Concept Art Grab Bag

I don't really have a theme for tonight's concepts post. Mainly, I just thought these were different and interesting. Kind of curious to see what sort of feedback they get.

One of my favorite things is seeing really nice concepts painted onto game action photos. So I'll start with those. There's this one Kings design from a while back that I liked a lot.

I think it's kind of funny that Roberto Luongo is wearing it. I guess L.A. fans can dream, right?

There was also a bit of Canadiens artwork that I made part of a Freak Out post that a lot of people responded rather well too. Here you can see what it looks like on Cristobal Huet.

I wonder why both designers decided to paint fake jerseys onto goalies. Hmm.

Anyway here are a few more wacky designs that don't quite warrant being included in the Freak Out series.

For those who don't care for the sky blue, how about maroon? Doesn't look terrible either. I'm sure the asymmetry is still driving you nuts though. And how about the Ducks' logo and colors on a Sabres jersey? That's pretty weird.

I thought the colors were interesting on the Bruins jersey. That logo really did wear out its welcome, though, didn't it? And for a complete change of pace, I've got a Flyers jersey with a redesigned set of logos.

And to finish things off, as far as ironies go, I thought this was a pretty good one.

The Columbus Blue Jackets wearing red sweaters. Don't get me wrong. I think it's a really nice-looking jersey, but blue is in their name. It's one of those no-brainers.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of those. I'll try to have more posted tomorrow.

Connected By Blue

So what do all of tonight's jersey concepts have in common? The color blue. That's it.

We'll begin with the Buffalo Sabres and a design that despite its stripes is actually rather cool.

Yeah, the striping does ruin it though, doesn't it? I like the logos and the colors (though I'd go with a white circle on the blue jersey) but I don't really understand the weird stripes. In case you can't really make it out, the logo on the shoulders appears to be the buffalo from the original '70s logo sans the swords beneath it.

These two deal with some simple modifications. The white Leafs jersey with the blue stripes leaves me wondering whether this would be a home or away jersey. It seems to have too much blue to be a road sweater yet it has too much white to be for home games. The Isles jersey, however, is a nice adjustment. Not great. But better.

Here are a couple of dark Thrashers jerseys. Your pick as to which is home and with is an alternate.

And finally, I promised a Blues fan I'd get this one posted tonight.

You know what to do now. Comment away. I'm interested in seeing what you guys have to say about these.

Rebranding The Devils

Continuing his rebranding of the NHL, our friend Matt has taken a shot at the look of the New Jersey Devils. He emailed me these images to share with the rest of you.

If you want my opinion, the logos look fantastic, but I think the current primary works too well to throw out altogether. So my suggestion (which I feel like I've made before) would be to swap the primary and secondary marks. I think the secondary here is a great update of the classic Devils logo. I'm also a fan of the wordmark.

These jerseys are another great update, but I couldn't be more impressed by the alternate uniform. That one really grabbed me first. While overall not as impressive as some of his previous work, these are some very sharp designs.

By the way, Matt went ahead and painted his home jersey onto Martin Brodeur. And while I normally wouldn't post a photo of Brodeur on my blog without a puck in the goal net behind him, I'll make an exception here.

Like I said, great logo, but it seems like it belongs more to a minor league team on the front of the jersey. Those black jerseys are my favorite.

By the way, Matt wanted me to let everyone know that if you'd like to contact him directly about his work, feel free to email him at gfb_designs@yahoo.com. Otherwise, leave your comments below for all of us to read.

UPDATE (6:34 PM): Hey guys, due to popular demand, I'm introducing a small new feature. You can now access all of the rebranding concepts by Matt (aka GhettoFarmBoy) by clicking on the link under NHLToL Series in the sidebar. Or by clicking here. I'm considering creating an album solely for his work in the Concepts Gallery.

Just To Freak You Out XVIII

It's time for another belated edition of the Freak Out series. Hopefully I'll get over this cold soon. It's making me very unreliable here at NHLToL. And it's supposed to be Freak Out Friday, right? Anyway, let's dive in.

Wow, that was awfully violent. Who's hungry for buffalo tongue?!

I got a ton of submissions this week for the "If They Mated" category. And these are all about rivalries.

I don't even know what to say about this. Except that once again, don't send me hate mail as I am excessively illiterate and wouldn't understand it anyway. Also I didn't make these.

Perhaps slightly less inflammatory are these.

Everything's gone haywire. But wait it gets better. Sure anyone can mix two teams in a blender, but it takes a special kind of talent to do three.

