Early Cats Concept Art
Monday · Mar 22 · 2010 | 9:47 AM PDT
Panthers unveil Den of HonorThis past weekend, the Florida Panthers unveiled their Den of Honor, a tribute to the brief but colorful history of hockey in South Florida.
Among the many exhibits at the BankAtlantic Center is a display that showcases some of the team's early logo concepts — of obvious interest to Icethetics readers.
Some early Panthers conceptsIt features two framed canvases with over a dozen different sketches of potential logos, designed back in the early '90s.
These images come from a video about the unveiling of the Den of Honor, posted on the Panthers' website Saturday. Click here to watch it.
One of the most unfortunate sketches appears to be that of a panther stretching in a downward position, head on the ground and hind quarters way up in in the air. The witless puns almost write themselves.
More Cats concepts on displayThankfully, based on the majority of the concepts, it seems clear that management was in favor of a leaping panther. The only question dealt with the positioning of the paws.
Take a look at the sketch in the center of this image (right), the differently-positioned paws may be more anatomically realistic, but leave the logo feeling a bit unbalanced. And anatomical realism has no place in sports logos anyway.
See the small logo just above that one? It's nice to see they avoided the temptation to go with the three-quarter view — unlike some teams (Ottawa).
Personally, I think the Panthers have one of the coolest hockey logos despite its intricacies. And after 17 years it's neat to see the team finally showing us what could have been.
Just call it a third already
Bruins don classicsThe Boston Bruins broke out the Winter Classic threads for the fourth time this season on Sunday.
The Bruins donned their specially-designed duds before the home crowd, beating the New York Rangers 2-1 in their first indoor win while wearing gold.
At this point, they just need to call it the third jersey — officially. After all, the current black thirds could use replacing. The Bs arguably have the best home and road sweaters in the NHL along with the worst alternate.
Whether it returns this fall for the 2010-11 campaign remains to be seen, but it might be a safe bet that we'll see it again before this season is out. All the previous occurrences of the jersey were weekend matinee games.
Of course, the Fenway Park game was an afternoon match. The Bs wore the golds next on Saturday, Jan. 23 for a 1:00 PM start against Ottawa and again on Saturday, Feb. 6 for another 1:00 PM start against the Canucks. Yesterday's game against the Rangers started at 12:30 PM.
The Bruins now have two more afternoon home games left on the schedule. The first is Mar. 27 against the Flames and the other is Apr. 10 against the Hurricanes. Could it show up again at one or both of these games?
Reader Comments (26)
I love that jersey. Best third/Winter Classic/special jersey this season by far. Ranks up there with Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh's Winter Classics if you ask me.
I wonder if they make it the third jersey if they'll put the primary thats on the current third on the shoulder, but maybe in Brown as an homage to this logo?
I actually really like the one in the centre of the image on the right - anyways I always love seeing logo sketches for pro teams, thanks for the find.
the current thirds are very popular in boston so i don't know if they are going to replace them, although i think it would be an upgrade. i don't think it makes much sense having a third jersey thats the same color as the home
I liked that stretching panthers logo in the centre as well......I got excited when I saw "They're Back" on the panthers picture at the top because I thought they were talking about the jerseys!
Technically, the Oilers have the worst alternate (last year's primary). The colors are boring and dull, and the stripes don't go all the way around. And for some reason, there's that piping across the front.
it's a crime if these jerseys aren't seen 15 or so times next season (speaking about B's gold)
Just because you think Boston's third is the worst doesn't mean it should be replaced. Boston's third is awesome and we here in Boston love it.
The Winter Classic jersey is awesome, but we still very much like the third.
Great post about the Panthers early logo sketches. One of my favorite things to view, other than the final logo, is the process getting to the finished version. I could spend hours looking at concept sketches!
So Boston fans would sacrifice a beautiful, traditional jersey (that actually looks like a jersey, not a modern mess) with an original, bold color to have 2 black unis?
Got to love it...
You don't have to love it at all. You're not a fan.
We love it....that is all the matters.
Not to mention the Winter Classic jersey isn't traditional, is a brand new jersey that was created this year, its not a reincarnation of any past jerseys, its a mixture of our past.
Lifelong Bruins fan here.
Though I love the logo on the black 3rd, overall it's a plain, boring, too black jersey, it needs at least hem stripes,
plus the B's already wear a black jersey.
