IceHL Rebranding This Summer?

Got a question for all my IceHL fans out there. I've been talking about putting a handful of teams up for rebranding or relocation this summer. But my question is this: should we do it now or wait?

If you don't mind, please take a moment to read through this before you vote.

We just finished designing jerseys for all of our original 30 teams. They're all now fully branded. Does it really make sense to start rebranding teams before we've even gone through a full season?

Truthfully, none of the existing teams are that bad that they require an immediate overhaul. So I'm suggesting that we wait until next summer when the IceHL Project will have a lighter load. However, I'm still open to hearing your suggestions.

Please vote in the poll above. And if you'd like to elaborate, please leave a comment.

I won't deny that part of this is me wanting to take a breather. The jersey design contests have kept me extremely busy over the past several months and I wouldn't mind a break. But that's just a small part.

My main concern is that we'll be making a number of jerseys that were just designed obsolete. Seems like a waste. I say once we finish with the expansion teams' jerseys, we take a break from the IceHL branding process and pick it up again in 2013.

I also have some other big plans for 2013 which involve creating a new secondary league called IceHL WORLD which would feature teams in cities outside North America. More on that later this year but I always welcome suggestions. Thanks for reading!

Update on Monday · Jul 23 · 2012 | 11:15 AM PDT by Chris

Hi all. The lack of updates since this post should probably indicate that we are not moving forward with any rebranding projects this summer. They will be pushed to next summer instead. Also, in the next day or two I will be launching the Expansion jersey design contest. Stay tuned!

IceHL Jersey Contest: Winning Designs

In this post I'll be announcing the winning designs for each team as division voting is completed.

Note: The designs shown reflect what was submitted by the artist and voted upon. Slight adjustments may be made where needed to polish the final design before it becomes "official."

North Division

Voting conducted May 28—June 9, 2012.

Calgary Cavalry

Designed by Bastian Schmülling

Edmonton Kodiaks

Designed by Stefan Lundrigan

Regina Renegades

Designed by Gary Beatman

Saskatoon Sharpshooters

Designed by Bastian Schmülling

Winnipeg Winterhawks

Designed by Brendan Nashman

Southeast Division

Voting conducted Apr. 14—Apr. 28, 2012.

Atlanta Arsenal

Designed by Ricky Hajduk

Baltimore Blue Crabs

Designed by Bastian Schmülling

North Carolina Nighthawks

Designed by Ben MacDonald

Tampa Bay Barracudas

Designed by Alex Baumgardner

Washington Sentinels

Designed by Patrik Gustafsson

Pacific Division

Voting conducted Mar. 15—Apr. 4, 2012.

Alaska Huskies

Designed by Justin Nahhas

California Wave

Designed by Chance Waddell

Portland Pioneers

Designed by Brendan Nashman

Seattle Aviators

Designed by Peri Strathearn

Vancouver Lumberjacks

Designed by Justin Nahhas

Central Division

Voting conducted Feb. 5—19, 2012.

Chicago Hitmen

Designed by Brendan Nashman

Detroit Motorheads

Designed by Ricky Hajduk

Milwaukee Lagers

Designed by Matt Madore

Minnesota Mammoths

Designed by Alex Gerwitz

St. Louis Archers

Designed by Justin Nahhas

South Division

Voting conducted Dec. 14—27, 2011.

Boulder Beasts

Designed by Patrik Gustafsson

Dallas Outlaws

Designed by Mike Szalay

Houston Hellcats

Designed by Justin Nahhas

New Orleans Gators

Designed by Stefan Lundrigan

Salt Lake City Scorpions

Designed by Chance Waddell

Northeast Division

Voting conducted Nov. 14—27, 2011.

Boston Colonials

Designed by Kevin Dallatore

Hamilton Steelcats

Designed by Ryan Hawkes

Montreal Olympiques

Designed by Jon Wold, GM California Wave, 2010—

New York Guardians

Designed by Ben MacDonald

Quebec Armada

Designed by Alex Gerwitz

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The final polished jersey designs will be a key part of next summer's IceHL Yearbook. At that point, the full uniforms will be revealed.

Expansion Team Logos Unveiled!

Thousands of votes have been cast and counted. It's now time to reveal the winning logo designs for the IceHL's newest teams, the Hartford Mariners and Northwest Narwhals.

Eric Poole brilliantly blended of the the club's initials into a simple trident design. On the face of it, the trident forms an obvious M, but the negative space between the prongs forms a subtle H. Eric previously designed the winning entry for the Boston Colonials. Congrats Eric!

Fierce and menacing are adjectives that adequately describe a narwhal, for which the IceHL's Yellowknife franchise is named. Slavo Kiss vividly captured these traits in his winning logo design. Slavo also created the logos used by the Alaska Huskies and St. Louis Archers. Congrats!

What's Next?

This might be a good time to talk about what lies ahead for the IceHL Project — which will keep awfully busy this summer.

First, polls opened today for the North Division jersey design contest. You can go pick your favorites now. (Polls close on the North Division jersey voting on June 9, but the winning designs won't be unveiled until after June 18 as I'll be taking a much-needed vacation.)

Later this week, I'll begin accepting jersey designs for the Mariners and Narwhals, our two expansion clubs. Voting will begin in late June and by the start of July, all 32 IceHL teams should be fully branded with logos and uniforms. So naturally, we'll start looking at rebranding options so the well doesn't run dry.

In late June, a handful of teams will be put up for relocation and/or rebranding. Your vote will decide what, if any, changes should be made to the league. Should it be warranted, the rest of the summer will be dedicated to designing new logos and uniforms for these teams before the start of the 2012-13 fantasy league.