Presenting the Anaheim King Sharks. Let me break it down for you. You've got the Sharks logo in Kings colors on a Ducks jersey. Can't get much more to the point than that.

While we're still on the topic of ridiculous jerseys, do you remember the crazy Red Wings design I posted a while back. (It's the second one down in that post.) Were you wondering what it might look like on Dominik Hasek? Wonder no more.

Don't know what he's so happy about. Hideous if I do say so.

Here's a scary merging of the current and original Canucks logos.

Whales that play hockey. I love it.

To finish up this morning's post, I've got a couple more whacked out logos. I'm pretty sure these come from a Quebecois looking to break away from Canada. It's like if Texas decided it wanted to be its own country. I laugh. But then I am a lousy Floridian who knows nothing of the politics of Canada. Look!

But wait, there's more!

So what do you guys think?

Oh and I'm just warning you now that any comments with discussion of politics will be promptly removed. Go elsewhere for that.

In the meantime, I hope I managed to freak you out a little. Until next time.

Talking Teal

Tonight's post is all about the San Jose Sharks. No reason in particular. We'll start out with one of my favorite new concept designs. Remember this? And remember how I said that black jersey was my favorite?

It looks even more spectacular on the ice. Seriously, who disagrees? Is that not what a hockey jersey is meant to look like?

I probably should've finished with that image because what could possibly follow it? These two are just designs I thought had interesting aspects to them — not the least of which being the crazy logo on the right which almost won it a spot in Friday's Freak Out post.

The white sweater is a recoloring of the Lightning's road jersey with an odd addition to the shoulders.

This set is really nice because of the striping. Yet for some reason, it makes me think of a spider more than a shark. Still, I do like it.

Lastly, there's this one which only warrants posting for its comical shark's-tooth zig zags around the waist.

Please don't eat me.

Philly Concept Designs

In going through hordes of concept art I have on my computer at the moment, it occurred to me that I have a ton of Philadelphia Flyers stuff. So I thought I'd dump it all here in one shot — while at the same time noting that the team itself seems to be back from the dumpster it had been rotting in all of last season.

I really don't know where to begin. But I figure you can't go wrong with a concept jersey that has blood on it.

What ever happened to colored nameplates? Sure they look horrible, but it always makes me think of the 1980 Olympic team. Love that collar blood.

This one is pretty sharp. Nice mix of black and orange. However, it's a design that makes me question how its white counterpart would be colored. Or is this a better third jersey? We all know how Flyers fans love their orange jerseys.

While we're on the topic, the striping pattern on this concept is similar to the uniform of more recent years.

While I like the black home jersey, I tend to lean more toward the orange because the logo stands out more. A primarily black logo on a black jersey just hides things.

Here's another orange one with the third jersey logo. Not sure how I feel about the numbering and lettering. Might look awkward with the silver outline.

Speaking of awkward, here's how you don't design a jersey.

It's like Ron couldn't decide which side of the fence to sit on? Orange or black? Instead, he's just got a fence post up his ass.

And this last concept is kind of cool except for the fact that it looks like a hooded sweatshirt to me. I'm not sure why, that's just all I see when I look at it.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Flyers fix for the day. I'll be back tomorrow with more. And yes, I am working on the next logo tournament. These things take time and I'm a busy television director in real life. (Ignore my nonsensical ramblings.) Patience.

Rebranding The Capitals

I got an email yesterday from the graphic artist we know as GhettoFarmBoy, responsible for the San Jose Sharks redesign I recently posted. His real name is Matt, by the way, and he's got a new rebranding concept that's been out for a little while. As I mentioned in that Sharks post, he said his next venture would be the Washington Capitals.

Prepare yourself.

The primary logo is awesome, but my favorite is the secondary. That is the best logo representation of the Capitol dome that I have ever seen. There's just so much about that logo that's right on the money. He just keeps outdoing himself, doesn't he?

And I couldn't be a bigger fan of the jerseys.

One of my favorite things is the gold accent color in the logo. But at the same time I think it's right that only red, white and blue were used in the uniforms. It's knowing when to stop that can make or break a design. I'll continue to say that any team would be lucky to wear a uniform or logo that looked this good.

And by the way, since it was brought up a while back, yes I would put these designs right on par with the likes of the Blues and Canadiens. Talk about making hockey look good.

I'm continually impressed. As it happens, Matt has informed me that his next project is the New Jersey Devils. He says he's nearly finished so I'm looking forward to being able to post that here very soon. I thought I'd finish off this post with something he wrote in his email to me.

