of the last decade?

I also want to be clear on the fact that I can't vouch for the veracity of this photo. Just know that it was something emailed to me and that the Canucks will supposedly make their official announcement regarding new uniforms and logos on August 29. We'll all be watching and waiting.

Poll: Senators vs Rangers


vs
Ottawa
SENATORS
New York
RANGERS


Place your vote and then feel free to leave a comment as to how you came to your decision. Tell all your friends to drop in and vote! The more voices heard, the more accurate the results! By the way, I know the Senators are unveiling their new logo on August 22 (three days before this poll closes), so on that day or the day after, the logo you see here will change. You can choose to vote now based on this logo or later in the week based on the new one. Or you may even be able to vote on both occasions.

Poll opening date
Aug 18 @ 4:26 AM
Poll closing date
Aug 25 @ 11:59 PM


07CHTRN | #E1D | OTTvNYR