I've been receiving emails and tweets asking about how one can manage an IceHL team, especially now that we're adding a couple of new ones. I don't want to get into details now, but suffice to say that no decisions will be made until September. That's when I'll start the process of taking applications. We've been doing this four two seasons now and in that time, we've had more than 300 people apply to operate one of 30 teams. 

Going into 2012-13, many of last season's GMs plan to return but others have stepped down or been removed from their post, freeing up a number of teams. I'll let you know how many will be available and how to apply for one. But, again, all of that will happen in September.

Thanks for making the IceHL Project so much fun to operate!

IceHL Jersey Contest: North

I'm now accepting entries for the next division in the IceHL Jersey Design Contest.

First, if you want more information about the IceHL Project, download the IceHL 2011 Yearbook, which is now available through Icethetics.info. You can also scan through previous posts in this section to catch up on everything we've done so far.

Entering the Jersey Design Contest

There are three rules:

• Design 2 jerseys (light and dark) using team colors and logos only. You may not alter the colors or logos.
• Assemble your final design on the PNG template provided and submit it to icethetics@gmail.com.
• Include your first and last name and email address in the graphic where designated as well as in your submission email. (Your real name will not be displayed during voting and your email will never be displayed.)

IceHL Jersey Design Kit - North version (.zip/313 KB)

Be sure to use the template PNG file provided in the Design Kit. It is built to be compatible with just about any graphics software out there from Microsoft Paint to Adobe Photoshop. (For beginners: PNG is the file type required. Please do not submit a JPG or any other type of file. For experts: Please avoid using color profiles.)

Recommended link: Paint Users Paradise at SportsLogos.net

To assist you in your designs, feel free to implement aspects of existing hockey uniform templates. There are hundreds available at at the link above. The copy and paste functions are your friends in this case and make designing a great jersey so much easier. But feel free to experiment on your own too.

The template includes the front and back of a jersey as well as gear like socks and pants. All you have to do is design the jerseys. Designing the gear is up to you. I'd also request that you include a full alphabet and number set as seen in the Design Kit sample. You may choose to leave out any of the elements, but keep in mind that if you do, I reserve the right to design those elements myself.

Last thing. Simply submitting your jersey design doesn't guarantee it will be included in the voting process. If it doesn't meet a certain level of quality, I'll give you the opportunity to try again as long as you meet the deadline. But rest assured, I plan to accept far more than I reject — as you saw with the last two divisions.

Part 6: North Division

We're continuing with the North Division. The Design Kit contains the primary and secondary logos for each of the five teams in that division. You may only use those logo graphics for this project. Do not use them for any other reason without permission.

Here are the Southeast Division teams and the players you may use to customize your jerseys:

• Calgary Cavalry (7 Clark, 17 Kesler, 19 Toews, 30 Bryzgalov)
• Edmonton Kodiaks (4 Lecavalier, 26 Elias, 30 Thomas, 33 Sedin)
• Regina Renegades (19 Richards, 21 Stafford, 30 Miller, 42 Backes)
• Saskatoon Sharpshooters (2 Boyle, 10 Sharp, 22 Sedin, 35 Howard)
• Winnipeg Winterhawks (3 Phaneuf, 31 Price, 87 Crosby, 91 Tavares)

Most of the players listed have been selected by the GMs operating each fantasy team.

Remember, when you design your jerseys, stick to the official team colors and logos. You may sample the colors in the logo graphics using an eyedropper or similar tool in your chosen graphics software. (In previous divisions, the design kits have included an RGB color guide. This one does not.)

One last note about your jersey designs. Do something creative and original. Don't copy existing jersey designs. We want IceHL teams to stand out and be unique!

Deadline: Friday, May 25

You have three weeks to design and submit your work. This is the final division. However, more jersey designs will be needed later this summer when our two expansion teams are introduced, the Hartford Mariners and Northwest Narwhals. It's also possible a number of existing teams could be rebranded this summer.

Good luck to everyone!

Expansion Logo Submissions

The 2012 expansion of the IceHL Project is moving right along. Today, I'm unveiling the team names and accepting logo design submissions for both teams.

• Hartford Mariners
• Northwest Narwhals

Based on these names, your task — should you choose to accept it — is to brand the franchises. You choose the color scheme and design primary, secondary and script logos around that. You may design additional logos, but these 3 will be the ones included in the voting process.

Submit your work to icethetics@gmail.com. I'm also outlining guidelines for submissions below. If you don't follow them, your work will probably not be included.

Logo submission deadline: Saturday, May 5

• DO NOT STEAL ARTWORK. Logos copied or even adapted from existing designs will not be accepted. Do something original!
• Submit THREE (3) logos: primary, secondary and wordmark. Vector format (PDF) is preferred. If you cannot provide a vector version, a high-resolution PNG will be acceptable. Use a white background. If your logo requires a white outline (think old Lightning or Capitals logos), then use a gray background with the white outline included. ALL 3 LOGOS will be used in the voting process. If you leave out one, your work may be disqualified.
• You must include your first and last name within the graphic itself as well as the email. I need them in both places so I can easily search my email to find your artwork and email address.
• By submitting your own original artwork to any Icethetics email address, you agree to grant permission of its use for online or print publication by Icethetics. Do not watermark your logos. Your work will be protected for use in projects related to Icethetics only.
• No jersey concepts, please. That will come later on.

I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have. All logo submissions that meet the above criteria will be included in the voting process next month.

A few years ago when we did this for the rest of the IceHL teams, there were some incredible logo designs submitted. I can't be certain whether the same talented artists will be with us this time around, but I do hope so. Good luck to everyone!

Update on Sunday · May 6 · 2012 | 12:50 AM PDT by Chris

Submissions for this contest are now closed. Voting on the eligible submissions is scheduled to start on May 14.