I want to thank you for posting my concepts on your site. I sincerely appreciate all of your hard work putting together the site/blog. It's been a great resource for me and I will continue to visit it.

I'm so glad people are enjoying my concepts. As a young graphic designer (I just turned 18 a few months ago) it means so much that my designs are appreciated. I have never taken any design clases or anything of the sort, so when I hear a compliment like "fire reebok and hire this guy" it makes my day....

More Fancy Concept Jerseys

Do you guys remember the incredibly sharp concept art I posted back on Saturday? If not, I just linked to it, so go look at it. Anyway, a guy named Pete designed the jerseys and basically, he's got a lot more where that came from.

For example, you're about to see an Edmonton Oilers concept that I think rivals the Anaheim Ducks artwork created by GhettoFarmBoy. It's that good. Just look.

I like the idea of reworking the Oilers logo to have an oil drop in the proper color. Oil is black, not copper. However, I don't know how I feel about the copper circle. Might take a little getting used to. But my personal favorite is the copper "2nd alternate" jersey. I'm also a huge fan of that alternate logo. And if you were wondering what such a jersey might look like on a player, well look no further.

I would almost buy that if I were the kind of person who could buy a jersey that had anything but a Lightning logo on it. I like that uniform a lot. Can you tell?

Anyway, Pete also did a little work on the Philadelphia Flyers. The striping pattern is unique — and not in a bad way.

And finally, this isn't entirely the work of Pete. In Saturday's post, you saw his Rangers jersey with the words NEW YORK spelled out across the front instead of RANGERS. I suggested that the jersey might be improved with the Lady Liberty logo. So a couple of you made some modifications.

I think I was right. (Modesty is rarely my strong suit.) Thoughts?

Feel free to comment below. I'm sure Pete would like the feedback on his work — which is obviously rather excellent.

If They Were Still Around Today

In today's concepts post, we'll be getting all nostalgic for the old teams that doesn't exist anymore. The fun part is we're going to take a glimpse at what some of those classic clubs might have looked like if they'd made it into the Rbk EDGE era. Just to make things easy, we'll go geographically from east to west.

Kicking things off in Hartford, how about a Whalers logo that covers the entire jersey?

The sweater on the right features the Atlanta Flames logo in a design borrowed from the Chicago Blackhawks. If that's not classic enough for you, remember the old Cleveland Barons? Here's what they might look like if they had hurricane flags wrapping around the waist.

And next to that is a Kansas City Scouts design sans the yellow in the flavor of the Phoenix Coyotes. Speaking of the Coyotes, enjoy this irony.

The Winnipeg Jets logo you see on these jerseys is a concept design that I posted a while back here on the blog. As you can see, these jerseys borrow from the New York Rangers and, ironically, the Coyotes. And we'll finish our trip westward in Colorado. Here's what the Rockies might've looked like in a uniform modeled after that of the Buffalo Sabres.

Don't forget that if you have any concept art you'd like to share with the folks here at NHLToL, you can always email me at nhllogos@gmail.com.

Art From Music City

Today's concept art is all about the Nashville Predators. Although you might not know it from where I'm starting. Remember all the noise that was stirred up over the summer regarding the possibility of the Preds being sold and relocated to Hamilton? It may be all but out of the question at this point but I've got some artwork that by itself may want to make folks reconsider.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Hamilton Predators.

I have to say that this logo looks so professional that I might have to wonder whether it's been "borrowed." (Let me know if has.) But still, I can't help but love it. And although the jersey set is a recoloring of the Washington Capitals' threads, it's no less awesome looking.

I doubt I'm alone in that opinion. What do you guys think of this concept?

Anyway, we'll move on to some more conservative concept designs. These two really do nothing more than make adjustments to striping patterns. They're nothing special but they aren't terrible.

These next two are a little more unique and perhaps more worthy of an alternate jersey than a primary.

On the left we see the old third jersey logo on white instead of gold. Personally, I was always a fan of the gold jersey that critics have called "baby puke yellow." While I think that's funny, I don't think it's all that accurate.

The design on the right is the new fossil logo on black accented with dark blue. While this design isn't as neat as it could be, if cleaned up, I bet that would look like a killer sweater.

And finally, our last Nashville concept of the night basically deals with some altered colors. How about red and gold instead of blue and silver? It's not a common color combination in the league, but I definitely think there could be worse.

As always, feel free to leave your comments below. I enjoy getting feedback from you guys.