That logo on the Winter classic jersey could make a real nice 3rd.
Those Bruins Winter Classic jerseys should be here to stay.
Hopefully the next jersey for the Florida franchise will say "Jets" or have a fleur-de-lis on it.
I remember when the Panthers joined the league for the 93-94 season. I won a hockey pool with my step-dad and went right out and bought a Panthers jersey. The Canucks promptly went to the Stanley Cup Finals (I'm from Vancouver), all my friends wore their Canucks jerseys to school and my Panthers jersey turned out to be a big mistake. So it goes.
Well since most of you don't like the B's current jersey and like the Winter Classic jersey.....here is one you might like
If I was a good enough artist I'd fix all the jerseys and send them to Chris as a league rebranding series. Unfortunately an artist I am not, BUT I will tell you what needs to be done.
Florida: Adopt the 3rd jersey as your home, make it red, eliminate powder blue. Create mirror for Away.
Edmonton (since someone mentioned them): Eliminate 90's copper, go back to Orange and Blue home and away, then for the 3rd bring back the Oil Drop Gear jersey....the best they've ever had. (feel free to Reebok the crap out of the 3rd as long as the logo and colour scheme come back)
Boston: NO MORE BLACK....how does a team with beautiful colours like Brown and Gold manage to avoid them completely??? Make the WC jersey the 3rd, and like it was said above, add the current alternate logo on the shoulders in brown.
Now that's three teams who have been Corrected...as for my Habs they're perfect already, but their centennial jerseys could be used in yearly rotation as third jerseys, Mr. Molson would benefit massively from this choice.
Okay I'll do Toronto too...
PJ's gotta go. Take the 3rd jersey, make a home version. There's your set. 3rd jersey BRING BACK THE St. PATS jerseys...Brown helmets and all.
Loving the B's "fourths". Should definitely follow PItt and Chicago and make that one of the best 3rds around.
What do you guys think of replacing the brown with black on Boston's WC jersey and using that as a third? It would still have the retro feel but fit within their current colour scheme. Also, they would have to go with the edge cut if it is not already. Calgary will be adapting their retro jersey to the edge cut and using that as a third next year. It's to bad because it looks great just the way it is. Is it just me or do those jerseys make them look bigger?
BILL:
"Boston: NO MORE BLACK....how does a team with beautiful colours like Brown and Gold manage to avoid them completely??? Make the WC jersey the 3rd, and like it was said above, add the current alternate logo on the shoulders in brown."
...because the Bruins don't have the color brown in their scheme.
I prefer the brown to the black.
NICK:
It's at their disposal nonetheless, and because of their past no one would complain if they adopted brown into their colour wheel
As another Bruins fan, I love the current alt with the bear crest and spoked B switched. I thought the secondary logo was sharp when it first came out during the redesign, and to have that featured prominently was sweet.
I bought a Tim Thomas authentic in that style as my own birthday present last year. I wore it to the game that I went to in January, flying in from Detroit to do so. The guys in the seats behind us couldn't believe that we flew in just for the game. I much prefer it to the WC that I also own.
As for the "another black," is it a problem that both the Leafs and Stars have "another white" as their alts?
What is the Lightning jersey doing in the Panther video at 21 seconds? It is blue with a yellow crest.
Kylerg, It's a high school team, not the Tampa Bay Lightning. One of the walls of the Den of Honor has jerseys from a bunch of high school teams in the area. Actually, my Lightning have something similar at the Ice Palace (yes, I still call it that). High school jerseys are hung on the wall of the staircases that lead up to the club level — one of which I designed for the Bloomingdale High School Bulls hockey club.
The Ranger's Liberty jerseys were horrible-other than getting rid of Sergei Zubov, they were Neil Smith's worst decision. The collars were hideous, with gray in the color scheme. The jerseys were navy, which translates to black on television. That's fine if you're the Chicago Bears or the Yanks, but not the Rangers. The socks looked absolutely stupid, like bowling pins. And the logo itself resembled a silver, half-eaten peanut butter cup with a face. Throw in the "out of focus' shield on the shoulders and you have one train wreck of a uniform. Heres hoping it stays dead forever!!!
I love the Bruins' third jersey (black one) but I would put the regular logo on the front and use them as the main homes.